Henderson history: Resting in peace here hasn’t always been a foregone conclusion

Residents of Henderson County have had a bad habit of profaning sacred ground.

Lord knows how many small, rural graveyards have been plowed over. The late, great Jim Blue documented as many cemeteries that he could find and published the results in both a map and a book, “Gone But Not Forgotten,” published in 1996 and revised in 1997.

I can’t imagine the number of hours Jim spent bushwacking through brambles to find them all; I throw up my hands in horror when I contemplate trying to document how many of them remain.In this column I’m taking on the more modest task of telling y’all about the number of times the city of Henderson has dedicated land as a cemetery -- and then decided to use it for something else.

It began with the city’s original cemetery at the northwest corner of Fourth and Elm streets, which operated until the city bought Fernwood Cemetery. E.L. Starling, in his “History of Henderson County,” says “a large majority of those who died from 1800 up to 1849” were buried there.

It’s possible the Rev. James McGready was one of them. He moved to Henderson about 1806 and died here in February 1817 but the whereabouts of his grave are not known. He was called Father of the Great Revival of 1800 and performed many of the first marriages recorded here.

Fernwood Cemetery was incorporated as a private operation in 1849 but was sold to the city May 13, 1853, although it appears the deal wasn’t closed until August 1854.

In the spring of 1855, the city contracted with William B. Vanzandt to remove burials from the original cemetery and relocate them to Fernwood. Records at the city clerk\'s office indicate Vanzandt (who was Henderson’s first mayor) never completed that work. On March 4, 1856, he asked the city to pay him $400 “on his unfinished contracts with the city.”

Human bones were being dug up at the site as late as August 1905, however, and the city’s HART bus garage currently occupies the land.

Oak Hill Cemetery was the next to suffer the indignity of desecration. It was located at 1046 Pringle St. Back in 1998 Frank Nally documented more than 500 people who had been buried there between 1902 and 1936, most of them Black residents.

Phasing out Oak Hill came in installments. The Gleaner of July 18, 1906, reported the city Board of Health had recommended closure because high ground water did not allow graves to be excavated deep enough.

The Henderson Daily Journal of Sept. 2, 1914, reported “for the first time in the history of Henderson” the Henderson City Council had unanimously voted to convert a cemetery – Oak Hill – into a park.

The Gleaner of Sept. 3, 1941, reported the announcement of Mayor Robert Posey and Cemetery Superintendent Joe Lanier that Oak Hill Cemetery would be divided into 16 residential lots and sold. An extension of Pond Street was to bisect the graveyard property.

The city created Fairmont Cemetery, The Gleaner of April 27, 1920, reported, when it bought almost 82 acres from John and Julia Pierce for $5,716. That portion between U.S. 60 and South Main Street extended is now Fairmont Cemetery. The price was $27,000 but part of the deal was that the city trade 17 acres of Oak Hill Cemetery, which reduced the price to $22,750.

Two other names were also considered for Fairmont Cemetery, according to The Gleaner of March 20, 1921: Riverview and Riverside. In fact, that story indicated a majority of the city council favored Riverside.

“Riverview won’t do,” said Mayor James B. Johnson. “Nobody in the cemetery can view anything and there’s nothing across the river but an island. Riverview won’t do. I like Riverside.”

State Sen. Starling Marshall suggested the Fairmont name, which the Henderson City Council unanimously approved, according to the minutes of March 25, 1921.

At the same time the council approved rules and regulations for the cemetery. Lots (containing space for 12 graves) cost $100 apiece initially, children under 12 were not allowed to enter the cemetery unaccompanied, and it was illegal to ride a bicycle within the grounds.

Only about 20 acres was initially laid out for graves.

James H. Rowland, one of the founders of what is now Rudy-Rowland Funeral Home, directed the first burial in Fairmont Cemetery; Herman Kockritz was interred there in late August 1921. I’ll have more to say about him in a moment after some background.

Two years later the Henderson Country Club’s original building across Elm Street from Atkinson Park burned to the ground, according to The Gleaner of Nov. 10, 1923. The club initially was thinking of rebuilding at the same site, but instead began working connections at City Hall.

The Gleaner of Dec. 12, 1923, announced the country club’s new plan, which had been in the works since the fire.

The plan was to spend about $30,000 building a new clubhouse on 47.64 acres of Fairmont Cemetery. Another 9.62 acres was reserved.

“There are several bodies buried on this property, and time is given (the city) in which to remove these bodies to another cemetery.”

As you might expect, relatives of those dead people were none too pleased at this turn of events. The family of

Kockritz filed suit, according to The Gleaner of Feb. 23, 1924, which provided my entry into this topic.

The suit said the Kockritz family “bought lots in this cemetery in good faith that it would be maintained as a cemetery,” and asked that the city be required to fulfill the terms of the land’s dedication. They maintained the city’s sale “completely destroys” the property’s use as a cemetery, and in essence was a conditional sale of the land where their relatives were buried.

According to legal papers at the Henderson County Judicial Center, the judge not only ruled against the city Oct. 14, 1924, he required the city to pay the plaintiffs’ legal costs.

The country club instead wound up buying and converting an old mansion on South Main Street – about where Chapelwood Apartments is now located -- which was used until the club moved to a site on U.S. 60-East in 1974.Fairmont Cemetery was not completely immune after that, however. The Gleaner of July 13, 1948, reported the city commission had approved sale of an unused “portion of ground originally intended for Fairmont Cemetery to Guy Burris and J.A. Clore.”

J. Alves Clore was mayor of Henderson between 1942 and 1946. A follow-up story appeared Jan. 26, 1949, which pointed out Burris and Clore had sold the property to James S. Mills for $3,500. They had paid $1,500 for it six months earlier.

More recently, Acting City Manager Paul Royster advised the Henderson City Commission to take a hard look at selling 42-acre Fernwood, which had roughly 2,000 vacant graves remaining, and 33-acre Fairmont, which had about 7,400 vacant graves, according to The Gleaner of May 3, 1997. He was not pushing the idea, he said, but he pointed out the city’s two cemeteries had been running in the red about $100,000 annually in recent years.

That idea got little traction with the city commissioners, however, who maintained the cemeteries provided a public service and selling them would prove more expensive to the average customer.

75 YEARS AGO

A Henderson soldier was playing a part in the Berlin airlift, one of the opening confrontations in the Cold War, according to The Gleaner of Feb. 18, 1949.

Pfc. Lee R. Stone was a teletype operator at the Rhein-Main Air Base, which played a major role in the airlift that supplied beleaguered Berlin during the Soviet blockade that began June 24, 1948, and ended May 12, 1949. The airlift continued through Sept. 30 in case the Soviets once again blocked the movement of land transport.

Another story in the Feb. 18 Gleaner told of about 118 parking meters gathering dust in the basement of City Hall.

They were part of the 550 meters bought in late 1946. If they had been installed, the city would have repaid its debt to the meter company and the city would have been about $11,000 richer.

50 YEARS AGO

Gladys Seidel held the distinction of being the first female bus driver for the city of Henderson’s HART bus service, according to the caption of a photo that appeared in The Gleaner Feb. 19, 1974.

“Public Works Director Larry Fulkerson pointed out that many area school buses are driven by women but Mrs. Seidel is the first female city driver.”

25 YEARS AGO

A proposal to rewrite the city’s regulations on mobile homes was scrapped by the Henderson City Commission, according to The Gleaner of Feb. 24, 1999.

The proposal would have required mobile home owners to meet much stricter appearance standards. For instance, in a residential district the owner would have been required to remove the wheels and axles, place it on a permanent foundation, and install a pitched roof and skirting of poured concrete or masonry.

Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Henderson history: Resting in peace here hasn’t always been a foregone conclusion