Laserfiche WebLink
County. It is historically significant as a reflection of early <br />settlement and ethnicity in Clay Township and St. Joseph County <br />as a whole. The cemetery also provides insights into ethnic and <br />migration patterns in this part of the county. In the 1830's and <br />40's, the majority of settlers here appear to have had German or <br />Swiss ancestry, and to have moved from the east via Ohio --little <br />evidence of this ethnic heritage can be found elsewhere. <br />The site provides other unavailable information including such <br />data as the birth and death dates of individuals from prominent <br />pioneer families that made important contributions to the early <br />development of South Bend. The burials at Tutt -Stuckey also <br />provide evidence for other important local historical development <br />patterns including the high rate of infant mortality, so <br />characteristic of pioneer culture. <br />Tutt -Stuckey is a collection of artifacts that can serve in other <br />ways as a source of understanding of local culture and history. <br />The cemetery is one of the last material remains from the area's <br />frontier period. Most of people interred here migrated from the <br />eastern United States via Ohio, finally settling in Clay <br />Township. Typical frontier jargon would describe these settlers <br />as having helped "tame the wilderness"; and in reality they did <br />just that, being those people who cleared the timbered land for <br />farming. They also, in terms of the area's economic development, <br />represent the next important period in local history, that of <br />agricultural growth. <br />Some of the settlers here were among the earliest in the County <br />and included pioneers John H. Smith, Evan C. Chalfant, James <br />Stuckey, Samuel Brooks, Jonathan Hardy, Oliver P. Stuckey, Gideon <br />Drapier and others.[1] Most of these individuals and their <br />families were interred in Tutt -Stuckey cemetery. The cemetery <br />also is the burial place for at least four veterans: Isaac Eaton <br />was a veteran of the War of 1812; Lewis Fulkerson and Elias Leich <br />were Civil War veterans; and Donald L. Cox served in the Marine <br />Corps early in the twentieth century. <br />In recent years cemetery studies have assumed significant <br />proportions in that these sites represent highly organized <br />cultural landscapes. Within the field of social science, cemetery <br />research occupies two broad categories. The first is an analysis <br />of architectural styles of tombstones and gravemarkers over a <br />period of time --of interest to folklorists, historians and <br />archaeologists. The second is the geographic analysis of <br />cemeteries as a reflection of local land use patterns. Similar <br />approaches to cemetery studies involve viewing them as cultural <br />landscapes incorporating both spatial and architectural <br />elements.[2] <br />The recognition of cemeteries as a significant type of built <br />environment has been of special interset to social and cultural <br />historians. According to them, not only do cemeteries provide a <br />document of the most durable artifacts of death but also a record <br />3 <br />