It once was true that Newburgh, Indiana’s historical Black cemetery on Bell Road was lost to time. Thanks to efforts by area residents, it has reemerged as a proper burial ground.
Newburgh resident John Strange, an adjuster with Custard Insurance, happened upon the cemetery, which dates to 1855, while photographing damage to a nearby home in May 2021. With the help of late historian Kay Lant, Strange reviewed Warrick County records to uncover more information about those buried there. According to the Indiana Historical Society, Warrick County’s Black population grew after the Civil War; the 1870 federal census recorded 235 Black residents in Ohio Township. Many of the tombstones for the estimated 70 people laid to rest there were lost.
“We looked through historic records to see if we could find names,” Strange says.
Newburgh residents Virginia Aldridge and Larry and Kathy Richardson provided funding to help restore the site and Boonville, Indiana-based Jamison Monuments created two memorial markers. More than 50 of those buried on Bell Road are named, and the rest are honored as those “that time has forgotten,” the plaque says. Two stone benches were placed in time for a rededication ceremony in June 2022.
The site is maintained by the Ohio Township Trustee Office and listed on the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ Historic Preservation and Archaeology Cemetery & Burial Grounds Registry.
“It was always a cemetery,” Strange says.
BELL ROAD CEMETERY
5244 Bell Road, Newburgh, Indiana
