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Old Deaf School Burying Grounds,
Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana

Section 7, Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana. Photo taken by Amy Johnson Crow, 27 September 2004.

According to Indiana School for the Deaf, 1843-1994, Sesquicentennial: A Commemorative Yearbook (Indianapolis, IN: The Indiana School for the Deaf Alumni Association, 1994, p. 43), the Indiana School for the Deaf in Indianapolis at one time had their own burying ground for students who died at the school and were unclaimed by their families. In 1869, the school's Board of Trustees acquired a large lot in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis; the lot supposedly had room for 100 graves.

In 1870, the 16 graves at the school were moved to the lot at Crown Hill. Fifteen more students were buried there between 1871 and 1913. One student, Lissie Jones, was buried there in 1878 and moved to another plot in the cemetery in 1879. Of the 30 students buried in the Deaf School lot, only 21 have headstones.

The picture above shows all 21 headstones. It is easy to miss these burials in Section 7. Even though they are fairly close to the road, they are small and, in comparison to the surrounding tombstones, unremarkable. From left to right, the headstones are:

  1. Jas. H. Terrell
  2. Jno. McCollum
  3. Wm. Berg
  4. E. Vanderpool
  5. C. Voris
  6. Lem. Duggins
  7. Dan'l Minick
  8. Nat. Mather
  9. T. J. Chevalier
  10. Jno. W. Senior
  11. M. McLaughlin
  12. Frank Hunter
  13. Jno. H. Fisher
  14. Mary J. Rider
  15. A. J. Beeman
  16. V. Wolfington
  17. D. Mitcham
  18. Jas. Conduit
  19. Hettie Ridder
  20. James McVey
  21. Sarah M. Swaim

Click on a student's name for a close up of the tombstone and additional information.

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This site last updated 5 January 2007.