Cemetery News Release The newly formed Henry County Cemetery Commission has planned to conduct a Cemetery Preservation Workshop, funded by the town of Dunrieth, to be held Saturday May 11th beginning at 9 am. until about 4 p.m. Cemetery Restorationist John Walters of Fayette County will conduct the workshop. Walters was hired as the state's only cemetery restoration specialist in August 1996 and his work has yielded impressive results. Walters will be demonstrating restoration techniques with a hands-on workshop located in the Dunreith Cemetery and the Dunreith Community Building. Volunteers urged to attend the workshop, then assist in an all day effort to restore stones in this cemetery. (The Dunrieth Volunteer Fire Department will be hosting a free will offering lunch, which will be hamburgers and hot dogs, with proceeds of lunch going toward their fundraising efforts to obtain a new fire truck for the Town of Dunrieth.) The Dunreith Cemetery is located adjacent to the Penn-Central Railroad tracks and US 40 (Old National Road) on the southwest edge of the town of Dunreith on section 32 of Spiceland Township, Henry County. The town was originally known as Crum’s Spring, then as Coffin’ Station. The name was changed to Dunreith in 1866 in honor of Emory Dunreith Coffin (1824-1863), a pioneer merchant of the community. The Cemetery is immediately north of a grove of trees where the old Buck Creek Christian Church once stood. The church was founded in 1838 and occupied the site until the present church (renamed Dunreith Church) was erected in 1909. Many of the individuals buried in the Dunreith Cemetery were members of the old Buck Creek Church. The Friends also had a meetinghouse in Dunreith from1867 until 1932 and no doubt several members of the old meeting are buried in the Cemetery. Since Dunreith is located along the National Road, a number of burials are of non-local origin. The first burial took place in 1834 and the last marked burial in 1939 and the last unmarked burial in about 1962. The church that is located there now is the Liberty Baptist Church. The cemetery is now in fairly good condition as it is maintained by the town, but in need of some restoration due to the deterioration of the stones. Several stones were extensively damaged January 1, 1968, at the time of the costly train wreck, explosion and fire in Dunreith. A total of 172 burials were recorded in the Dunreith Cemetery, 80 of which died before reached the age of 28. Joseph W. Abrams, Pendleton Bullen, J.A. Crickmore, Thomas J. Johnson, Dallas Lawson, and C.H.G. Moore, all veterans of the Civil War, are also buried in the Cemetery. The cemetery commission has been developed similar to those of other counties in Indiana. Donations for this cemetery, as well as others in Henry County may be made to the Henry County Auditor, Pioneer Cemetery Fund. Please specify if you wish the money to go toward a certain cemetery. At this time, all preservation projects rely on donations, and are also tax deductible. Other cemeteries that the Commission plans to focus on restoration project this year include Wisehart Cemetery and Messick Cemetery. The restoration project is part of statewide efforts to form such commissions, The Indiana Pioneer Cemeteries Restoration Project (INPCRP) and the DNR efforts to locate and restore such sites. Ulysses (Bud) Bush and Donna Tauber recently succeeded in gaining national recognition for the new commission when they were featured in a news article for the need for these cemetery restorations in The New York Times on December 24th of last year.