Fairview Cemetery

Location: Culbertson Avenue and East Sixth Street, New Albany. (Floyd County, Indiana)

Installed: 2005 Indiana Historical Bureau and Friends of Fairview, Inc.

ID# : 22.2005.2

Text

Side one:

New Albany's second city cemetery, Northern Burial Ground, was officially created July 30, 1841 when D. W. and Margaret Wilson sold land to the city. The first burial took place the following day. In 1864 and 1875, the city made additions and improvements, perhaps influenced by a national movement to create a park-like atmosphere in cemeteries.

Side two:

In 1890, lot owners paid for construction of the iron entrance gate. Name was changed to Fairview Cemetery and ornamental archway added 1896. Some of earliest vaults date to mid-1800s. Many prominent individuals, including Indiana Governor Ashbel P. Willard, local civic leaders, and victims of an 1844 steamboat disaster are among those buried here."

Keywords

Cemetery, Politics

Annotated Text

New Albany's second city cemetery, Northern Burial Ground, was officially created July 30, 1841 when D. W. and Margaret Wilson sold land to the city.(1) The first burial took place the following day.(2) In 1864 and 1875, the city made additions and improvements, perhaps influenced by a national movement to create a park-like atmosphere in cemeteries.(3)

In 1890, lot owners paid for construction of the iron entrance gate.(4) Name was changed to Fairview Cemetery(5) and ornamental archway added 1896.(6) Some of earliest vaults date to mid-1800s.(7) Many prominent individuals, including Indiana Governor Ashbel P. Willard, local civic leaders, and victims of an 1844 steamboat disaster are among those buried here.(8)

Notes

1. Deed Record 1840-1867, O, Recorders Office, Floyd County, p. 197-98; Mrs. John Cody, "Northern Burial Ground - Fairview Cemetery, " typescript, n.d.; The Indiana Southern Counties Collection, Fairview Cemetery, Vol. I, September 1, 1852 to November 18, 1865, New Albany, Floyd County (New Albany, n.d.), 1.

2. Fairview Book # 1, Interments, 1A-4899B, 1841-1865, p. 102.

3. New Albany Daily Ledger, October 10, 1864, New Albany Daily Ledger-Standard, August 6, 1875.

4. New Albany Ledger, October 18, 1890. The Indiana Southern Counties Collection, Fairview Cemetery, Vol. III, January 1, 1881 to December 31, 1890, New Albany, Floyd County (New Albany, n.d.), 4.

5. New Albany Daily Ledger, January 7, February 4, 1896.

6. New Albany Evening Tribune, January 10, 1896.

7. New Albany Public Press, June 25, 1884; Walking Tour Guide, "Fairview, " created as part of the 2002 exhibit, "A New Way of Seeing, " Carnegie Center for Art and History.

8. Walking Tour Guide. On October 23, 1844, the steamboat Lucy Walker exploded four miles below New Albany. Fourteen of the bodies were buried in the Northern Burying Ground. Madison Courier, October 26, 1844; Fairview Cemetery Lot Book, Plats 1-2, p. 41.