aka Chapman

Green Township

Location: south side of Reformatory Road, east of SR 13

    The Cottrell name is of Norman derivation going all the way back through English history to William the Conqueror of 1066.  American family members were from Virginia, and the Hoosier patriarch, Abraham, was born in that state on June 29, 1803.  Abraham Cottrell moved  to Green Township in 1823 and settled on property between Fall and Lick creeks.  There he carved out a homestead from the untouched wilderness and operated this farm until his death April 29, 1889. 

    Abraham's father John, 1771-1855, was a veteran of the War of 1812.  John and wife Elizabeth, 1776-1863, migrated with their grown son and his family, began new lives in the Hoosier frontier, and are buried at the Cottrell.  John and Elizabeth's gravestones were unearthed during the initial phase of restoration. 

    Abraham's wife Susan Hilderbrand was also born in Virginia in 1803.  Abraham and Susan had nine children, many of whom stayed in the county and established families.  Mrs. Cottrell pre-deceased  her husband in 1882.  Abraham and Susan are buried in this private cemetery which was located near the homestead.  Among the other family members interred here are Thomas J. and William Cottrell, who were both veterans of the Civil War.

    While the Cottrell is sometimes referred to by historians as the Chapman, since there are so many Cottrells buried within the cemetery's boundaries, the Cottrell name is the more familiar and widely used.  Although not listed below, according to Cottrell family historians, the first burial was one year old Abram Cottrell who died August 10, 1840.  Seven months later another child succumbed to the hardships of frontier life: six year old Lakin Chapman died March 3, 1841, and so was the second interment of record.  The Doty, Scott, and Hunter families are also represented here.  This latter family has three soldiers from the Civil War buried at the Cottrell.  Two of the Hunter veterans lived into the early years of the 20th century and so were buried after 1900.

    This private cemetery was owned by the Cottrells until the death of Margaret Cottrell in July of 1876.  Subsequently, there was an administrator's sale of the  real estate.  A two acre plot which included the cemetery became the property of Thomas and John Doty who sold it to Charles Doty.  A succession of private owners thereafter respected the burial grounds which remained in good condition until the last decade of the 20th century.  At that point, the story of the Cottrell Cemetery took a horrific turn.

    An owner of the property at that time began using the cemetery grounds as a parking lot for cars  and heavy equipment.  Needless to say, the destruction to the grave markers was enormous, but problems at the Cottrell were only beginning.  Junk and debris were added to the abandoned machinery, and weeds, undergrowth, and small trees soon covered the area as well. 

    A surrounding line of cedars hid the destruction and misuse from the neighborhood.  If the situation was not bad enough, the land owner then decided that he needed a driveway through part of the cemetery.  With a complete disregard for the sanctity of those buried there and for their descendents, the owner took his heavy equipment and cut into the burial area, dumping earth, markers, and bones over the side of a nearby hill.  Rain and erosion then caused unearthed bones to be washed into neighbors' yards.  The neighbors alerted authorities, and the situation was brought to the attention of the township trustee, cemetery commission, and county coroner.

     Further destruction was stopped.  However, at that point, the damage was so extensive that the restoration costs were estimated at over $75,000.  The Indianapolis Star was made aware of the Cottrell's plight, and that newspaper ran two articles, complete with pictures of femurs protruding  from the earth, in the January 12th and February 4th, 1998, editions.  The Department of Natural Resources also became involved, and that state agency took charge of the exposed remains.

    The new owners of the surrounding property turned the cemetery over to the township trustee and with that legal hurdle met, restoration of the Cottrell Cemetery was begun in 1999.  For six years, the Madison County Cemetery Commission worked with  descendents, the township trustee, nearby land owners, neighbors, and the DNR toward complete restoration.  In the fall of 2005, the Cottrell Cemetery's reclamation was finalized.  The Cottrell Cemetery Restoration page contains pictures of the process, and the Cottrell Rededication page completes the story.  

The list below is partial.