On February 16, 1816, Robert Yates b. 1783 was assigned two tracks of land of 80 acres each that had originally been assigned to Riggs Pennington. These 160 acres of land, assigned to Robert Yates were in the part of Indiana Territory that would become Crawford County after Indiana became a state two years later, in 1818.
Consistent with this acquisition date we have established 1816 as the founding year of the Yates Family Cemetery. As this is the family cemetery located on Yates land the first burial is unrecorded but most likely given the pioneering times of the day, young or old, a member of the Yates family was buried here in 1816.
The Yates Union Chapel Yates Cemetery can be viewed as having existed during three distinct time periods. The pioneer period would be considered from 1816-1889. It is this period which interests the family genealogists most and likely produced the greatest number of current unmarked graves. A Yates team developed a Dignity Marker and installed 19 new markers on known but unmarked marked grave sites in April 2013.
This leaves a significant amount of space in the older section of the cemetery considered unmarked and unknown. Family genealogists have already discovered one partially buried fieldstone with a name etched into the stone in 2012. A team is now embarking on a period of ground study to determine how many other possible discoveries can be made.
The stage 1889-1960 would be considered the twentieth century period mostly consisting of immediate descendants and extended family of the pioneer group. It was this group which met and elected founding trustees on March 28, 1887 establishing Union Chapel. When the chapel was constructed, it was erected on the roadside of the existing Yates graveyard and thereafter began its new reference name as Union Chapel Yates Cemetery. In addition to the pioneers many of this next group elected to be buried at the cemetery.
The next stage starts in 1960 forward and is considered the modern period. Those electing to be buried here are not only descendants but also neighbors and friends living and working in the area.
There are four sections developed for this website. The first is an approximate of burial locations based on available plat's kept by the various caretakers over the years. This is cross referenced with GPS, Google Maps, and an aerial shot of the cemetery indicating the burial areas. Photos of all headstones found are included in the appropriate genealogy section of each person. All photos have also been placed on findagrave.com
The next area is a database listing of all known burials.
The next area is the family genealogy area where each person is listed and all available public information that can be found was detailed along with the corresponding headstones and relationships, if known.
The last major area is a history of the Yates family since the property history can not be separated from the Yates family history. The cemetery is highly important to the Yates family line connected to this region of southern Indiana. Research is on-going and very active. We are keen to have any new information about this family line.
You can find the Union Chapel Yates Cemetery on find a grave at this link: Union Chapel Yates Cemetery on Find A Grave.
