Read time: 5 min.

Can a landmark be hidden? If so, then Washington Township’s old Hinton Schoolhouse is one of my favorites. Nestled in a tangle of trees just west of Wheeling Pike in northern Delaware County, the long-abandoned structure doubles as a gatepost to the historic Hinton Cemetery. After years of curiosity, my mom and I finally ventured to one of Delaware County’s oldest burial grounds late last year.

Hinton Cemetery’s origins are shrouded in mystery. Over the years, I’ve heard it called Hayden or Walnut Grove¹, but I suspect “Hayden” was simply a misinterpretation of “Hinton” before the name was firmly recorded on the Indiana frontier. What we do know is that by 1872, the cemetery stood on land owned by Joseph Hinton². Hinton still owned the property in 1887, two years after Calvin Moomaw granted a portion of his nearby land for Washington Township’s District 9 schoolhouse.

Hinton Cemetery’s history runs deeper than its name suggests, as burials took place here decades before the land was formally recognized as a cemetery. The oldest visible graves belong to Mathew and William Corner, members of a family whose roots stretch back across the Atlantic. 

One of five siblings to come to America in 1795, Mathew first settled in Marietta, Ohio, before moving to Washington Township in 1833⁴. Four years later, he was dead at the age of seventy-seven. His son William died the same year at the young age of twenty-two. William’s broken tombstone, now timeworn and partially buried, serves as a quiet reminder of a life cut short. 

Including the Corners, Hinton Cemetery holds the stories of about sixty-five souls with names etched in stone and memory. Among them, the Bryans stand out with twenty-seven burials, followed by seven Driscolls and five Arnolds. The cemetery’s final chapter was written in 1958 with the burial of Homer A. Driscoll, a well-known barber⁵ whose presence in life -and now in rest- marks the final interment at the cemetery.

That’s not to say others haven’t tried to call Hinton home over the years: in 1980, a local named Gordon Schlenker wrote to the newspaper in hopes of buying a lot at there⁶. Ultimately, his efforts were unsuccessful: Schlenker was buried in Washington Township’s Zion Chapel Cemetery in 2013.

Hinton Cemetery holds its share of mysteries, but none is more bizarre than the tale of John S. Smith’s gravestone. Smith died at twenty-six on June 22, 1882, but his marker didn’t stay put. A hundred-and-twenty-three years later, a Muncie resident discovered his tombstone while remodeling his newly-purchased home on Ohio Avenue⁷! 

Unsure of what to do with the misplaced headstone, the superstitious homeowner refused to sell or discard it. Instead, he set it in his front yard in hopes that someone might recognize it and return it to its rightful place. Fortunately, his gamble paid off: the tombstone caught the eye of a member of the Delaware County Historical Society’s Pioneer Cemetery Restoration Committee, which unraveled the mystery and traced the marker to Hinton⁸.

The gravestone eventually made its way back to its rightful spot, but time and damage have left their mark. Although it rests among the others today, Smith’s marker carries some unanswered question: how did it disappear? What twists of fate carried it eleven miles from its rightful place? We may never know.

One mystery I’m happy to have solved is how to find the Hidden Hinton Cemetery. Just east of the old schoolhouse that shares its name, a grassy lane marked by a quiet row of trees stretches south for about a third of a mile. Follow it, then turn left and climb the hill. Tucked within a grove of ancient trees, Hinton’s weathered tombstones stand in silent watch over the rolling landscape.

Sources Cited
1 Hinton Cemetery (n.d.) Find a Grave. Web. Retrieved February 27, 2025. 
2 Kingman Brothers. (1874). Map of Delaware County, Indiana. Chicago, IL.
3 Delaware County, Indiana. (1885 July 22). Deed Book 55. p. 381.
4 Delaware County, Indiana. (1833, June 18). Deed Book 5. p. 541.
5 Rites Being Arranged For Homer Driscoll (1958, July 22). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 2. 
6 Greene, D. (1980, January 4). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 4. 
7 William, T.J. (2003, October 28). Marker mystery solved. The Muncie Star Press. p. 3. 
8 (See footnote 6).