This is the gravesite of Nawehquageezhik (Noonday) and his wife, Somonoque, at the east end of Cressey Road in Barry County, Michigan. The gravestone is in the mowed area to the right of the bicycle.

This story of this gravestone is connected with another gravestone near Vincennes, Indiana, that I’m hoping to ride to this year yet. There are a few degrees of separation, though.

Noonday’s grave is here because the Slater mission was located here in the late 1830s. Leonard Slater’s mission was a part of Isaac McCoy’s Baptist missions in southwest Michigan. Slater operated somewhat independently of McCoy, not that the latter man liked it that way. McCoy’s wife Christiana (after whom Christiana Creek was named) was a sister of William Polke, who among things, was one of the people who had a large role in operating the 1838 eviction of the Potawatomi from Indiana.

This is William Polke’s house on the grounds of the Fulton County Historical Museum north of Rochester, Indiana. Its original location was not far from here, where it was at the time of the Potawatomi eviction from Indiana.

The gravestone I want to visit is that of William Polke’s father, Charles, at the site of the Maria Creek Baptist church northeast of Vincennes, Indiana. That church is also where Isaac McCoy got his start in the ministry. A lot of history seems to have a connection to that Maria Creek church.

The church was disbanded in the 1940s. I had learned from this web page that as of 2004 the cemetery was almost gone, too. Most of it had been destroyed in recent years by agricultural field work. So Thursday I got on the phone to inquire whether any of the cemetery still existed, and whether it would be possible to walk to it. It’s a half mile away from the nearest road.

I ended up talking to an animated gentleman with a southern Indiana accent that I seldom get to hear in Michigan, and learned that the Polke grave still exists. And the place is pronounced Morriah, not Maria. But it had been quite a struggle dealing with the farmer, to keep him from destroying the cemetery any more than he had already done. The local people who cared about it had tried appealing to just about everyone they could think of for help in preserving it, but didn’t get much. I also learned that the farmer had died a year ago, “and is now paying for what he did.”

That’s where the theology of the grave comes in. It would be interesting to know whether it’s like that which was preached at the Maria Creek church in the 1810s.

The gentleman I talked to gave me more information about local people to talk to and local publications that tell about the church, the cemetery, and people who had worshipped there and been buried there.

Before talking to him I had had the idea that I would do a one-day ride to Maria Creek from Rockville, where we’ll be staying on our next outing. The days are short now but if I get an early start I should be able to get there in time for photos. But now I think I need to plan on spending at least a whole day in Vincennes. Maybe I’ll do the bike ride this time, and we can use Vincennes as our base camp for the next outing. We’ll see.