Rutherford Genealogy Research Organization

Kemmer/Kimmer - take your choice, as the name was used interchangably on the census records, in family documents and even grave markers. Fathers and their children also have used different versions.

Nicholas Kemmer (abt.1760 - 19Oct1841)

Summer, 2008 - Bentonville, Indiana
We were on our way to Cincinnati for a family vacation and based on genealogical research, I wanted to see if we could locate and take photos at the Cole Cemetery in Bentonville, Indiana, which was a ways off the Interstate, but basically along our route. Nicholas Kemmer is my husband George Rutherford's, 4th Great Grandfather. He was an American Revolutionary War veteran. The Kemmer/Kimmer families shown in the slide show below, are descendants of or related to Nicholas Kemmer. The Heck families shown on the Heck page are also connected.

According to one website: "Nicholas Kimmer, a soldier in the Revolutionary War, is buried in Fayette County. This information was obtained from "Roster of Soldiers and Patriots of the American Revolution Buried in Indiana, Volume II" published by the Indiana Daughters of the American Revolution in 1966." I was able to further find out that Cole Cemetery - Posey Township was identified as the location he was buried, by searching on the Indiana Society Sons of the American Revolutionary Patriot Grave Registry. http://graves.inssar.org/Default.aspx I did a few Yahoo-Maps, plotted our way to the area and began our drive.
I had also visited another popular website called "Find-A-Grave", and there Nicholas Kemmer was listed as buried at, and even his grave marker was pictured at the Bentonville Cemetery, not the Cole Cemetery. I found this information last-minute, probably should have tried to do more maps, but since I had my general directions to Bentonville, decided to just ask someone where it was when we got to Bentonville. It appeared to be a small town and rural, so I assumed the residents would all know the local cemetery locations.

We found the Bentonville Cemetery easily and took many photographs, going stone by stone, finding all the Kimmer or Kemmer stones we could. It wasn't until we were close to leaving that we finally did find and photograph Nicholas Kemmer's grave marker. It is difficult to read, but we later learned that this stone was scheduled to be professionally cleaned by the Cemetery Board in late summer, 2008, so we'll revisit to take more photos after that is completed.

As it turns out - Nicholas Kemmer is actually buried at the Cole/Shawnee Bluff Cemetery but his stone was moved from there after vandals made a mess of the Cole Cemetery and toppled or damaged some of the stones there. That is why there is confusion online as to which cemetery he is located in. His remains are buried at Cole Cemetery, but his marker is in the Bentonville Cemetery, which is on a main road and watched more closely. Both Cemeteries are very well taken care of by the local board members, and we greatly appreciate their efforts.
CLICK HERE for pdf list for the Bentonville Cemetery

We also found out why the road names around these cemeteries are so confusing, as several counties come together at Bentonville and they all have named or numbered the same roads as something else. I was rather turned around and thankfully someone was outside that day so we could ask directions back to the highway we needed to continue our drive. He didn't know where the Cole Cemetery was, but had a lot of information about the little "town", and with the help of others we had the information for the keeper-of-the-cemetery-records to follow up on. I made a plan to contact them while we were in Cincinnati and then return the following weekend on our way home... The story continues on the Heck family-photo page.