Cemeteries: Not Found and Still Open

THE RESIDUE · NOVEMBER 2026

Tested negatives. (1) A fourth burying ground inside the line. The federal geographic record names two cemeteries in Harris Township and seats Clay's other two named grounds west of the line; the memorial park stands at the doorstep in Mishawaka's limit, its line printed. No other ground inside the designated place appears. Verdict: negative. (2) A church cemetery besides Salem. No congregation on the ground — Catholic, community, or other — keeps a burying ground in the record reached; Salem's is the one, and the township keeps it. Verdict: negative. (3) A German Baptist or Brethren burying ground. The county's German Baptist church of 1851 and its deeded grounds stand in German Township, west beyond the line. Verdict: negative for this ground. (4) A family plot of the atlas era inside the line. None in the record reached; the documented family burial of the era on these townships' ground is Jonas Harris's, outside the line. Verdict: negative at the record's strength. Each negative stands open to its settler.

Named gaps. (1) The memorial park's founding. St. Joseph Valley Memorial Park's founding year, founder, and acreage do not appear in the record reached; its burials are documented from 1956 and its ownership from the 2014 divestiture. Settlers: the St. Joseph County deed and parcel record for 375 West Cleveland Road; the South Bend Tribune's archive; the operator's corporate record. (2) Salem Cemetery's founding. No date in the record reached. Settlers: the congregation's records in the keeping of the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library and the St. Joseph County Public Library (the Religion section's named keepers); the DAR and genealogical-society readings of the ground. (3) The first burials, 1830–1834. Where the settlement's dead went before Harris Prairie opened. Settlers: Goff's History of Harris Township (1980); Howard's township sketches read for the death record as for the settler record. (4) The association question. Whether a cemetery association ever held Harris Prairie or Salem before the trustee. Settler: the township's deed and minute records. (5) The township grounds' size and count. Beyond the Government leg's "hundreds of grave sites" for each, no acreage or burial count for Harris Prairie or Salem stands in the record reached. Settler: the trustee's lot records; a full reading of the grounds on the genealogical projects' model. (6) The 2024 improvements' completion. The Harris Prairie certificate-of-appropriateness program — fence, drive and parking, entrance, columbaria — stands on paper with a favorable staff recommendation; its built state at this build's date is unverified in the record reached. Settler: the Historic Preservation Commission's file and the ground itself. (7) The sexton books. The survival and seat of the township grounds' lot and burial records. Settler: the Harris Township Trustee's office.

Sources:

1. The searches and records of this section as cited article by article above (federal geographic and veterans records; the landmark packet; the genealogical record; the operator's and the Federal Trade Commission's records), read November 2026.