Snapshot of History: Tindle Cemetery

By Mike Avitt

Tindle Cemetery in Lincoln Township.

This week’s picture shows a typical family plot know as Tindle Cemetery.
The are nine known burials here with six of them having the surname of Tindle. One other was a Livingston who had a mother with the surname of Tindle. So, the folks buried here were all connected in some way.
I told last week about a family plot south of Tindle that disappeared.
The family plot appears in section 22 of Lincoln Twp. On an 1894 plat map. It does not appear on any other map known to me. But, I have one other piece of evidence that explains what happened to the “Christy” family plot.
You see, the plot was on land owned by David Christy and this sentence appears in the December 21, 1893 Ringgold Record newspaper: “The Christy Cemetery has all been moved with the exception of three bodies interred within.”
This information was published under the Polen news section of the paper. Polen was the most prominent post office in Lincoln Township. So, I got into my cemetery book to see where the Christys are buried and they are in the Clearfield Cemetery. But, what about the last three?
There is much to consider here.
Family plots are established on land owned by the family. But, what happens when a new owner comes along? Does he want to plant corn on his new property? And how common was it for the dead to be moved around?
Well, I can answer that one.
The Weekly News of February 9, 1893 says, “Several of the boys were busy last week moving the dead to the new cemetery.” That was in the Benton News column. And indeed, a new cemetery had just been established north of Benton.
The Ringgold Record of February 9, 1893 says,”Samuel West of north Benton Twp. has moved the remains of his children, who were buried in the Shay Cemetery, to the new one north of Benton.
The June 8, 1894 Twice-A-Week News says A. T. Butler has moved the bodies of his children from the Rose Hill Cemetery to the new Redding Cemetery. The paper says these are the first burials in the new cemetery.
The November 23, 1893 Weekly News says Anthony Brown was the first person buried in the new Diagonal Cemetery. Oddly, my cemetery book does not have a listing for Mr. Brown being buried that year. Okay. Back to the Christys.
There are six known burials in the Clearfield Cemetery with the surname of Christy. Three of them died within five weeks of each other, a mother and two children, in late 1881. Possibly of influenza.
I believe that is when the Christy Cemetery was established in section 22 of Lincoln Township. I also believe the Christys were moved to the Clearfield cemetery in December 1893 just as the newspaper said. The three that had not yet been moved may have been moved later. Perhaps they did not have the surname of Christy and they were not moved. But, it is safe to say there are many unmarked graves in Ringgold County.
There are only about twenty family plots, like Tindle, left in Ringgold County.
Some of those bodies got moved to organized cemeteries and some got corn planted on them.
Where were the residents of the Ringgold County Poor Farm buried? There is no cemetery there.
So, where are they?