Archaeologist Andrew Martin, standing before the small gathered crowd, unveils the new historical marker at Oakhill Cemetery in Evansville.
The marble monument sits atop 18 new burial plots, the dirt still covered in straw.
The remains of 75 early Evansvillians are now buried here, moved from the old McGarry Cemetery hidden under the roads downtown. He said with non-invasive analysis, they learned a little about who they were.
“We know they represent a wide diversity of Evansville at that time — women, children, men of indigenous American (descent) as well as African American and European descent.”
He said eight are likely Native American, four were African American and four were European. The remaining 59 they couldn’t identify, which required dental remains.
“There just wasn't enough remains — the remains that we needed to to get those identifiers off of them. It was fragmentary.”
Also, almost none of the graves were marked.
These individuals were found in spring of 2023 during an underwater utility project to separate the storm and sanitary sewers in a section of downtown Evansville.
Archaeologist Krista Parker crouches under a tent six feet below street level. The old county courthouse is looming above She’s scraping at a corner with a little very small trowel.
“I'm just trying to outline the grave shaft as best as possible so we can see everything even if it is potentially smaller than this. You know you want to do your best to get everything.”
Cultural Resource Analysts (CRA) were hired by the Evansville Water and Sewer Utility to investigate human remains revealed near clay bricks.
Andrew Martin is director of operations for CRA.
“It turned out to be a brick vault,” he said. “So there was one individual, indeterminate sex and age and the bone is fairly well degraded. But it was within a coffin …”
Martin says this is a rare occurrence. While the city knew a graveyard was plotted nearby, no real records existed.
After 1823 they stopped using this graveyard, which had been established by Evansville Founder Hugh McGarry.
The cemetery was eventually the same location for several utilities. A canal was built and of course local roads and combination sewers. In the mid-1800s, families moved some loved ones who would be in the path of these.
That 2023 underground project is now complete.
Martin said these individuals were re-buried with respect to how they were originally interred. For example, if they if they were buried with brick-lined grave shafts, CRA took a sample of those graves and reburied those with the individuals.
“If they had personal belongings, any nails, coffin nails, any hardware that was on the coffins that was preserved in that grave, we exhumed and reburied with that individual,” Martin said. “Each individual got their own location within this grave plot. We just couldn't lay them out, orient them exactly the way that they were excavated.”
This is because it would take up far too much space in the cemetery.
This burial, the stone marker and the memorial ceremony, were a collaboration. They included elements from all three represented communities — Native — European and African.
The Evansville African American Museum handled the memorial. After the unveiling, attendees gather to look at the marker and take photos.
Tory Schendel-Vyvoda is curator for the Evansville African American Museum.
“It's important to honor the past ancestors,” she said. “It's important to make sure that everyone realizes that the individuals uncovered are humans. They still matter to the community that's here. Even though we don't know exactly who these individuals are, they were still people at the end of the day.”
There are still more individuals buried in the old McGarry Cemetery but the city won’t know exactly how many or where.
The new marker is in Section O of Oakhill Cemetery.
Support independent journalism today. You rely on WNIN to stay informed, and we depend on you to make our work possible. Give to grow our local reporting today. Donate