02-10-14 Council Agenda & Packet

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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NIPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024 -0018 South Bend City Cemetery St. Joseph, Indiana Name of Property County and State Race in the City Cemetery be built of stone instead of iron, with the materials to be obtained at home. The request noted that the stone bridge would cost no more than that made of iron and could be built of boulders in rough masonry would last for ages and covered with trailing vines would look picturesque and beautiful. The note appears to be typed by Clement Studebaker and includes twenty five additional citizen signatures. As requested in the letter, the bridge was constructed with walls of rough field stone. When the Race within the City Cemetery was filled in with earth in the 1930s, the bridge was left intact. Like Alexis Coquillard, Lathrop M. Taylor played an integral role in the formation of South Bend. He was born on July 1", 1805 and a native of Clinton New York. Taylor relocated in 1827 for the fur trade and with the help of the Pottawatomies, whose friendship he quickly gained, cleared a place in the woods for his trading post. There, he established a profitable business and soon became a postmaster. Along with Coquillard, he is considered a founder of South Bend as well as City Cemetery, and held some of the first official political offices. He was also a colonel in Blackhawk Ward in 1832. He died in 1887 and is buried in the original plat. City Cemetery is unique in being one of the few non - segregated cemeteries of it's time. The 1816 Indiana Constitution banned slavery and included a clause that further prohibited, even by amendment, the possibility that said clause ever be repealed. Despite this victory for abolitionists, Indiana was hardly welcoming to African Americans. A Constitution - ordered constitutional referendum in 1851 lead to the rewriting and amending many items and issues concerning civil rights. In the context of social justice, the 1851 Constitutional ban on the immigration of African Americans into Indiana was the harshest. Those who lobbied for the ban argued that southern states (a full decade before the Civil War) were responsible for the condition of African Americans and therefore should also be responsible for their welfare. This was seen as a "punishment" to the southern states and a protest of the heinous practice of slavery. Arguably, the policy punished free African Americans and escaped slaves to a much greater degree. Heavy fines were levied against those that did immigrate to the state whether from within or outside the United States. Despite this ban and unquestionably discriminatory attitude towards African Americans, South Bend City Cemetery did not segregate or disrespect the memory of African American members of the community. In fact, there was no segregation whatsoever based on race, religion or cause of death (suicides often being relegated to separate sections). Members of South Bend's founding African - American families, the Farrow's, Powell's and Bryant's are buried throughout the cemetery, without bias or sequestering in any particular location. Paupers were given a final resting place in City Cemetery in a section located immediately to the left of the front gate down a drive that heads west. It is located between that drive and the cast iron fence. The evidence of the tolerance and acceptance afforded South Benders in death is not to be understated. Unlike the segregated cemeteries throughout Indiana, in death, South Benders could expect the dignity and inclusion that eluded most while living. In 1935, a project was submitted to the Works Progress Administration to assist with beautification of City Cemetery. While the project was never completed, efforts for the beautification never ceased. In year, the W.P.A. filled in the canal bed and it is speculated that in the mid 1950's, slot machines confiscated by police were destroyed and used as fill in canal bed. Section 8 page 15