The graves of nearly a dozen 19th Century pioneers have all but vanished on a German Township hilltop west of Taylorsville.
Buried in the abandoned Tannehill Pioneer Cemetery, south of County Road 700W, are the remains of a distinguished and accomplished man who became the namesake for the burial site, a nearby road and two residential neighborhoods.
While the grave of Zachariah Tannehill (1784-1864) has almost disappeared, records from the Bartholomew County Historical Society, the Bartholomew County Genealogical Society, archived newspaper stories and online family genealogical sites all indicated he led an exceptional life.
A lieutenant when he served under General Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812, Tannehill retired with the rank of Major. For the remainder of his life, neighbors and acquaintances often referred to him simply as ‘The Major.’
In 1828, Tannehill purchased 1,200 acres of land and a mill and distillery near Taylorsville. He used the distillery to make 300 barrels of whiskey and shipped them off to New Orleans to finance the purchase. But once the debt was paid, Tannehill – who had little tolerance for liquor – converted the distillery into a factory.
In his memoirs “Reminiscences of Old Times in Bartholomew County,” General W.H.H. Terrell (1827-1884) wrote that Tannehill successfully ran his two businesses along the Driftwood River for almost 35 years. He served in both houses of the state legislature from 1834 to 1844, was a delegate to an Indiana Constitutional Convention, and served over four years in the 1850s as one of the area’s first judges.
But today, the graves of ‘The Major’ and his wife, Ursula (1783-1865) are nearly impossible to find. With their headstones lying flat on the ground, the markers are covered with moss, decaying leaves and giant weeds. In fact, the forested cemetery is nearly all hidden by tall grass, brush and bramble, and fallen trees.
“This is a disgrace to the dead,” German Township native Mike Metz said. “You would think the cemetery would look better for a man of his stature.”
An uphill path
The uphill path leading up to the Tannehill Pioneer Cemetery has a locked yellow bar barring vehicles from entering through a gateway in the split rail fence. If a person can’t squeeze through an tight opening on the site, they’ll have to crawl over or under the bar.
Near the top of the hill, one headstone can be seen far to the left from the path. It marks the final resting place of John Boni, who became the first to be buried in the cemetery in 1842.
But visitors must move southeast of Boni’s marker and travel several yards before they begin finding other graves covered with dense vegetation.
How rare is this type of abandoned cemetery? Of the approximately 150 recognized cemeteries in Bartholomew County, about 40 are remote and largely untended, Bartholomew County Genealogy Society co-founder Donna Cleland Kuhlman said. These range from single graves to cemeteries with 15 to 20 gravesites.
Soldiers from the War of 1812 are of particular interest in this Bicentennial year, as they were heavily represented in Bartholomew County’s earliest settlers, Kuhlman said. In addition to their labors in opening new farmlands, they also contributed to their communities’ civic and religious organizations, and the general development of the county, she added.
Tannehill wasn’t the only leading founding father buried in a largely forgotten grave. Jesse Seyn Ruddick (1784-1870) was one of the first group of Bartholomew County’s commissioners who served as the Justice of the Peace and a member of the Indiana House of Representatives.
“But he’s buried well off into the boondocks in Wayne Township,” Kuhman said, referring to a tiny number of graves located in deep woods east of the Rustwood Minor subdivision.
In better days
Metz and his younger brother, Tim, have both seen Tannehill Pioneer Cemetery in better days. And as he grows older, Mike Metz says he becomes increasingly interested in the stories behind the names, dates and epitaphs. Unfortunately, many have tragic endings.
During a flood in 1832, a baby in her carriage was rescued while being swept along the strong current of the Driftwood River. While the Tannehill family took care of the infant, she died while still a little girl. Her family was never found.
One of the Tannehill’s sons, Jack, was killed around 1840 when he and a companion attempted to take a large flatboat with whiskey over a dam along the Driftwood River. A second son, James Madison Tannehill, died young around 1845, while a daughter, Lovinia, died in childbirth.
Sometimes, tragedy can turn into the macabre.
For decades after her death, rumors circulated that Ursula Tannehill had been buried with much jewelry. That’s likely why a German Township resident named Firman Groves (1884-1951) discovered men digging around her grave in 1918 – more than 50 years after her death. After running off the would-be grave robbers, Groves brought other men to the cemetery to inspect the premises, Mike Metz said.
“There was a glass face on the coffin, and they could tell her remains had not been disturbed,” said Metz, who happens to be Groves’ great-grandson.
Clean-up efforts
A number of clean-up efforts have taken place at Tannehill Pioneer. While running for German Township trustee in 1978, Lawrence Fowler campaigned for cleaning up the cemetery, seeding it with grass, and placing a rustic fence around it.
After being elected, Fowler purchased the fencing for $440. But while it was being stored, a misunderstanding resulted in the fencing being sold. Nevertheless, Fowler – who died in January at age 100 – was able to work with the Taylorsville Jaycees to clean up the cemetery as a community project in 1981.
Photos of the cemetery looking neat and orderly were taken in 2011 by the Bartholomew County Genealogy Society. Earlier photographs indicate several headstones with a Masonic emblem carved on them. But that was the last time Kuhlman recalls seeing Tannehill Pioneer looking well-groomed.
There are members of the family who are still laid to rest today in Tannehill Cemetery – but it is a cemetery 700 miles away from Taylorsville.
Two of Zachariah and Ursula’s children – Richard Tannehill and Minerva Tannehill Anderson – moved west with their spouses to create their own homestead in Cowley County, Kansas, located 60 miles southeast of Wichita near the Oklahoma border. Only one of the surviving children- Zachariah Buckley “Z.B.” Tannehill – remained in Indiana. While Z.B. was married, there are no records available that indicate he fathered kids of his own.
In contrast, the Kansas branch of the Tannehill family grew so large that a second Tannehill Cemetery was established west of Hackney, Kansas, near the banks of the Arkansas River.
When a family member residing in Illinois traveled to Taylorsville, she was specifically interested in seeing the old grist stone from the family mill, Mike Metz said. He recalled feeling relief that the Tannehill family member seemed unaware that she had long-departed ancestors buried nearby.
“If those were my family’s graves and someone showed them to me, I’d be distraught,” Metz said.
Current German Township trustee Chris West says he has already discussed what can be done with a key member of his advisory board. In addition, Tim Metz is urging his employer – Cummins, Inc. – to approve an upgrade of Tannehill Pioneer as a community service project.
Nevertheless, West has mixed feelings about clearing out Tannehill Pioneer, which include the challenge of getting mowers up a steep hill.
“I want it to be cleaned up and I want it to be prominent, but the potential for graffiti and vandalism bothers me,” West said. “It’s so remote that if somebody really wanted to, that’s the one they would vandalize.”
There is always an increased risk of vandalism when old cemeteries are discovered by neighboring kids, Kuhlman said. The vandals seldom get caught because “being out of sight also means being out of mind.”
But neglect may not be the worst thing to happen to a remote cemetery, Kuhlman said.
“It’s not getting vandalized, it’s not having mowers accidentally bashing into things, and weed killers (with acidic chemicals that damage marble) aren’t being used to spray around the stones,” Kuhlman said.
Damage to historic cemeteries is usually caused by a mix of vandalism and natural deterioration, she said.
“Anywhere there is traffic, there is often damage, but a lot of it is nature,” Kuhlman said. “Many of these stones are broken in numerous places, which means the damage was likely done after the stone had fallen.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Who is buried there…” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
In addition to Maj. Zachariah Tannehill (died 1864), at least 10 other pioneers of Bartholomew County are buried at Tannehill Pioneer Cemetery, next to Heflin Park in German Township.
- James Anderson (died 1849)
- John Boni (died 1842)
- George M. Ely (died 1846
- Sarah E. Ely (died 1851)
- Charles Morris (date of death unknown)
- Anna Tannehill (died 1855)
- Sarah Ann “Sally” Singer Tannehill (died 1849)
- Ursula Blasingame Tannehill (died 1865)
- Willie Tannehill (died 1856)
- Zachariah Buckley Tannehill (died 1873)
[sc:pullout-text-end]
