Pioneer cemeteries have fascinated me since childhood. Around here, most kids’ bus rides wind through cities, suburbs, or endless cornfields. Mine did too, except it also passed right by a bygone burial ground! As we got on and off the bus, we’d catch glimpses of ancient, twisted tombstones jutting out from the woods. They stirred up stories and speculation, and I longed for more information.

As a kid with a wild imagination, growing up near a real, honest-to-goodness pioneer cemetery was a dream come true! At some point, I think my Grandma told me the place was called McKinley. It’s one of thousands of historic burial sites established by early American settlers during the nation’s westward expansion. Small, tucked away, and largely forgotten, they’ve often gone decades without a new interment. Amid the overgrown paths and elderly trees, weathered markers reveal the stories of Indiana’s earliest families.

McKinley Cemetery’s story seems to start with the life and death of Samuel McKinley. Born on September 15, 1802, McKinley and his wife, Sarah, ventured to Delaware County from Ohio in 1843¹. The pair settled in Mt. Pleasant Township, but Samuel died soon afterwards at the age of forty. Sarah passed sixteen years later at fifty-two. A pioneer cemetery was born.

Records from that timeframe are incomplete, but it doesn’t appear that Samuel or Sarah McKinley were ever granted the deed to the land they were buried on². Rather, it seems that their oldest son, Alexander, took ownership of the property. It passed between siblings at least until 1874, when the McKinleys’ middle son, Robert, owned 120 acres south of what’s now Isanogel Road³. 

By 1887, Robert McKinley’s land had expanded to an impressive 254 acres⁴! His homestead stood just south of what we now call York Prairie Creek, around 1,400 feet southeast of his family’s burial grounds and roughly two football fields south of the house I grew up in. Today, the Woodland Trails, Forest Hills, and Western Hills additions take up the majority of his property.

For much of its history, McKinley Cemetery was truly secluded, with no path to guide an interested passerby to its quiet grounds. Things changed in 1955, when the first section of Forest Hills was platted⁵. Western Hills came in 1978⁶, and Woodland Trails sucked up the rest of the McKinley’s land when it was established in 1994⁷. An enormous home was built just south in 1993⁸, and its lengthy gravel driveway provides access to the cemetery today.

The gravel drive off Isanogel Road is the only way to get to McKinley Cemetery. Tucked about a tenth of a mile back, the cemetery’s markers stand in a loose, organic arrangement, all aligned towards the eastern half of the plot. Generations of McKinleys and Harrisons rest there, joined by a few scattered Stephensons, Stevensons, and Williamsons. There’s at least one Roberts and a Van Matre, too. Each name adds to the layers of history within the secluded enclave.

The oldest headstones I found belong to Samuel and Sarah McKinley. At a hundred and eighty years old, the soft, limestone markers are in rough shape now. Around 1977, an unknown benefactor replaced them with a modern granite headstone but left the originals intact. In contrast, the newest headstone I came across was that of their grandson, Samuel A. McKinley. The son of James McKinley, Samuel A. passed away in 1951 at the age of seventy-eight.

One of the most intriguing stories whispered by McKinley Cemetery is that of Axley Harrison, who married into the McKinley family. On the evening of March 28, 1875, Harrison was shot and killed while sitting near his fireplace. Suspicion fell on Albert Snell, who’d been seeing Harrison’s daughter, Sarah, despite her father’s disapproval. Snell was quickly tried and sentenced to life in prison, but his lawyers secured a retrial. The second time, Snell was declared innocent! In a twist worthy of a movie, Snell married Sarah Harrison the very next day.

Including Axley Harrison, my guess is that thirty to thirty-five of Delaware County’s earliest residents call McKinley Cemetery their final resting place. As I lingered, the distant bark of a dog and the hum of an SUV passing by gradually faded into silence. Alone, I thought of the three generations of families whose lives are woven into the story of the secluded cemetery. The names etched on its stones remind us of the history and legacy they left behind, now held in quiet memory beneath the sheltering trees.

Aside from McKinley, I know of six other burial grounds scattered across Mt. Pleasant Township. Some stand out for their larger size and intriguing headstones. Others, though, are surprisingly small, even smaller than McKinley. What stories might each of them tell? I’m eager to uncover the histories lying beneath their headstones. They’re forgotten tales that helped shape the community we see today.

Sources Cited
1 Greene, D. (1977, June 16) Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 6. 
2 Delaware County Record Image Search (n.d.). Muncie Public Library [Muncie]. 
3 Kingman, A.L. (1874). Map of Delaware County, Indiana : from recent & original surveys, made expressly for this map, drawn, compiled and published by A.L. Kingman and assistants. map, Chicago, IL; A.L. Kingman.
4 Griffing, B. N. (1887). Mt. Pleasant Township. An atlas of Delaware County, Indiana . map, Philadelphia, PA; Griffing, Gordon, & Company.
5 Harlan, W. M. (1955). Forest Hills Section A. Delaware County, Indiana [Muncie]. Plat map. 
6 Ashton, H. L. (1978). Western Hills. Delaware County, Indiana [Muncie]. Plat map. 
7 Morrison, S.R. (1994). Woodland Trails.  Delaware County, Indiana [Muncie]. Plat map. 
8 Delaware County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2021). Parcel ID: 1011300007000. Delaware County, Indiana Assessor. map, Muncie, IN.
9 (See footnote 1).
10 Axley Gilmer Harrison (1876, June 10). The Logansport Weekly Journal. p. 1.