Of interest to everyone: Found on Madison Cnty list.
To: <INMADISO-L(a)rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 4:51 PM Subject: Re:
[INMADISO] Petition Drive: Protect Our Pioneer Cemeteries In a message dated 8/30/01
3:03:35 PM Central Daylight Time, sand4606(a)yahoo.com writes:
If you live in Indiana, you are probably aware of the continuous development and expansion
of the housing industry which is encroaching on every part of our State.
Did you know that our Indiana Laws are extremely lax in offering protection to the
gravesites of our pioneer ancestors? Did you know that whole cemeteries are being moved
and disinterments occurring at an alarming pace? And, did you know its very easy to have
this done?
If a petition is filed with a local Circuit or Superior Court, the person filing does not
have to be the owner of the cemetery property; is not required to give public notice or
notice to the descendants of the deceased; and generally there is no chance to file
objections to the petition. Another way to achieve the disinterment is to petition the
Indiana Health Department, but this method is usually passed by since it requires the
signature of a spouse of parent and these are pioneer cemeteries we are generally dealing
with.
Don't think for a moment that Removal and Reinterment is not happenng in Indiana,
because it most certainly is. If this type of activity is not more closely regulated and
slowed considerably, our pioneer cemeteries are going to disappear even faster than they
currently are!
If you wish to learn more about this issue and sign a petition to send to your
legislators, please go to the INPCRP web site. There, you will find a discussion of this
topic, together with the current laws, descriptions of recent events and a petition.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~inpcrp/disinterment.html This type of problem is of particular
concern to all of us who have loved ones buried in the State. As genealogists, we work
long and hard to trace our ancestors. How sad it is to track them down, find a cemetery
reference and then go to the cemetery, only to find a golf course or shopping center, a
road or a parking lot built on the land where our loved ones used to rest in peace. Read
the petition. Take some action.
While you still can find great grandma.
**************
Hi Everyone!
Sandy is right!
Some of my ancestors, John W. and his wife Elizebeth Ann (Libby) Parr were pioneers and
among the first white settlers in central Indiana. They, their children and families are
buried in the Methodist Church Cemetery at Peoria, IN. (Peoria not long exists) This
Church and Cemetery was moved in the
1950's to a higher location. A dam was built across the Mississinawa River to form the
existing Mississinawa Reservoir which flooded the original site.(Miami and Wabash
Counties) This lake also covers the original Indian burial ground where Francis Slocum is
buried with her Indian husband and children.
Francis Slocum was a white girl captured by the Indians in Pennsylvania when she was quite
young and raise with the Indians and married a Chief. A monument was erected on higher
ground to mark this historical spot.
I was told recently that all the movers have to do today is take a shovel of dirt from the
old site and place it in the new one.
Maybe thats better than a concrete parking lot for a headstone but I'm against it!!
Best Regards Roy Eastes, Gulfport, MS USAF Retired