jla_watchtower | St. Louis Cemetery - Batesville, Indiana (Reply)

Over a century ago, the fearful townspeople of Batesville formed a mob and murdered an innocent Illini woman who had the misfortune of being accused of witchcraft. With no grasp of English, she had no recourse to refute the accusations and in truth it would have mattered little if she could. The color of her skin and the ways of her people had damned her in the small intolerant minds of the town. Hurling curses and threats and brandishing weapons and fire, they had pursued the terrified girl, who was barely a woman, on their horses until they trapped her in the graveyard. There they beat her and defiled her honor and spat upon her helpless and broken body. If any heard her pleas for mercy, none chose to pay them heed. When there was little more that could be done to the poor child, they buried her alive. Her grave is still there today, it has a stone door on top of it with iron bars all around it.

Or at least it did.