Groomsville, Indiana

The first burial place was the Prairieville graveyard in the western part. % There were laid away the children of Jackson Watts and Thomas Scott as early as the year 1844. Other early interments at the same place were a son of Clinton Gray, who was killed by a well pole falling on him, a man named Hoffman and the children of Solomon Bringle. The Normanda graveyard was probably the second one, and then the cemetery at Liberty church near Groomsville. The fact that a cemetery is found near each church or regular preaching place points to the fact that no funeral was thought to be properly conducted without a sermon. The coffin was generally built by a home work¬ man, and the body was clothed in a lone shroud. Dead people were never buried in the dress worn in life or in such garments as living persons wear.

Passage source: History of Tipton County Indiana, published 1914.

The village of Groomsville is situated in section 16 in the southern part of the township and dates its history from the year of i860. At that time Enoch Smith got up a petition for a postoffice, which was granted soon, ahd the name of Groomsville given, in compliment to Dr. B. M. Groom, who was formerly a practicing physician there and at the time was auditor of the county, and who was a resident of Tipton. The office gave the place some local prominence and a store building was erected in the course of a few years and stocked with a general assortment of merchandise by Thomas Lamb, who sold goods until the spring of 1883, at which time he disposed of the store to McCreary and Stoops. A saw mill was in operation here for several years and did a good business. It was in the little village of Groomsville that Senator John W. Kern made his maiden political speech in 1870. and with each succeeding campaign he made a speech in the town until he became a candidate for vice-president, when his time would not permit him to visit the scenes of his youth.

Passage source: History of Tipton County Indiana, published 1914.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Prairie Township.