Patterson Cemetery, Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, United States
Notes:
Also known as The Plague Cemetery, Wilson Family Cemetery.
The cemetery was located at a site that is now just to the right of the main entrance of the Van Nuys Medical Center directly under the building edge, which is next to the original location of the Isaac Wilson Homestead.
This cemetery was first named the Plague Cemetery, because of the victims of the 1821 summer outbreak. It was later named the Patterson Cemetery after the Patterson family. In 1947, this cemetery was marked by a boulder and was about 100 feet directly north of the west end of the Medical Building [Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Campus] and about 100 yards due east of the State Board of Health Building. The early memorials were made of marble. There aren't any remaining markers on the site. References: "History of the Medical Campus" by Dr. Thurman B. Rice and Patterson Cemetery CR124, Marion County, Indiana @ Genealogy Society of Marion County. Location: Michigan St. 860 W.
Desription from Find A GraveHistorical Marker designates this cemetery.
Inscription
A "burying ground" established near this site in 1821 is believed to have been the first cemetery in what is now Indianapolis. It has been historically referred to as the "plague cemetery" because the first interments were people who died that year from a febrile epidemic (possibly malaria) that afflicted many residents of the area. The wife of John Maxwell, the brother of David Maxwell, M.D., one of the founding members and chairman of the trustees of Indiana University, was among those buried here. Dr. David Maxwell was the grandfather of Dr. Allison Maxwell, the first dean of the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Following construction of the medical school building, now Emerson Hall, in 1918, there were plans to alter the cemetery site. In response to concerns expressed by state historians, the dean of the School of Medicine, Charles Emerson, asked Dr. Thurman B. Rice of the Pathology Department to monitor the location while the landscape was lowered several feet. There was no evidence of any graves being disturbed. The site was marked for many years by a plain boulder.
This plaque was placed in 2005
Historical Marker Database
Latitude: 39.776, Longitude: -86.17855| Photos |  | cemetery-media\Patterson Cemetery2 |
 | cemetery-media\Patterson Cemetery3 | |
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Matches 1 to 2 of 2
Last Name, Given Name(s)  |
Burial  |
Person ID | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Barnhill, Robert Sr. | Aft 9 Sep 1821 | I6 |
| 2 | Barnhill, William | Aft 17 Aug 1821 | I15 |