Sorry, I've been meaning to write something about this but have been rather
busy.
Crossmann's project manager contacted me last Monday to let me know that the
archaelogist would be there Tuesday to walk over the newly scraped ground.
Tuesday morning, a reported from Fox 59 called our Technical Code
Enforcement office, asking, I assume, to speak to someone there about
Crossmann Communities building over a graveyard. The secretary there, like
the majority of the employees in the building, know who I am and what I do,
so they told her their office had nothing to do with it, but they told her
my name and that they'd give me a message to contact her. I did.
I must stop and explain here, in case you haven't been able to figure out by
my very long, complicated messages of the past, I am not good with
conversation-like talk if I have to continuously explain something to
someone. I can sit down and write poetic essays and themes about such
subjects, but not anything that I am interupted for. I have trouble
condensing things as well, but You'll understand that one by the time you
finish this message! I guess I'm strange that way, but I know myself well
after 31 years and I know I NEVER want to do an interview, on or off camera.
I said I'd answer any questions over the phone, but I have little personal
leave left this year and can't afford to use it all now. I told her this
that morning, and have told that same thing to 3 other people from that
station and Sy Jenkins from channel 6 in that last week.
I felt that Crossmann was doing exactly what they were suppose to do at the
moment and I thought it was best to leave them alone to do it. I could tell
that the media was looking for another juicy story about Crossmann messing
something up again. Don't misunderstand me, I don't work for them, and I
have a personal dislike for any large corporation, especially one that comes
into a community and creates a subdivision as big in number yet small in
acreage as this one is going to be. Some of the lots are only 40 feet
across! Anyway, she ended up calling the archaeologist, Crossmann, the
commissioners, and before I knew it, things in my building were getting a
little out of hand. I talked to the Commissioners secretary and explained
what was going on. When I returned to my office I had a message from the
foreman again, this time telling me the archealogist had already found it
(10:30 am, I think!) He asked if I wanted to come to the site and see what
they had found, I said I'd be right there and take up my lunch hour.
The foreman was standing out in the middle of a cleared field of dirt. I
parked in front of the closest house to the spot and walked about a city
block to get to where he was. There in the ground was a broken off
rectangle shaped stone, ( I had my digital camera with me a got 2 pictures
of it) behind it a few inches were two of three fragments of what appears to
be a headstone. I could clearly make out the letter "N" on the stone. A
few feet away, on top of the soil was a piece of a headstone with what looks
like possibly the right edge of the front face having the letters "S R."
then below them was an "RY". The soil is very compacted around all of this
and near the headstone still in the ground you can see (I was VERY skeptical
about this being possible) a slightly darker soil in the shape of a grave.
It points north to south the the headstone is at the south end of it, being
a flat stone that faced east or west. After the archaeologist got back from
lunch he pointed out that you could almost see a perfectly straight line in
the soil along the edge of the "grave". I was amazed and utterly
impressed!!! I am so glad that they found it and that I was able to be
there so soon afterward.
Please don't get me wrong here (more of my explanations) I have been and
will continue to be skeptical of their intentions and watchful of their
every move, but they have followed every requirement in the current laws and
they have spent a great deal of money in trying to locate it. It isn't
going to help the situation here if I am not on good terms with the owner of
the property, so I am being as polite as I was taught to be and try to
imagine I am talking with people, rather that a company.
I should hear from them this week about the headstones and what they are
able to piece together. Channel 6 was the first to carry the story that
Wednesday night I think, then Fox picked it up Friday. Our local paper had
a wonderful article in it Saturday. The reporter, John Clark, has been
talking to me about this all along and I expressed to him Friday that I did
not want to see an article that made accusations at Crossmann. I wanted an
article that told how wonderful it was to have found this once lost
graveyard and how important it was that these sites be documented and
protected. He asked me what I thought I wanted to see happen to the
grave(s), I told him I hadn't made my mind up and probably wouldn't until
the DNR finalized their research to determine if there were other graves.
The problem here is that, even though it looked like the size of an adult to
me, the experts agreed that the outline of the burial shaft we were looking
at was probably that of a child. Of the 3 people I believe were buried
there, none were children! I think perhaps more were added after 1863.
Possibly even some from the family that plowed it under by 1940. The only
living member of that family recalled that they moved the headstones from
the graves and plowed it up, occasionally still turning up a piece or two
that they just stacked up by the old barn. If that's the case, then there
has to be more than one grave and they missed this stone.
I watched the piece on Fox 59 that night and decided in that 5-minute
time-frame that I will fight to have it left alone. The lady they
interviewed who said it was in her "backyard" and that it was "creepy"
and
she "hoped it would be moved" ticked me off! Who was there first? She
should have looked carefully at the plans for the subdivision in which she
purchased her new house, because it clearly states there is a lost cemetery
on part of the property. I have been there and I have seen the plans for
this huge subdivision. If she considers that spot to be within the realm of
her "backyard" then she better brace herself when 20 or 30 houses pop up
there in the next year and she has about a hundred strangers in her
"backyard"!!!
I also need to get with Crossmann and the DNR about the last statement the
reporter made about being given permission to be there with cameras if they
"find anything". I had already discussed the idea of maintaining respect
for these pioneers with Jim Van Ness of Crossmann and he assured me that
would be seen to. I don't think a camera crew and reporter should be there.
It follows along the lines of one of my biggest pet-peeves with the media.
You know, how they say its a traffic report to help you get to work safely,
but if there is an accident that just happened, especially if they can
report a serious injury or fatality, they are on top of it with their news
helicopters and zooming in to show you the details of what remains of the
vehicles and state the victims haven't been identified yet. This appalls me
to no end! If you were watching the news and your husband was on his way to
work taking that highway and driving a vehicle that resembles what you saw,
that would be one of the worst moments, literally, of your life. I think
standing with a tv crew over an excavation of a pioneer grave is not
necessary news, it is the media trying to show you something on your screen
that no one else can, human remains. News would be informing the public of
the problems faced by finding such a situation as this and how, while we
can't go back and change the past, we can start right now to correct this
outrageous problem and start a new trend in the we look at our land.
Lastly, I will say that I will be sending email messages to the descendants
I have already been in touch with and ask them to send me letters in their
own words of their own opinions and desires for their ancestors graves with
signatures of as many of the descendants as they can. I will make sure that
Crossmann, the commissioners, the DNR, City/County Plan Dept and the paper,
if necessary, get copies of them. Hopefully Crossmann will not want anymore
negative publicity (they are being investigated by the State Attorney
General, if you didn't already know) and will sit down and figure out how
they can plan their next section AROUND an appropriately maintained
cemetery.
Thank you for all of your patience. I would also like to extend my deepest
sympathy to Lois at the loss of her father. I hope it gives you comfort to
know that you and your family have been in the prayers of many friends and
that your father is now no more than a whisper away from your heart.
If anyone wishes to read the text from the newspaper article, email me
directly at cherokee(a)shelbynet.net and I will send it as an attachment. It
was such a well written piece that someone emailed me after reading it by
looking up my address on the INPCRP website. It was concerning one of the
little family plots that was recorded as having 4 stones in it 31 years ago.
It is still there and the owners want to restore it to respectable
condition. The reporter was also sent email from someone who is trying to
research 2 african-american cemeteries in Jennings county. Finally, some
positive results in this county! I have at least 3 signatures on that
petition from here as well.
Cris West
Columbus, IN
----- Original Message -----
From: "G Tielking" <tielking(a)knightstown.net>
To: <INPCRP-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 11:08 PM
Subject: [INPCRP] Crossman builders in Columbus
Hello all,
I wanted to let you all know on Fox 59 for central Indiana last night,
reporter
Kimberly King reported on Crossman Communities "finding" a cemetery
on land they bought from a farmer to develop. It made top story. Apparently,
Crossman knew of a cemetery in the general area but wasn't sure exactly
where it was until a headstone peeped out from the ground. The farmer who
sold them the land was plowing over the cemetery. They interviewed a lady
who owns a home close to the cemetery and she said she "wanted them moved"
(the individuals buried there). I think Cris West has been working on this.
If I got the wrong person, I apologize. I stayed up to watch Ch 13 news at
11:00 p.m. to see if they reported anything. They reported only complaints
that Crossman is receiving about bad construction.
Take care,
Angela Tielking
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