Sharp Cemetery has fallen. Perched high above Bell Creek, vandals have shattered, splattered, and buried nearly every marker there. Still, a tender reminder of humanity endures by way of Baby Rinker’s modest grave. Situated in a remote corner of the cemetery, it offers a glimpse of the care and love that once filled the godforsaken place.
I first wrote about Sharp Cemetery a few weeks ago. Growing up, my friends called it “The Witches’ Circle” since legend has it that one was buried just outside the cemetery’s bounds1. In 2008, a former Salem Township trustee shared that officials once found pentagrams there2! I’m positive those eerie discoveries were the work of troublemakers instead of supernatural forces, but Sharp Cemetery’s macabre reputation stuck.
The real story behind the burial ground is typical of a pioneer cemetery. The land it sits on was first part of a grant from President John Quincy Adams in the late 1820s3. Edward Sharp appears to have settled nearby in 1831. What started as a small family plot on the knoll slowly grew as more people were laid to rest4. By 1874, the cemetery occupied land owned by J.P. Sharp5. Thirteen years later, it expanded to span properties belonging to Allen White and Sanford H. Bowers6.
Burials filled Sharp’s quiet corners as the cemetery expanded into the twentieth century. Among them was Baby Rinker, who passed away in 1903. The infant son of Charles Benton Rinker and Rosa Belle Watkins, he was laid to rest in a secluded section of the grounds untouched by the vandalism that has marred so many other graves. Baby Rinker’s pink granite headstone has not only endured the passage of time, but it’s also become an unexpected shrine: visitors have left small tributes -markers, sunglasses, toy cars, and even an Easter egg.
The gifts left at Baby Rinker’s resting place are a touching gesture towards a life too brief to leave its own story. They’re also a reminder that not all of Sharp Cemetery has been destroyed just yet. Gifts for Baby Rinker are more than just acts of remembrance; they’re a testament to the human need to connect.
Baby Rinker’s unblemished corner of Sharp Cemetery tells a story far bigger than the sum of his brief life or the cemetery’s ruined gravestones. Amid the damage and vandalism that define the burial ground, his grave serves as proof that care, respect, and remembrance can endure even in the face of overwhelming destruction.
Sources Cited
1 Towns, E. (1997, October 2). Grave stories. The Muncie Star. p. 26.
2 Carlson, J. (2008, October 26). Legend Has it…The Muncie Star Press. p. 43.
3 (See footnote 1).
4 Greene, D. (Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 4.
5 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.
6 Griffing, B. N. (1887). Mt. Pleasant Township. An atlas of Delaware County, Indiana . map, Philadelphia, PA; Griffing, Gordon, & Company.
