Finding Our Warrick County, IN Ancestors
Submitted by PATRICIA A. ROBINSON COLE. For additional list of people buried in this cemetery, click here, for Tamara's page. Make sure you scroll down to the middle of the page.
Dear Marsha, and Tamara:
I have so much information on the Epworth United Methodist Church
Cemetery. Also known as the Epworth Cemetery. It goes back about 20
years, give or take. I have decided to organize my facts, by year.
Beginning with my first contacts with the church and coming forward to
the present time. I have copies of court records. I went to Indianapolis
to the Health Department and researched their records. I have some
copies of the required permits to move the bodies and reinter them.
When the Cemetery was originally dismantled the church was required to
get permission from Indianapolis and through the courts. I have most, if
not all, of that. I do understand what you have published on your sites
is probably the best information that was available to you. It has
caused me to realize the people who were buried there, and their
families, deserve to have the details of what happened to this cemetery,
their remains, and markers told. Their final resting place was paid for
to help fund the church, and for them to be buried on what should have
been believed to be sacred ground. In my heart I feel that the spirits
of the deceased cry out for justice. The only "justice" there may be is
in the telling of their story. I see my putting their circumstances in
writing as speaking for them.
The headstones from the Epworth United Methodist Church Cemetery, were
moved twice prior to their final move and destruction by the church. I
know, for fact, the bodies of Isaac N. Shelton and his wife: Mary Hellen
Hall Williams Shelton, and the deceased names listed on the monument I
saved, were never removed from the ground. The son of Isaac and Mary:
Homer Shelton went to the cemetery the day bodies were to be moved and
he would not allow those graves to be disturbed. His daughter (my
cousin), Laura Shelton Fetscher and I had conversations about this
event. She remembered her dad, Homer, doing just what I said. Laura,
another cousin, and I are the ones who paid to have Rose Hill Cemetery.
pour the cement pad that our monument was put on, by the church. The
only reason the church did this for us, is because I raised so much fuss
about what was done. Like disrespectfully dumping all those beautiful
markers at the bottom of the hill in Rose Hill. They were treated like
they were unwanted garbage. As I said before, Rose Hill did not agree
for the Epworth Church Deacons to do that. Rose Hill did cause the
church to immediately remove them from their cemetery property. Which
Rose Hill is to be commended for.
The church ran articles in the Warrick Co. newspapers for families,
whose people the markers were from, to come to the new church (Lincoln
Ave and Epworth Rd.) and get them. Some family members, I understand
did. Others came and got them, then returned them because they didn't
know what to do with them after they saved them from the wrecking ball.
My monument was retrieved from the bottom of the Rose Hill hill, before
the church moved the rest of them to the Epworth United Methodist Church
new property. Any stones left, which I understand there was many, were
brutalized and buried in a hole in a, so called, memorial space in the
front of the church. A flower garden was built on top of the space. If
you were to go there, you would have to look for the flat marker the
church placed there.
The church negotiated with Rose Hill to place the memorial monument that
now stands along side the drive way. Again, I stress...there are no
remains placed there. The church took pictures of the markers they
removed from the old church property, Hwy. 66 and Epworth Roads. The
pictures were organized in an album and placed in the Newburgh Public
Library.
The Circle "S" gas station and party store now stands where the original
Epworth Church Cemetery was located. By the way it is my belief, until I
see something different, that the owners of the Circle "S" Corporation
were not fully aware of the circumstances of the cemetery when they
purchased the Epworth property. I base this on my contacts with the
Circle "S" Corporation.
I am telling you this much of what I know because of your cemetery
posting on Marsha's Warrick Co. Web., and that of Tamara's Cemetery
Lists, with regard to the Epworth Cemetery and Rose Hill Cemetery. It is
mis-information that: "The remains of what was found in the graves were
moved to a common grave near the entrance of Rose Hill north of
Newburgh. There is a marker with the names found in the Epworth cemetery
at the grave site in Rose Hill. There may not have been much if anything
left after a hundred years or so. I don't think there were any bodies
that were moved. Just what bones and remains that could be found in the
gravesites."
"Gilbert Schmitt's Note:
Epworth Cemetery only had about 80 people buried there." I believe this
statement to be incorrect also.. However, I am in the process of
gathering the names of those persons who were actually buried in the
Epworth Church Cemetery. It is my intention to document each name, as
much as is possible. I have a list of names that was provided to me from
a minister of the church. I was told the list was made by church persons
walking the cemetery and writing off the inscriptions. As genealogists
we surly agree the potential is here that not every grave had a marker.
Early church records were poorly maintained.
I will appreciate your reply about this E mail to you. I will be happy
to answer any questions you may have, while I am in the process of
writing the story of the Epworth United Methodist Church Cemetery.
Sincerely,
PATRICIA A. ROBINSON COLE
THERE ARE NO LONGER ANY GRAVES AT EPWORTH CEMETERY. THE NAMES BELOW ARE PEOPLE THAT WERE ORIGINALLY INTERRED.
Great Granddaughter of: ISAAC NEWTON SHELTON
Hurley, Frances Mar 12, 1907 - Nov 17, 1907, 8 mo, child of
Ulysses Hurley & Rosa Hall
Hurley, Frank May 28, 1905 - Jun 22, 1905, 25
days, son of Hyess Hurley -Ulysses & Rosa Hall
Hurley, Infant Mar 14, 1902 - Mar 20, 1902, 5 days, infant
of George Hurley & Lulu Armstrong
Hurley, Lusenda Nov 18, 1902 - Jan 1, 1903, 1 mo, child of Ulysses Hurley & Rosa Hall
Additional Websites:
Epworth United Methodist Church Cemetery Website
If you have questions or problems with this site, email the County Coordinator. Please to not ask for specfic research on your family. I am unable to do your personal research. I do not live in Indiana and do not have access to additional records.
If you have questions, contributions, or problems with this site, email:
Coordinator - Marsha Bryant
Lena Harper - State Coordinator - gostraka@yahoo.com
Jim Cox - Asst. State Coordinator - nyclvr2012@gmail.com
Karen Zach - Asst. State Coordinator - karen.zach@sbcglobal.net