Good day to you Kemo Sabe! Hope you are doing well today. Add a mug of coffee and a virtual treat and sit back while I relate an interesting tale...
If you happen to be cruising along County Road 400, in
Johnson County, Indiana, you’re bound to stumble upon one of America’s
strangest landmarks – a grave located dead in the middle of the road.
The grave apparently dates back to before Amity village
even had a paved road. In 1831, a 37-year-old woman named Nancy Kerlin
died in the area, survived by her husband and 11 children.
Keeping with
her wishes, her husband William Barnett buried her at her favorite spot
on a small hill, overlooking Sugar Creek. While road crews generally
tend to flatten out such obstructions, in this case, they made sure to
pour the asphalt around the grave. Why? Because they were terrified!
Nancy was the first to be buried in the area, but other locals soon
followed suit and a cemetery was built around her grave. Decades later,
when a National Guard training camp started moving the graves to make
way for development work, Nancy’s grandchildren weren’t happy with the
idea. After several heated arguments, the developers finally agreed to
leave Nancy’s grave intact.
But it wasn’t long before the officials realised that the grave was
going to be right in the middle of a road that they had already started
to build. So the county decided to push ahead with its plans and
demolish the grave.
That’s when Nancy’s grandson Daniel camped out near
the grave, armed with a shotgun. He simply refused to let anyone to set
foot on the mound for weeks, threatening to put a hole into any worker
foolish enough to come near it.
The county was finally forced to relent – they split the lanes right
down the middle and laid the road around the plot. In 1912, local
authorities placed a concrete slab above the grave to protect it from
being run over by reckless drivers. And in 1982, Nancy’s great, great
grandson Kenneth Blackwell placed a historical marker, probably to stop
people’s incessant questions about the grave’s odd location.
Interestingly, the site is now considered to be one of the most haunted
locations in Indiana, but also a symbol of perseverance and
determination.
R. I. P. Nancy.
See ya, eh!
Bob
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