Cold Friday/Greenbrier Cemetery

Photo by: Tim Bindner

This morning I began work on my second book. This one will take much longer and involve more hiking and research, but I am up for the challenge.

The goal of the project is simple. There are 14 cemeteries within the property limits of Harrison-Crawford State Forest, O’Bannon Woods State Park, or within proximity of these two areas. I plan to hike to each location, take a few photographs, and then using the Frederick Porter Griffin Center (a local genealogy center), knowledge from a local Cemetery restoration team, and tidbits from the staff at the Forest and Park to gather information to add to my book.

I headed down Cold Friday Road at 7:55am. The temperature gauge on my car read 27 degrees, but the sun was peeking over the horizon and I could feel the warmth through my window. I arrived at the gate, unloaded my backpack, grabbed my camera, hiking stick, took one last look at the map and off I went. The gate was shut and locked, so I slid around it and headed up the gravel road. My first stop was Cold Friday Cemetery. It was only about 100 yards away.

Upon researching this location, I went to findagrave.com, typed in Cold Friday Cemetery, and the website listed there were 22 people buried on site. The research I did at the genealogy center shows only 17.

Depending on the source, per the website, the oldest person there is John H. Long born in 1825 and died in 1902, the genealogy center has Maximin Pate born 1836 and died 1915 as the oldest. Unfortunately, I could not locate either headstone.

Photo by: Tim Bindner

Cold Friday Cemetery (N38°09.374 W86°15.724) also known as New Bethel Cemetery has a wooden rail facing the road with a sign held up by two wooden poles as the entrance. Both sides and the back of the cemetery are bordered by thick forest, and the grass and bushes are overgrown, often hiding the stones. I estimate the lot size is about ¼ acre in all.

Cold Friday Cemetery has an “infant daughter” born and died on the same day in 1906, and a few husbands and wives buried in proximity.

I left the cemetery and headed uphill along the road. I had never been to this next place and wondered how long the road I was on would take for me to get there. I soon reached a three-way intersection of the horse trail, the road I was on, and another road. I took a right and within minutes I saw some graves off to my right.

Photo by: Tim Bindner

Greenbrier Cemetery (N38°09.061 W86°15.545) also once referred to as Old Cold Friday Cemetery is larger than Cold Friday Cemetery and has many more stones. Again findagrave.com lists 82 plots and the genealogy center states 64. Per the website and genealogy center, the oldest is Julius Swan, born in 1806 and died in 1864. Again, I could not find this stone either.

Greenbrier Cemetery has a military resident named C.W. Nobel from the 81st Indiana Infantry. There are many husbands, wives and children buried here and in one unfortunate case an “infant son” born and died in 1894 on the same day.

This cemetery is bordered by forests on three sides and a road on the fourth where the entrance is. It has primitive log rail, marking its boarders. Many of the markers are unreadable and covered with a thick bed of fallen leaves. On over one occasion, as I maneuvered to read a large marker, I stepped on a smaller one buried under leaves. Thankfully, I didn’t damage any and after doing this twice; I used my hiking stick to ensure where I stepped was dirt, not a gravestone.

Greenbrier and Cold Friday were extensively vandalized in late August 2017. Property staff and the Harrison County Cemetery Restoration team volunteers repaired damage in September of that year.

I spent some time in both cemeteries today. I was alone. It was very peaceful. I thought about how these locations were chosen, how entire families were born, lived and died, well before my parents and grandparents were born. I wondered who is still alive today in their families, and if I am related to any of them. So many thoughts and questions I can never answer.

I paid my respects, lost a bit of time trying to read the various stones, then left and hiked another mile back to the car.

I have 12 more to go to, and this project will be a challenge but one I look forward to. I have always been a fan of both history and research, but not just reading the facts in books. I like to see history, and today and moving forward I will.

Until next time,

Tim (Kilmer)