County historian Randy Harter and local documentarian Dan Baker have just published a book titled Lindenwood Cemetery: Fort Wayne.
Lindenwood Cemetery was founded in July 1859, and opened to the public on May 30, 1860.
With more than 72,000 interments and 175 acres of land, Lindenwood Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in Indiana. Almost all the founding fathers of Fort Wayne rest in our cemetery.
One unique feature at Lindenwood Cemetery is that it serves as the final resting place for hundreds of Civil War veterans.
The Union Army was composed of 2.8 million soldiers and more than 4,000 were from Allen County, Indiana.
The cemetery features a plaque given in gratitude for the Allen County Union Army personnel in the Civil War and also honors the last survivor of the Allen County soldiers.
Here the authors discuss the history behind this distinguished landmark with WBOI’s Julia Meek, the role of “garden cemeteries” in the 19th century and some of Lindenwood’s most notable occupants.
Find information on buying local to benefit Lindenwood Historical Foundation Endowment Fund at the cemetery's Facebook page.
Find more information and purchase books online here.
Here is a transcript of our conversation:
Julia Meek: Randy Harter, Dan Baker, welcome.
Dan Baker: Hello.
Randy Harter: Thank you.
Julia Meek: Congratulations on your new read. And now, before we dive into that, you two published Fort Wayne Through Time in 2018 Briefly, how did all that come about?
Randy Harter: I had already done two books, and the publisher offered me that title to do, and as it happens, Bill Brown, who was running the DID, and I are high school friends, and I was mentioning to him that I needed to find a photographer to do this book.
And he recommended Dan because Dan had done some photography work downtown for a DID contest. So, I called Dan, and we met for breakfast the next morning, and we were off and running.
Julia Meek: And that is Downtown Improvement District. How did you feel, Dan, when the two of you did meet up?
Dan Baker: It was a little overwhelming. He pulled out his list of all of his accomplishments and his books, and I didn't really have much to show him, except the photos I had taken, but he threw me a bone, and off we went.
Julia Meek: Sounds like perfect timing and a perfect matchup for the both of you. And now, after that, what was it about each other's passion that made you want to do more, as in the second book?
Randy Harter: Well, I think the first book we did together was very stressful, and it took a long time to do.
But we had such a good time at the same time that I kind of was looking around for another opportunity to work with Dan.
Julia Meek: Well, that speaks highly of you, Dan. And exactly then what prompted this new adventure through Lindenwood Cemetery?
Dan Baker: Well, Lindenwood has always been a fascinating place for me, and Randy asked me out for lunch, and he goes, hey, what do you think about doing a book?
And I'm like, okay, because I figured Fort Wayne Through Time was one and done, and that's what we always joked about. I asked him about what it would be about, and he said, oh, Lindenwood.
And right there, and I mean, my interest was piqued. It's something I wanted to do.
Julia Meek: He hooked you, and you were familiar then with the site and its meaning and its scope?
Dan Baker: Yeah, I've walked the grounds and photographed it for years.
Julia Meek: So, dying is a necessary stage of life. And Fort Wayne has over 40 respected cemeteries, large and small.
Why did Lindenwood call your name Randy, and how did it differ from the rest of those cemeteries?
Randy Harter: Well, it certainly wasn't Fort Wayne's first cemetery. The first cemetery was actually attached to Anthony Wayne's Fort down on Berry Street.
But it's the most historic cemetery, and it's such a beautiful place that it's hard not to love it.
Dan Baker: Yeah, I agree. I like it because a lot of the other cemeteries are based on your Lutheran Catholic, whatnot.
In this place, it doesn't matter, you know. Lindenwood, it takes everybody. [all laugh]
Julia Meek: Everybody's welcome.
Dan Baker: Everybody, everyone's welcome! [all chuckle]
Randy Harter: Anybody that can write the check.
Julia Meek: There's another good point. Now, your approach, both of your volumes are very clever and compelling.
How and why did you come up with this particular format covering the custom and the site itself and its residents?
Randy Harter: Dan and I thought rather than featuring images of the people who were interred there that it will be a lot more interesting to show the variety and styles and types of headstones that are out there, because they cover such a large gamut.
So that's where we launched off at.
Julia Meek: The picture is worth 1000 words, of course, but then pictures of the headstones of these amazing people gives you a whole second story.
Now, okay, how many are interred there?
Dan Baker: 74,442 as of October, when we went to publish.
Julia Meek: And how many unmarked graves are there?
Randy Harter: There's actually over 10,000 of the 74,000 that are unmarked graves, which was amazing to me. And sadly, some people who have really been impactful to Fort Wayne, and a couple examples are Charles "Smokey" Montgomery, is an unmarked grave.
Al Stiles, who had the Talent Factory, is in an unmarked grave, and I'll tell you, that's a darn shame. Now, there's a number of reasons, either families did not have money or they didn't have families.
And in some cases it's because through the years people were moved from other cemeteries to Lindenwood when the other ones closed that preceded those, and there was nobody to buy headstones.
Julia Meek: In the meantime, those noted and named, that's quite a lot. It's a big, big number.
And your book features images of 150 of those grave sites, along with the profiles of those interred. So, out of all of those residents, how did you arrive at only 150?
Dan Baker: Well, some of them I think we knew we had to include them in the book, but there were a lot of folks out there that may not have had their due, so to speak.
Maybe they weren't a big business owner or something of that effect, but they had their own contributions they had made. So we wanted to try to include as many people like that as well.
Randy Harter: I agree with Dan. We tried to be inclusive. The book only would hold 150 images, but there was a number of people that we felt we needed to recognize anyway.
So, in the back, we put in an "In memoriam" section where we listed another 75 people that we just felt they needed to be mentioned.
Julia Meek: That's thoughtful.
Randy Harter: But we went through 1000s [chuckles]of looking at obituaries and trying to determine, okay, should we use this one or not.
It was very subjective, and everybody, anybody who would do this book, would have a different list.
Julia Meek: It sounds like you had one that worked for you, and you worked well with it. Now I am curious, after 167 years in the business, how many years before Lindenwood fills up?
Dan Baker: I came across a newspaper article from, want to say, like 1985 or something. They figured 200 years from that point.
But you know there's a lot of different factors that we have now that they didn't have then.
And you know, cremation is a big force now, and a lot of people aren't burying them. They keep them with them in their homes.
Julia Meek: Customs change.
Dan Baker: Customs change. Yeah.
Randy Harter: Well, and in case people think they can't still be at Lindenwood if they're cremated, they have columbariums out there where essentially, it's niches that a vase with ashes fits into.
Julia Meek: So that's already covered in the history, and going forward there at Lindenwood, that's impressive.
Now, a word on the concept: garden cemeteries, and Fort Wayne's early edition of this one. What are they, and what did it mean to this city?
Dan Baker: The garden cemetery, or the rural cemetery, it was a movement that started in the early 19th century, and basically it stemmed from a problem with a lot of the cities, especially out East.
Graveyards were small, very utilitarian, they maximized the space, they're adjacent to churches. And it worked when the populations were smaller.
But with industrial revolution it drew people from the countryside and immigrants from overseas, and the cities grew. And they surrounded these graveyards, and they could not keep up with the capacity.
And as they were, the conditions out there got pretty deplorable, burying on top of each other, and things like that.
So, the rural cemetery was an answer to that.
Julia Meek: Above and beyond that, though, it's park-like nature, it's social side of it.
Dan Baker: Absolutely, yeah. It was a change in thinking, it was the draw, bring people out, so they weren't afraid of death. It brought you in with nature.
Randy Harter: Yeah. And I would say prior to Lindenwood opening, the city cemetery was where McCulloch Park is today.
And so it was filling up or almost full, and so once the Lindenwood Cemetery opened, those folks there were moved out to Lindenwood.
And the McCulloch family purchased the ground and gave it to the city as a park.
Julia Meek: Then that's another bit of history you have just shared, and what a wonderful story Fort Wayne has with the social side of things.
Also being that early on in the scene with that kind of a cemetery. What does that say about our city's progress?
Randy Harter: I think it's a wonderful thing.
When the idea for the Lindenwood Cemetery came about, 12 of the leading citizens in the city put forth the money to buy the property and to get started with cleaning it up and putting a fence around parts of it.
So, it was a real civic endeavor that people bought into.
Julia Meek: It's obviously still working and is effective now.
Randy Harter: Yes. Absolutely.
Julia Meek: Okay, so let's resume your own treasure hunt with a word on the thoughtful amenities and that garden architecture, because you were writing your book, photographing the book.
We've got these sites, we've got the social requirements and the social amenities that we go with it. What else do we see there? And why do we see it?
Dan Baker: When you're out there, you see the remains of sunken gardens that Henry Doswell was responsible for installing around 1918.
And I still remember it took him about 20 years or so to do. You have winding paths, you have the garden mausoleums, the big structures.
Randy Harter: You have beautiful, mature trees that are approaching 200 years old, which just adds a whole bucolic, majestic feeling to this cemetery.
Julia Meek: A slice of a different time, in a way.
Randy Harter: Yes.
Julia Meek: Not that time stands still, but it certainly seems well preserved?
Dan Baker: Yes.
Julia Meek: Is it a comfort? As you were working through there, you spent a lot of hours and days doing all of this, not only the research, but the walking through it. Do you feel it all?
Dan Baker: Um, yeah, I, you know, you can't help but feel overwhelmed by the nature there, and by many of the monuments, some of them are pretty impressive to see.
Julia Meek: And photograph, looking at our own.
Dan Baker: And photograph.
Randy Harter: And some of them are a little sad too.
The one that sticks out most for me was a shared headstone of two young girls that drowned in the 1913 flood when their rowboat leaving the orphans' home out by Foster Park, tipped over.
What a sad, what a sad thing. Four girls died, but two of them share a common grave and headstone out at Lindenwood, and that's...you can get emotional standing there looking at.
Julia Meek: Of course, and bittersweetness abounds at any cemetery ground, but yes, the sweetness at Lindenwood is all shown nicely in this volume that you two put together.
And now the crematory, back to that. Why is that significant?
Dan Baker: Well, the crematory out there is significant because it was the first one constructed in Indiana, which is of itself pretty impressive.
But for Fort Wayne that was big time for back then. Cremation, it's nothing new. It wasn't a 19th century phenomenon, right?
But I think I saw the other day of, like, the first cremation was like 100,000 years ago or something.
So, so what happened, you know, with the rise of Christianity and whole-body resurrection that pushed it out in the mainstream.
So, you had this resurgence, which is impressive in itself, because mostly it was big cities that were pushing this stuff, like Chicago or Detroit or Cincinnati, and here's Fort Wayne.
And it took three guys, three men, five years to convince the Lindenwood Cemetery Association that, hey, you know, if we do this, it gives us a little prestige.
And so finally it passed, and they got it built in three months or something.
Julia Meek: Very progressive, economic thoughtfulness, if you will.
Dan Baker: Yes, yeah.
Randy Harter: Like the Gate House, the building that the crematorium was in was designed by William Mahurin, and is still in wonderful condition today, because the cemetery realizes the importance of the structure.
Now the crematory opened in 1895. It was two years before the first cremation, but prior to that, so that people could see what a cremation looked like, they cremated a whole sheep that people could then look at what the remains, which is essentially dust, was left over.
Julia Meek: Interesting, interesting example.
Dan Baker: Yeah, it was quite the crowd pleaser. [All laugh]
Julia Meek: Now you are both rabid history nerds with senses of humor, we're learning by now, and you had a lot of knowledge going into this project.
Even so, or maybe "especially so," any surprises along the way?
Randy Harter: For me, it was the sheer number of people interred there, as Dan said, earlier over 74,000.
And then further surprising was, is that over 10,000 are in unmarked graves.
Who would have thought that? I mean, Lindenwood knows what is under each patch of grass, but you and I don't.
And another thing that was kind of interesting, you always hear the term he's six foot under. Well, Indiana passed laws that a hole dug deeper than five foot has to have bracing, so that it doesn't cave in.
So now you're only five feet under. [all laugh] you don't dig the holes any deeper than that anymore. You could almost reach down and touch them.
Julia Meek: What about the broader topic of death itself? It's there, it's the reason Lindenwood is there. Any surprises in that way?
Dan Baker: No, I look at it as a billion people have gone before me, and a billion people gonna come after me, and whatever, I don't worry about it too much. Legacy.
Randy Harter: Uh, I don't, I don't dwell on it. I think, well, the two books that Dan and I have done together is probably part of our legacy.
And people will be picking them up and referring to them long after we're gone. And that wasn't the purpose for doing the books, but it just happens to be one of the results.
Julia Meek: Quite a result, I would say. And we must ask, while we have you here, what lore and legend, just perhaps, ghost stories, have you managed to unearth in all of this?
Dan Baker: Well, I don't know how many trips I took out there, about 30 for the book itself, and I didn't see any ghosts, but I did find a bunch of people dying to be in my book, so... [all laugh]
Julia Meek: Now I see why the two of you are such good writing mates too, and you just started another legend for the future, thank you for that.
Randy Harter: I would like to say a shout out, I guess, to Lindenwood Cemetery, because the general manager there, Amber Gonzalez, is just a wonderful woman, and let us have access to their records and space to sit down and pencil things out.
And the crematorium, even though it's closed, to go down there and look around to get a feel for how all that worked. They were very generous to us, very nice.
Julia Meek: That's wonderful. And that story needs to be shared, so, thank you for doing it in this way.
And now, carry this forward, please. Is there more to be learned, told, shared on this amazing build history by the two of you?
Randy Harter: I'm not sure that we're going to take it any further, but I hope somebody does someday.
Because 150 people showcased and profiled isn't even scratching the surface of all the wonderful humans that are out there.
Julia Meek: To be learned and loved.
Randy Harter: Yeah.
Julia Meek: And in fact, and this is the last question, will we, or our successors anyway, see either of you two buried at Lindenwood?
Randy Harter: I think I've got a good shot at immortality myself. [all laugh]
Julia Meek: You would, but yes? [all laugh]
Randy Harter: But I haven't decided if I'm going to end up on West Main Street or not. [chuckles]
Dan Baker: I don't know if I could be his neighbor for eternity. [all laugh]
Julia Meek: County Historian Randy Harter and documentarian Dan Baker are authors of Lindenwood Cemetery: Fort Wayne. Thanks for sharing this story of your notable adventure. Very well done, guys. Carry it on.
Randy Harter
Thank you so much, Julia.
Dan Baker
Thank you, Julia.
