NEW PALESTINE — Tour guide Carl Boss insisted a historical walk through New Palestine Cemetery a week before Halloween wasn’t a “ghost walk.” He did however start Saturday’s stroll through what he called the “sleeping place” with a spooky tale from the past.
Boss told a tale about Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train (The Lincoln Special) coming through Hancock County just outside of New Palestine in 1865.
According to Boss, a local history buff, rumor has it that the train passed on the tracks that were once there on April 30, 1865. The train had left Washington DC on April 21 and began a journey of 1654 miles through seven states and 180 cities en-route to its final destination of Springfield, Ill. The train is reported to have passed New Palestine around 6:25 a.m. on tracks that are no longer there near the Pennsy Trail.
New Palestine Cemetery would have been the site of the Native American’s cornfield that dated back to the early 1800s.
Carl Boss, New Palestine is a local history buff who loves sharing the story of New Paletine with area residents. He conducted two tours this past weekend. One throughout the town and the second through New Palestine Cemetery.
A couple dozen area residents showed up at the New Palestine Cemetery this past weekend to go on a tour. Carl Boss, New Palestine, conducted the walkthrough.
Several people took part in a historical tour through the New Palestine Cemetery, or the “sleeping place,” this past weekend.
Boss noted, the train travels the same route every year, at the same exact time. He says that hundreds of people have reported seeing the ghost train.
“It is said that clocks and watches stop running as the train passes by,” Boss said. “Suddenly, with a rush of wind, the train passes by, noiselessly, as if running on carpet.”
Boss went on to say that some have reported seeing smoke coming from a stack while others reported hearing the train’s whistle as it approaches.
“They say skeleton figures, dressed in blue, are standing at attention by Lincoln’s flag-draped casket,” Boss said.
With that tale planted, Boss began his tour of the New Palestine Cemetery as part of an educational venture to teach area residents more about the final resting place of many former town residents. Boss led the tour for nearly two dozen curious folks who, like Boss, know cemeteries are a special and solemn place in a community — one that holds many historical secrets.
Local resident, Donna Perrero took the historical tour because she is also interested in local history. After living in New Palestine for 30 years, Perrero said she didn’t know enough about the area and felt visiting the town’s cemetery was a good start.
“I wanted to learn more about the community where I live, plus cemeteries are really interesting,” Perrero said.
Standing in the middle of the New Palestine Cemetery, complete with his historical piece hat and cane, Boss noted there are 18 cemeteries in Sugar Creek Township. Seven not accessible by car with the New Palestine Cemetery, The Zion Lutheran Cemetery, and the Philadelphia Cemetery as the largest resting places.
“The New Palestine Cemetery is in fact two cemeteries in one,” Boss said. “There is a Township Cemetery here as well.”
The group, who was standing about 50 yards west of the Sugar Creek Township Cemetery section listened intently as Boss noted where they were located would have been the site of an original Native American cornfield that dated back to the early 1800s.
“Interesting that this area was so critical to sustaining life for the Native Americans and earliest settlers that it would become a place for people at the end of life,” Boss said.
Again, not trying to frighten anyone a few days before Halloween, Boss explained the New Palestine Cemetery is 17.1 acres with some 8,083 graves and there are approximately 1,700 spaces still available.
“If the math is correct, that would indicate that there are approximately 6,400 souls buried here,” Boss said.
Boss went on to explain how the cemetery board had plans to expand the cemetery and that officials have purchased 30 acres across the road for future expansion. The area is estimated to accommodate 20,000 grave sites.
“That will satisfy even an increasing demand until approximately the year 2300,” Boss said.
After looking through one of 11 different cemetery sections, the group ventured east to the Sugar Creek Township Cemetery within the New Palestine Cemetery. Boss said the New Palestine Cemetery has had multiple names throughout history, including The Jaky Murnan Burying Ground, Crown Point Cemetery and, finally, New Palestine Cemetery.
Boss said the cemetery was dedicated when William Leachman dug the first graves, sometime in the late 1850s, for his grandchildren — twin babies born to Henry and Malinda (Leachman) Merlau.
“The exact location of those first graves is unknown,” Boss said. “It is interesting that I have found names and dates as early as the late 1840s listed in the Township Cemetery.”
Another odd note, many people from the motorcycle group known as the “Outlaws” are buried in the New Palestine Cemetery, Boss said. It all started with a Mr. Reeves who was buried in 1980.
“His nickname was ‘Satan’ and he had family in New Palestine,” Boss said. “The band of brothers that followed him here are in fact spread across the cemetery,” Boss said.
The township section of the cemetery is the oldest with the oldest tale as many markers there are illegible. Apparently, the row of grave markers once had been removed from their respective grave sites and were in fact stacked along the fence, Boss said. When they went to put them back, they didn’t know where they should go.
“There were no records to indicate grave locations, so they were simply lined up in these rows,” Boss said.
While the tour wasn’t supposed to be a haunted venture, some there said there were times it felt that way. One of the people on the historical tour said they used to bring their dog in when visiting and, for some reason, the dog always went to the same headstone, where he would sit and then paw at the marker.
While the woman noted they never could figure out what that was all about, she felt certain not every soul inside the cemetery was resting, which she noted made the tour more interesting.
With that, Boss reminded those on the tour how ornate many entrances to cemeteries are because the design is to help people remember when they enter a cemetery they are crossing over from the “land of the living” to the “sleeping place.”
Boss also said it was in 1831 that the first rural garden cemetery was established near Cambridge, Massachusetts. The cemetery was a break from the traditional family plots and church yards and that early rural cemeteries became very popular as the forerunner to public parks.
