Less than a mile away from the Porter County Regional Airport lies a piece of Porter County history that is hundreds of years old. Luther Cemetery, located within Washington Township, has grave markers and tombstones dating back to the late 1700s, and it continues to be a calm, final resting place for loved ones who have passed on.
Described as a serene, quiet cemetery, Luther Cemetery in Valparaiso began as a small family cemetery. Over the years, the family donated the land to Washington Township, and it has since become a community cemetery.
“It’s an old, gated cemetery that has that private cemetery feel,” said Kyle Newhard, Business Manager at Bartholomew Funeral Home. “It’s serene and calm, a good option if you are looking for something more out of the public eye.”
The cemetery has 337 plots stretching over about an acre, with each plot consisting of four graves. In the over 300 years it has been in operation, only about half the graves are filled today. Over the years, the cemetery has seen its fair share of damage from severe weather, overgrown plants, general neglect, or vandalism such as toppled tombstones. But when Washington Township Trustee Kim Brys came into her position in 2019, she began the process of cleaning up the cemetery and restoring it to its natural beauty.
Since 2019, the cemetery has had a new, black iron gate installed around the perimeter, and volunteers have taken to righting any toppled tombstones and cleaning any grave markers that have begun to sink into the ground, all in service to the community and in memory of the deceased.
“Kim Brys and Washington Township have done a great job of maintaining and cleaning up the cemetery since coming into office, but when it came to actually running the cemetery, they were kind of at a loss,” Newhard said. “Brys approached us and was looking for some advice, and we told her, ‘Why not let us handle it?’”
While the Township handles the mowing and upkeep of the cemetery, Bartholomew Funeral Home has taken over marking out and selling graves for the past year. However, in service to the Washington Township community, Bartholomew has ceased charging a markup on the digging of the graves at Luther Cemetery.
“We hire a company to do the digging, so we charge clients whatever the company is charging to dig that grave,” Newhard said. “We don’t charge a markup for the digging."
Much like Washington Township’s push to restore the cemetery as an act of service to the community, Bartholomew Funeral Home’s discounted rate for grave digging is simply to service the small, community-focused Township and its residents.
“In what we call the death care industry or the funeral industry, we’re all in this together,” Newhard said. “We’re a close-knit community, whether we’re a funeral home or a cemetery. If you need help with something, people in this industry are really great about helping each other out.”
“That carries over into the community,” Newhard continued. “For a lot of people, this might be one of the most difficult points in their lives, so we want to be able to help you out and make that transitional period as smooth as possible. It means a lot to us to be able to help the Washington Township community.”
Bartholomew Funeral Home offers a variety of services at Luther Cemetery, including grave marking and selling graves. For more information about its services, visit its website at www.bartholomewnewhard.com.
