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A little history about Oak Hill Cemetery
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Special role sought for Oak Hill
By HERB MARYNELL, Courier & Press reporter<br>(812) 464-7434 or <a
href='mailto:hmarynel@evansville.net'>hmarynel@evansville.net</A>
http://www.courierpress.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?200102/12/+oakhill021201_new...
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In two years, Oak Hill Cemetery will be 150 years old, and Vernice Martin has an idea for
an appropriate birthday honor.
The 79-year-old woman wants the cemetery listed on the National Register of Historic
Places. She has waged a two-year campaign to get the burial site listed on the national
and state registers. It deserves the honor, she said. And today, perhaps more than others,
is further evidence of that need.
Today marks the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the nations president during Americas
Civil War.
To Martin, Lincolns birthday is a fitting way to honor Oak Hill Cemetery because many
veterans of wars are buried there.
The cemetery also shares something else with Lincoln. Both have February birthdays.
The first burial at Oak Hill was on Feb. 18, 1853, about eight years before the start of
the Civil War.
Documents about Oak Hills history note that perhaps the most hallowed ground in the
cemetery ... (are) the interment sections which (contain) the remains of soldiers who
died in battle or in Evansville hospitals from battle-incurred wounds during the Civil
War.
The remains of 500 Union men, 24 Confederate soldiers and 98 local dead all victims
of Civil War battles are buried in three separate sections.
A monument in remembrance of the Confederate soldiers was erected about 1903, and a
memorial of local Union dead was added in 1909.
Martin said getting Oak Hill on the national register by 2003 would be great. I know
it doesnt happen overnight.
Actually, the first steps toward gaining official national recognition of Oak Hill
started nearly 20 years ago. And the job is far from complete.
Martins first husband, Pfc. William Eldon Dewhirst, is buried there. The Germans at
the Battle of the Bulge captured him during World War II.
Dewhirst, wounded in the fighting, suffered as a prisoner of war until the end of
fighting in Europe, and he died at a Paris hospital in 1945.
A few years ago, Martin campaigned to get a Purple Heart for her first husband, but
then turned her efforts to historic recognition of Oak Hill Cemetery.
I felt it would benefit more veterans if I went that route, she said.
Dennis Au, the citys preservation officer, said getting Oak Hill Cemetery on the
national register by 2003 is absolutely the best goal. He thinks the goal may be
achieved before then.
Its a matter of having this declared a priority, Au said.
Au has in his office a large canvas tote bag, crammed with notes, documents and
materials about Oak Hill Cemetery. Joan Marchand, Aus predecessor who resigned in October
of 1996, compiled the information over two decades.
Marchand, who became the city preservation officer in 1986, died in January 1997.
Au said he received Marchands Oak Hill Cemetery material just last year.
The frustrating thing about this project (getting the cemetery on the national and
state registers) is the resources are here, ready to go again. The thing is getting the
time to do it.
Since taking over the city job in 1997, Au has completed historic booklets started by
Marchand. He also has re-edited, rewritten and researched other booklets, compiled other
brochures. He also is completing guidelines for a local preservation commission.
Local historians say Oak Hill Cemetery has as much historic importance to Evansville
as Willard Library, the Old Courthouse and the Reitz Home.
In 1850, the citys Common Council appointed a committee to find a new city cemetery
to replace the small graveyard on the southeast side of the young village of Evansville.
Within two years, 56 acres were acquired northeast of town for what became Oak Hill
Cemetery. The land was a wilderness of underbrush and briars called Lost Hill. The city
added more land until 1924, when the final tracts were included as part of the 175 acres.
More than 65,000 people are buried on Oak Hills 175 acres. Theres room enough for
another 65,000, officials said.
Many of the citys prominent community and political leaders are buried there. A wall
of brown Rugby brick was constructed around Oak Hill Cemetery in the 1920s.
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