Sullivan Cemetery
The first cemetery of Sullivan was abandoned over forty years ago. It was located within the corporation limits. It is said that when Sullivan was platted, no provision was made for a burying ground. The first death was in the family of H. K. Wilson. It was suggested, as the only suitable place at the time, that the child be buried in broken ground southeast of town.
The site was out-lot No. 12, of the original town plat, a little less than two acres. Broad Street was on the west side, and the cemetery ran south from Harris Street.
After a quarter of a century the old ground was filled up. The location was unsatisfactory, as the town had by that time grown around it. An association was formed to locate and lay off a new cemetery, and in the spring of 1867 selected the ridge west of town on the old Hughes farm. This point, when the county seat was located at Sullivan, had been designated as the exact geographical center of the county. This fact suggested the name for the burying ground, "Center Ridge," the name which now appears carved in the stone arch of the new entrance to this beautiful God's Acre. In the southwest corner of Center Ridge, is a row of stones marking the graves of some who had first rested in the old cemetery. The bodies were removed from the old to the new cemetery, but in some cases the relatives and friends of the deceased could not be found and the town trustees bought the lots in the southwest corner of the cemetery for the graves of those who had no relatives and friends to attend to the removal.
Center Ridge occupies a high ground above Buck Creek. There are many native trees, and little artificial landscape gardening was needed to produce the quiet beauty that should adorn the home of the dead. Several years after the cemetery was laid out, rose bushes and other shrubbery were set out, and the beginning thus made has been continued. A sidewalk was built from town to the bridge over Buck Creek, and at the present time a cement walk leads to the new gateway, and a new concrete bridge will also be constructed over Buck Creek. In December, 1893, it was reported that the trustees of the cemetery association had expended between three and four thousand dollars in grading and graveling drives in the cemetery, in making lots with stoneware posts and clearing the north end of the grounds. The following year, the management of the cemetery was made more systematic, rules being made for the filling and grading of lots, planting of vines, shrubs and trees, all to be done under the supervision of the superintendent.
About 1896 twelve acres additional ground was bought, on the west side of the first plat. The cost of this new ground was $3,584.75, and the cost of surveying, fencing and planting of trees was about $250 more.
Source: A History of Sullivan County, Indiana. Closing of the first century’s history of the county and showing the growth of its people, institutions, industries and wealth. Thomas J. Wolfe, Editor. The Lewis Publishing Company, 1909, page 189-191.