LENTZ HEIRS CEMETERY BURIALS
Utica Township, Clark County, Indiana


This cemetery is located in the east end of the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant, near Utica, Indiana, on a hill in the middle of an open field off South Boundary Patrol Road. It is surrounded by open pasture for free-range cattle.

The photo at left shows participants in the 11/29/97 tour of the ten pioneer cemeteries inside the Ammunition Plant approaching Lentz Heirs Cemetery.

John George Summers was born in 1764 in York County, Pennsylvania although there is at least one record which indicates he was born in Germany. He served as a Drummer in the Revolutionary War and would have been at that time approximately 12 years old. He later moved to Montgomery County, Virginia where he married Prudence Gross and eventually migrated to Southern Indiana in 1809, at which time he purchased nearly 2,000 acres of prime farm land near present-day Utica.

John and Prudence were the parents of fifteen children, including:

  1. Amos SUMMERS
  2. Charles SUMMERS, died in 1874; married Mahalie _________
  3. David SUMMERS; died circa 1817-1821
  4. Henry SUMMERS; was a Methodist Episcopal minister; married to Hudson DARKEY
  5. James SUMMERS; died before 1817
  6. Jesse C. SUMMERS; married Mary A. WATSON
  7. John SUMMERS
  8. Margaret Ann SUMMERS; married James HOBSON
  9. William SUMMERS; married Elizabeth NORRIS
  10. Mary Pauline SUMMERS; born 1807 in Virginia; married Wilson RUDDELL
  11. Allen SUMMERS; born 1811 in Clark County, Indiana; died April 4, 1865; buried at New Chapel Cemetery in Utica, Clark Co., Indiana; married Clarissa DETROE, who died before April 23, 1843; the second wife of Allen Summers was Susannah BUSHFIELD, born 1815 in Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania; she April 29, 1865 and is buried at New Chapel Cemetery inUtica, Clark Co., Indiana (Susannah was the elder sister of Samuel May BUSHFIELD, husband of Elizabeth Eleanor SUMMERS, sister of Susannah)
  12. Catherine SOMERS/SUMMERS; born 1817; died after 1860; apparently never married
  13. George SUMMERS; born 1818 in Clark Co., Indiana; married Sarah MAN, who was born in 1820
  14. Elizabeth Eleanor SUMMERS; born February 4, 1820 in Utica, Clark County, Indiana; died May 11, 1902 in Utica, Clark County, Indiana; married Samuel May BUSHFIELD, who was born September 9, 1821 in Lawrenceburg, Indiana and who died April 18, 1902 in Utica, Clark County, Indiana. [Samuel was the brother of Elizabeth Eleanor's brother's wife. Also, Elizabeth Eleanor and Samuel died within a month of each other.]
  15. Nancy SUMMERS; born 1825 in Clark County, Indiana; died after May 16, 1902; married John C. ZINCK, who was born in 1816 in Germany (BVG); Nancy and John are buried at nearby Union Cemetery, also inside the Ammuntion Plant.
    1. Nancy SUMMERS and John C. ZINCK were the parents of eight children:
      1. Marietta ZINCK; born 1848
      2. Elizabeth Eleanor ZINCK; born 1850
      3. George Leonard ZINCK; born November 21, 1852; died October 13, 1909 in Clark Co., Indiana; married Mary Louise RUDDELL, born August 18, 1856 in Utica Township, Clark Co., Indiana, died April 20, 1923; buried in Hillcrest/Utica Cemetery, Clark Co., Indiana
      4. Charles Henry ZINCK; born 1855
      5. John Edward ZINCK; born 1858
      6. Alice Alma ZINCK; born about 1860
      7. Ida Ammon ZINCK; born about 1861
      8. Nannie Barbara ZINCK; born June 19, 1862; married to Edgar Mitchell LENTZ, born October 4, 1860 in Utica, Indiana and buried at Union Cemetery
        1. The property on which Lentz Heirs Cemetery is located is presumed to have been in the ownership of descendants of Nannie Barbara Zinck and Edgar Mitchell Lentz circa 1940 when it was acquired by the federal government; hence, it is officially known as "Lentz Heirs Cemetery".
Based on the size of the fenced area we believe that there are several more burials here than the handful of stones noted below in an index I abstracted in 1996.
HOBSON          Infant son of James HOBSON and Margaret

                Ann Summers; died 12/1/1841; his parents

                married April 21, 1840 in Clark County.
SUMMERS         Amos (aged 23 years)    b. ????         d. 08/02/1822

                    Presumed to be son of George and

                    Prudence Summers. Limestone marker

                    in very poor condition.
SUMMERS         Catherine (daughter of  b. 10/19/1815   d. 09/13/1871

                George and Prudence 

                Summers)

                    Limestone marker in very poor

                    condition. A "Catherine Somers"

                    (Summers) is listed as living

                    alone, age 43, next to Samuel

                    Bushfield and his wife, Elizabeth

                    Eleanor Summers Bushfield

                    (daughter of John George Summers),

                    in the 1860 Utica Census.
SUMMERS         John George             b. 1764         d. 10/25/1841

                (age 78)

                    Limestone marker in very poor

                    condition. Inscription on modern

                    marker between John George and

                    Prudence's original stones:
"JOHN GEORGE SUMMERS, Drummer, Capt. Doyle's Co., 6th PA Reg't; Revolutionary War
1764-1841".
He was the father of 15 children,

was born in Little York, PA, moved

to Montgomery Co., VA after the

Rev. War and migrated to Clark Co.,

Indiana about 1809, where he

purchased at least 1,900 acres of

prime farmland.
SUMMERS         Prudence GROSS           b. 1781         d. After 1860

                    Limestone marker in very poor

                    condition. Prudence listed as a

                    member of her daughter's household

                    in 1860 (Elizabeth Eleanor Summers

                    Bushfield) for Utica, Clark Co.,

                    Indiana.
SUMMERS         Illegible marker
I have no further information on this cemetery. This index was obtained from the Jeffersonville Township Public Library, 211 East Court Avenue, Jeffersonville, Indiana 47130, telephone: (812) 285-5635.

E-mail: Dee Pavey

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© Nov 2004