Budd Goodyear from Wasilla, Alaska writes, “I grew up in Greenfield in the 1940s and 1950s, at approximately 8337 N. 25 West, west of Maxwell and north of 500 North. There was a cemetery just north of our home, where the road swings back north after a northwesterly turn. At one point, the land north belonged to Pauline Watson. Her grandson, Mike, built a house north of the cemetery. I missed your story about cemeteries, and I had always wondered about this one.”
After talking to Nancy Leach from the Pioneer Cemetery Association, I believe you are talking about the Mt. Carmel Cemetery. The Sue Baker book tells us the Mt. Carmel Cemetery is in section one in the northwest part of Center Township, located on County Road 25W between 500 and 600N. In 1883, the Mt. Carmel Methodist Church was organized in a log schoolhouse situated on the east bluff of Sugar Creek, near the present site of the cemetery.
The membership of the church increased in 1853, and a frame building was constructed by Henry Moore at the cost of $800. Services in the church were regular until the early 1900s.
The church is now gone, but two concrete posts remain at the north boundary of the burying ground, which indicated that long ago there was a gate and fence around the site. There were probably more than 100 graves at the site. Today many of the stones are down.
Enough. I have told you everything that I know and some things I don’t. Talk to me.
You can write to Joe Skvarenina at [email protected] or in care of the Daily Reporter at 22 W. New Road, Greenfield, Indiana, 46140.
