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Some have e-mailed me to tell me that this cemetery stuff does not
pertain to Franklin County...yeah you are right, but it should be of
concern to each and every person that has relatives buried in cemeteries
over 100 years old......Now with that said, this was posted this morning
on the state PCRP website. After the weekend Indianapolis Star article,
it is nice to know that some people DO have respect for the dead and are
doing things right....
Just wanted to dabble the good in with the bad....Thanks
Randy Klemme
Franklin County Genealogy & PCRP Coordinator
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From: Chris Myers <stnick(a)evansville.net>
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The Evansville Press
August, 18, 1998
Graves found at site where Mater Dei planned to build
By Patricia Swanson
Staff reporter
Remains of three or four graves, part of an abandoned
West Side cemetery that predates the Civil War, have been
found near Mater Dei High School in an area that was to
become a landscaped terrace.
Robert Weyde, president of the Evansville Interparochial
High Schools (Memorial and Mater fbi), said a University of
Indianapolis forensic archaeology expert is working with the
diocese to locate the graves.
He said the area will be treated to comply with church
teaching demanding respect for the dead and their burial places.
Eleanor Tenbarge, a member of the Tri-State Genealogy
Society who has been researching the area, said about 250
graves are located in the area, just north of the school.
The area where the graves have been found on a hill north
of the school, is the outer edge of what was known as the Perry
Township Graveyard. She's found deeds dating to 1855 that mention
the graveyard, which apparently has been abandoned for years.
Tenbarge said there is no known record of who was buried in
the cemetery, although it appears some Civil War soldiers were
buried there. Most of the tombstones are gone now, although there
are a few in the back of the cemetery. That area, she said, is covered
with brush and trees and it's difficult to see any tombstones until winter,
when the greenery has died out a bit.
The society became involved, she said, when Don and
Karen Schoenbachler, whose father had been responsible for
mowing the area decades ago, approached the group to see
whether there were any records available about the cemetery.
Karen Schoenbachler had told her that the cemetery had
walnut trees around it and that she was responsible for going in
front of her father, picking up walnuts while he pushed the mower.
Tenbarge, who is a genealogy researcher, was asked by
the society to investigate.
She has found mentions of the cemetery on county plats
and in some records, but no definitive record of when the land
became a cemetery; although, she has found a record of a deed
that transferred the land in 1955 to Perry Township trustee for $2.
However, trustee records don't mention the cemetery, nor is
there any record of when the last burial was held there, but it appears
to have been many years ago, possibly soon after the turn of the century.
Weyde said once the diocese learned of the possibility people
had been buried there, Stephen Nawrocki of the University of
Indianapolis was called in.
Using radar and other equipment, he identified several sites which
might have contained graves. Weyde said they were excavated yesterday
and three or four showed what appeared to be grave sites.
The area was to be terraced and landscaping as part of a Mater Dei
expansion and renovation project, he said, However, given the fact graves
are located there, the committee that is overseeing the construction
is looking at two options now.
The first would be to rebury the remains elsewhere in the area; the
second is to redesign the terrace to avoid the grave sites and leave them
alone.
He said that a permanent marker will be erected, regardless of
which option is chosen, to note that this was a cemetery and residents
were buried there during the 1800s.
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