John Brundage, Chairman of the Madison County Cemetery Commission, has asked
me to forward to this group the following message concerning the erosion
exposing graves at Cottrell Cemetery in Madison Co., Indiana.
As I expected, there was a lot more to this sad story than what was reported
to us in the newspapers.
Lois
To: LawOfficeInformationsystem(a)worldnet.att.net
From: jbrundage2(a)juno.com (JOHN C BRUNDAGE)
Subject: Cottrell Cemetery--Madison County
X-Juno-Line-Breaks: 13-14,25-26,42-43,50-51,62-63,69-70,75-78,82-86
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 98 21:34:47 +0000
The Madison County Cemetery Commission is well aware of the Cottrell
Cemetery and has been working for several years to find a way to restore
it. When I joined the commission in 1988, my predeccessor and her
husband drove me through the several townships which were her area of
review. (We have since eliminated the division of responsibility by
township since the total commission votes upon the work to be done and
the expenditure of funds). She did not know exactly where the cemetery
was located, only the road. I eventually found the site and took other
members of the commission there. The owner of the property was
embittered because another person who wanted the cemetery restored and
turned over to the township trustee had caused him financial grief in
legal defense of his ownership of the property which includes the
cemetery. NO deed for the cemetery was ever found nor was there even a
reference to a cemetery in the land records.
One member and I talked with the owner of the property, Gregory Holt, who
was buying the property on contract from his parents. He wanted to do
something about the cemetery and said he would call us at some future
time and took our telephone numbers. He never called. Some months later
another member and I passed the area while reviewing cemetery sites.
[When we find a site as individuals we take another member(s) there so the
location will be known by more than one person]. I drove to a location
where we could look beyond a wood fence and an evergreen hedge. The
owner had begun to make a junkyard of the site. He also had begun
construction of a concrete block building which had three or four garage
doors.
He cut into the sloping side of the cemetery to erect a wall. Over time,
weather did its damage. As this was private property we had to be
patient. We have always had other projects that occupied our time and
funds. Our break came in 1995 when I read in the paper that Gregory Holt
had attempted suicide when sheriff deputies arrived to serve an arrest
warrant. Mr. Holt had been charged with stealing highway tractor-trailer
rigs and construction equipment. After about a month I was contacted by
the Indiana State Police to come to a meeting at their post near
Pendleton. As the cemetery was part of a crime scene we were not to go
there before the meeting. Although I had known Mr. Holt was placing
parts of vehicles on the cemetery I did not know it included
tractor-trailer rigs. The cemetery commission was allowed later to visit
the site with the family attorney who presented a self-serving dialog
later in the TV news broadcast. Mr. Gregory Holt is still living and is
assigned a guardian who is his brother. He is not competent to stand
trial or transact legal matters.
The stolen property on the site was made available to the injured
parties who wanted it and the remainder was sold at auction. We were
allowed again on the property to survey and determine the necessary
steps for restoration. The county engineer and some contractors were
contacted to give us their professional opinions. Also, the county
commissioner who monitors our work visited with me and has later visited
the site with other commissioners.
The parents of Gregory Holt had to foreclose a sale contract as payments
were far behind. The parents were willing to donate cemetery to the
Township Trustee but commissioners said be patient as cost would
probably consume our budget for next eight to ten years. The Holts put the
remainder of the property on the market and it was sold to Kandra Crouse.
Her husband's name is not on the property transfer. They are pushing
for the county to rush to restore the cemetery as it would be necessary
to enter their property to stabilize the slope. Other legalities are
involved and it is best I not go into them. We are working on the
situation and total restoration will have to wait while we complete two
other projects.
The TV news report and the newspaper articles were initiated by the Holts
and Crouses and are self-serving. The Crouses saw the property before
purchasing it and yet purchased it as the price was right. The Crouses
did visit one of our meetings and departed saying we could enter on
their property to repair the cemetery if we did some things that would
benefit only their property. No way.
The state archeologist said they would come in and dig up on the bones,
examine them for sex and age, return them mixed in one box to be placed
in one hole. Restoration of the cemetery will be the responsibility of
someone else. Is that memorializing early settlers of our community?
Give us time, we are working on it.
The cemetery is in Madison County, One mile north of its south border
with Hancock County and approximately 1/2 mile east of Highway 13
going north from Fortville. We believe the cemetery will in time come
legally into government control and eventually be restored. At present
we are setting up the necessary steps to get it done. If necessary
we will utilize the news services to present our story. We have tried
to avoid embarrassing the Holts more than what their son has done, but
their lawyer and the purchaser of the adjoining property has made it
difficult.
John Brundage, Chairman, Madison County Cemetery Commission