Henry Meldrum and Charity Lane

Henry Meldrum was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Probably near Columbia and West Hempfield. He was an only child of Samuel Meldrum and Ann Mariah Zell. His father and mother left Pennsylvania in 1836 and traveled to Ohio. There in Ohio in about 1849 Henry's father died. Quickly Ann Mariah left and traveled to Milton, Wayne, Indiana to be with her parents. We do not know where they had lived in Ohio. We have not found any death records for Samuel Meldrum.

The first picture of Henry we believe to be taken when he was first married. The second picture I received it from Charles Thomas Meldrum's family. It is a tin type. Notice the same beard. Henry owned a casket factory and made caskets for the Civil War. He knew how to blow glass and was an artist in carving wood. On the census he put his occupation as cabinet maker and farmer. We would like to know more about him. I have a copy of his will and what he left each child. After giving each child a few momentos, the majority of his estate was sold to pay any debts and to give each child a few dollars. He died 17 Sep 1896 in Rigdon, Grant County, Indiana.

He is buried in the Forrestville cemetery in Madison Co., Indiana. Rigdon is on the boarder of Madison and Grant. Even though he and Charity are not in the same cemetery, they are not many miles apart.

Charity Lane was born 15 Dec 1829 in Ohio. This is the only picture I have ever seen of Charity. George Raresheid Meldrum's family had a small copy that we took a photo of. It is reported that she had red hair. She came from the Lane family. It was confirmed time and time again that Henry married above himself by marrying Charity.

We know nothing of Charity's parents. She was born in Ohio. She was married in 1849 (before the 1850 census). It is one of my goals to find her parents. Other Lanes lived in Rigdon at the same time as Charity, but I have not been able to connect her with them.

She died 27 Aug 1871 in Rigdon, Indiana. and is bured in Independence cemetery. The stones at this cemeter were scattered around and later put back together with angle iron. The DAR published death dates and put Charity dying in 1870. We know this is incorrect bacause of the birth date of her last child. I am sure that Henry made her casket. We do not know cause of death. I have not found any obituary for either Charity or Henry. There were no death records at that time in the state of Indiana. I have contacted the sexton for the cemetery records and for the religious records. No records exist.The Methodist Church that they belonged to burned in 1863. It was rebuilt and collasped in 1910. A new church was built and burned in 1914.  The picture below shows the as it stands today.