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Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry has passed away after a brief battle with cancer.

Bones Found in McCullouch Park Likely Leftover from Broadway Cemetery

REBECCA GREEN
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WBOI
Before becoming a public park, McCullouch Park was the site of Broadway Cemetery from 1838 until 1860.

Human remains found in McCullouch Park during excavation of the General Electric campus will be relocated to Lindenwood Cemetery.

The bones were discovered as crews excavated a spot for construction of a temporary traffic signal and handed over to the Allen County Coroner’s office for further processing.

Credit ALLEN COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF INDIANA
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ALLEN COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF INDIANA
The Allen County Genealogical Society's attempt to superimpose the plat for Broadway Cemetery over a modern aerial image of the park.

Michael Burris, chief investigator for the coroner’s office, says they reached out to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources for next steps. First, they needed to ensure that the remains were not Native American.

Burris says the bones were likely a part of the old Broadway cemetery, which became a city park in 1886, and is now the site of McCullouch Park on Broadway.

The bones would have been buried some time between 1838 and 1860. When the cemetery ceased operations, many of the remains were moved to Lindenwood cemetery, but some were left on the original site.

Credit REBECCA GREEN / WBOI
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WBOI
Samuel Bigger, the seventh governor of Indiana, was buried in Broadway Cemetery and his grave still resides in McCullouch Park.

Burris says he suspects if they did more excavation on the site, they would find more remains like these, but they don’t intend to do so currently.

According to the Allen County Genealogical Society, Broadway Cemetery was laid out into 622 plots, with the potential for a capacity of more than 3,700 graves.

Ella Abbott is a multimedia reporter for 89.1 WBOI. She is a strong believer in the ways audio storytelling can engage an audience and create a sensory experience.