phcem04

I. Executive Summary and Dedication

In the early 1830’s, settlers in the Pleasant Hill area of Franklin Township, north-west of present-day

Stilesville, Indiana, founded the Pleasant Hill Methodist Episcopal Church. Those were the days when

Methodist preachers rode their circuits on the frontier, and the Pleasant Hill group probably held their

meetings in various members’ homes during their first twenty years or so.

In 1849, Samuel McAninch donated a specific half-acre of land for a church building (and cemetery),

and the Pleasant Hill Methodist community was active for another twenty years or so, at least into the

late 1860’s, after the Civil War.

There are no specific records of the Church itself, and the building built in the 1850’s has probably

been gone for a long time now.

The Pleasant Hill cemetery remained, over one hundred and twenty years old, until it was accidentally

destroyed in 1967. Although the cemetery no longer exists, there are at least four eye-witness accounts,

including some photographs taken in 1963, before the land was cleared in 1967 [sources 1] [2] [3] [4].

The (known) burial dates range from 1847 to 1868, a span of 21 years. The earliest (known, dated)

burial was Margaret A. Pike, in 1847, and the last (known, dated) burial was that of John King, in

1868. According to these sources, there are believed to be at least 19 or 20 people buried here, in the

(Old) Pleasant Hill (Methodist) Cemetery.

Known in the 20th century as the (Old) Pleasant Hill Cemetery [1] [3a2] [4d], or (Old) Pleasant Hill

Methodist Cemetery [3b] [5i], this cemetery was originally the Pleasant Hill Methodist Episcopal

Church Cemetery [3a1]; it has also been known as the Pleasant Hill Methodist Church Cemetery [2],

the Pike Hill Cemetery [2], and it has also been referred to as the Methodist Hill Cemetery [32c].

This cemetery was located “in a pasture on a farm belonging to Allen Johnson in Franklin Twp.”

[in 1964]. “The old church and cemetery sat in the corner of a section line. The cemetery was in

the SW half [sic] of Section 9, Twp. 14, Range 2 West” [3b], on the half-acre of land donated to

Pleasant Hill Methodist Episcopal Church by Samuel McAninch in 1849 [NW 1/4, Sec. 9, note 20].

The origin of the name “Pleasant Hill” is not known, and the terrain is flat farmland today [photo 4a1].

Since the physical cemetery no longer exists, this report can be a ‘virtual record’ of the cemetery,

including the reconstruction of the cemetery layout and plot plan, and all of the known burial records.

This report is dedicated to the early pioneers in Franklin Township, Hendricks County, in

memory of those brave souls who are buried in this (Old) Pleasant Hill Cemetery, and especially

to Samuel McAninch and (Mary) Polly (Skidmore) McAninch, and to Tristram Pike and Peggy

(Margaret) (Buntain) Pike, four of my great-great-great-grand-parents, and to their family and

friends in the Pleasant Hill Methodist Episcopal church community.

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