Lecture highlighted local historical figures for nation’s 250th birthday
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“The Oldest People in Howard County Cemeteries” was presented Aug. 12, 2026, at Indiana University Kokomo in the lovely Kresge auditorium. This was a part of the “America at 250 Howard County and Beyond” Lecture Series organized by the Howard County Historical Society.
The event was well attended by community members, and it was engaging. Citizens, which included family members of some of the historical figures mentioned in the presentation, were intrigued by the information.
When the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, the area that would become Howard County, Indiana, was home to Native peoples along the Wildcat Creek in the Great Miami Reserve. For America 250 events, Howard County Historian Gil Porter has been working with the Howard County Historical Society to help look at that shared history and commemorate national and local history right here in Kokomo.
On Aug. 12 at Indiana University Kokomo, Porter shared information about people born in the American colonies before or during the Revolution, who later came to Howard County, allowing us to explore colonial history through their life stories. “The Oldest People in Howard County Cemeteries” was the third part of the series in “America at 250: Howard County and Beyond.” This event was organized by Alyssa Witter-Pier and Anne Shaw at the Historical Society.
During the lecture, Porter emphasized that the history of Kokomo, a Miami-Illinois language word of unknown meaning, is a shared history.
“Our stories do not begin in 1844 when the county was organized, or even in 1776,” he said. “Native people have raised their families and honored their ancestors here along the Wildcat Creek for at least 10,000 years. They are still here.”
As part of that shared history connection to America at 250, Porter explained how federal, state, and county land records help us discover details about the lives and livelihoods of people born before 1780 who came to live and work in the county.
“We have two Revolutionary War veterans, the widow of a member of the Kentucky Militia of George Rogers Clark, and a formerly enslaved free woman of color from Virginia named Aliff Henley, who was the first Black American to buy land here,” Porter said.
The cemetery with the most people from that era, Porter noted, is the Friends cemetery at New London, Indiana.
“America at 250 [years old] is a great time to collect and preserve the stories about people who have lived here for centuries,” Porter said. “It is a unique opportunity to connect to the past with present-tense conversations as we commemorate this time in American history.”