Establishing an Historic Landmark for Ireland rd

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• $15 .00 . The cemetery became defunct . Sometime during the Depression the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution surveyed the site to determine how many markers remained--ten markers identified by the project are no longer extant . Another. Depression-era project--an enumeration of veterans ' burials in 1938--reported two Civil War veterans in Rohrer Cemetery. However, this data is incorrect . The burials in question, those of John Hildebrand and John Miller, were proven not to be of Civil War veterans by researcher Irvin S. Moore. [6] Biographical Sketches Following are biographical sketches of several notable families with members interred in Rohrer Cemetery. Biographical data on many of the people buried in Rohrer Cemetery is sketchy as the majority of people buried at Rohrer were farmers or laborers, leaving little information about their lives in the historical record. In addition, as noted above, thirty-eight percent of the burials were those of children or adolescents, further reducing the amount of available information. Future research--especially oral histories from the descendants of Centre Township pioneer families--could be employed to flesh out the histories of those buried here. The Rohrer Family Joseph Rohrer is significant as both a pioneer of Centre Township and as one of St . Joseph County's first three commissioners. Joseph became engaged in local politics early on--by 1830 he was a "petit juror" on the county Board of Justices . In 1831 he was elected with David Miller and Aaron Stanton as the first trio of commissioners in St. Joseph County. [7 ] In The History of St. Joseph County the Rohrers are described as having first "liv[ed] in a shed. . . outside the town plat" after their arrival . However, it was not long before they developed a successful farming operation. Mary and Joseph Rohrer are reported to have raised a total of sixteen children including: Elizabeth, Anna, David, John, Joseph, William C. , Laura A. , Horace W. , David [T. ] , Mary, Sarah, Susannah, Rachel , Barbara and twin boys who died in infancy. [8] Adult Rohrers and spouses who arrived with their parents in the 1830 ' s included David and his wife, Elizabeth (Bowman) , and Elizabeth and her husband Samuel Leeper. Later Rohrer spouses buried in Rohrer Cemetery include John M. Miller, husband of Sarah, and Charlotte (Pickett) , wife of John Rohrer . Of the seven Rohrer children who initially died in the epidemic of the 1940 ' s , three--Rachel , Barbara and Susannah--were teens. The other four--Mary Ann, Elizabeth, David and John--were adults . At the time of their deaths , John and David were successful farmers in their own right . Elizabeth's spouse was a