History of Bailly CemeteryHistorical Information Regarding of Bailly Cemetery . . . .
The Bailly Cemetery is located approximately three-quarters of a mile north of
the Joseph Bailly Homestead in Westchester Township, at the base of a sand
ridge in the center of the northeast quarter of Section 27. It is the oldest
white burial ground in Porter County [click
here for an enumeration of Bailly Cemetery burials]. It has been recorded that Joseph Bailly buried his son,
Napoleon B. "Robert" Bailly, here in
1827. It has also been recorded that Native Americans first used the site for
the burial of their dead. Though skeletons have been uncovered at the cemetery
site on numerous occasions, they have always been reburied without a
determination of their race. Hence, it has not been conclusively determined
whether the Bailly Cemetery was originally a sacred Indian burial ground.
The following three detailed reports have been published regarding Bailly
Cemetery, all of which have been fully transcribed (to access transcribed
reports, click links):
Clemenson, A. Berle, Kenneth W.
Bennett, and Catherine H.
Blee. 1976.
Historic Structure Report, Bailly Cemetery:
Historical, Architectural, and Archeological Data, Indiana
Dunes
National Lakeshore, Indiana. United States Department
of the Interior, National Park
Service, Historic Preservation
Division. Denver, Colorado: United
States Department of the
Interior. 85 p.
Stephens, Theodore. 1956.
Bailly Cemetery - Roman Style.
Duneland Historical Society,
Living Biographies 2(4):1-6.
Sullivan, James R. 1958.
Historic
Site Survey: The Bailly
Homestead, Porter County, Indiana.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
United States Department of the
Interior, National Parks
Service, Region Five. 40 p.
Bailly Cemetery historical transcriptions prepared by Steven R. Shook