A cemetery moved across the county? It happened here in June 2006.

The German Catholic Homestead Association purchased over 25,000 acres of land in Lawrence County in the years following the Civil War. Their goal was to establish Catholic churches in Lawrence County by encouraging recent German immigrants to resettle here on 160-acre farm tracts.

Although most of this land was located in the southern part of the county, large sections were also located in other parts of the county, including an area just north of Lawrenceburg, which is still known today as the German Addition to the city (a section of land that is bounded on the south by West Gaines Street, on the west by Buffalo Road, on the north by May Street and on the east by Mahr Avenue), and in the western part of the county, in present-day Deerfield.

The GCHA settlement in Deerfield–known as Holy Trinity Parish–was created in 1873. Its church was a rough-hewn log structure that was served by priests from Lawrenceburg, and it included a four-acre cemetery known as Holy Faith, established in 1877. Today, the church is long-gone, as are the cross-shaped wooden markers which stood over the graves of its parishioners, which were destroyed by a brush fire in the mid-20th century.

In the summer of 2006, to make way for the widening of Highway 64, Holy Faith cemetery was excavated by the Cumberland Research Group, Inc. at the request of the Diocese of Nashville. I took this photo of the excavation that summer. According to the report written by the archaeologists, the “original site consisted of nineteen interments oriented in two rows and three clusters of burial locations.” The cemetery was around 3,400 square feet in size. All but two of the burials were oriented east-west.

Although few skeletal remains still existed at the time of the excavation, several personal items were found, including a number of crucifixes, rosary beads, necklace beads, buttons, hair combs, and a leather vest.

All remains and artifacts recovered from the cemetery were respectfully re-interred in a section of Calvary Cemetery in Lawrenceburg.