There are six pioneer cemeteries in Salem Township, Delaware County: Heath, Saunders, Dale, Sharp, Sunderland, and Tabor. Of these six, only two are still active: Saunders and Sunderland. Saunders is the older of the two. The cemetery is located in the SW1/4 SE1/4 NW1/4 of Section 5 in Township 19N Range 9E. “Section 5 in Salem township was somewhat late in getting her lands into market, as the first to avail himself of these lands was Haden Makepeace, who entered the north half of the northwest quarter . . . on October 9, 1834. During 1835 purchases of public land were made by John Knoop, William Stewart, John Stewart, Jacob Saunders and Tandy Reynolds, leaving three 40 acre tracts not entered, which were taken up, two by Jonas Shoemaker and one by William Fenwick, in 1838.” (Ellis, John S. 1890. Our County: Its History and Settlement by Townships. p. 143.)
In 1839, three-year-old Maryann Fenwick was the first known burial in what was then known as Daleville Cemetery or Daleville Graveyard (although those names were never documented), and her headstone reads “1st burial in this cemetery.” Twenty-nine year old Elizabeth Ann (Pugsley) Steele, who died in 1837, was originally buried in the cemetery of the United Brethren Church in Daleville, but her remains, as well as the remains of three other individuals, were moved to Saunders Cemetery in the late 1800s. Alexander McCallister, who served in the Revolutionary War, is believed to be buried in the cemetery. There is a cenotaph remembering him, but his actual burial place in the cemetery is unknown.
According to an 1845 land map, the cemetery land appears to have been owned by John Shoemaker. At some point before 1863, Shoemaker sold the land containing the cemetery to John Saunders. On December 31, 1863, John Saunders deeded the land for the express use as a graveyard to the three original trustees: Andrew Minnick, John Shoemaker, and William Fenwick. At that point in time, the common name for the graveyard became Saunders Cemetery.
On July 5, 1910, Cary Fenwick, a son of original cemetery trustee William Fenwick , passed away. In his will, he asked to be buried in a white oak coffin made from a tree on his property that he admired. His sons felled the tree, hollowed out a section of the trunk, and placed their father in it. Twelve pallbearers were needed to transport him to his space in the “Pioneer” section of the cemetery along side other members of his family.
Local legend says that in 1920, during a particularly heavy thunder and lightening storm, nearly all of the records were destroyed in a fire at the cemetery’s secretary’s house. A few of the records from previous burials were salvaged, though, and those records are currently being rebuilt using information on the headstones in the “Pioneer” section as well as books, newspaper articles published through the years, and reports put together by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).
Alex Buxton was responsible for submitting Saunders as a historical site for an Eagle Scout project. This beautiful and historically significant cemetery lies east of Daleville, Indiana, on County Road 500 in Salem Township.
We would like to thank all those who have contributed photos and information from Saunders Cemetery to the findagrave.com web site. This information is invaluable to anyone tracing their family history. We would also like to thank Wearly Monuments, which has done a great deal of work in the cemetery over the years.