SUGARCREEK TOWNSHIP — People are outraged at what their trustees are doing with a centuries-old burial site.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
TRENDING STORIES
- Work begins to identify human remains found while renovating porch in Greene Co.
- Large search following reported plane crash goes unfounded in Montgomery County
- 2 local elementary schools to close after this school year
As reported on News Center 7 at 6, the housing development on Feedwire Road in Sugarcreek Township is set to host 80 lots, but residents are upset at what their trustees decided to do with a nearby burial site.
“I feel that people are outraged,” Jodi Puterbaugh, a Sugarcreek Twp resident, said.
Puterbaugh found out about bodies being moved from Huston Cemetery.
She said she’s just one of the many upset residents.
“I am just a firm believer that sometimes, even though you can, it’s just maybe ethically not okay,” she said.
The cemetery has one headstone, but the township said it houses eight bodies, which date back to the early 1800s.
Less than 100 feet over is Feedwire Farms, a housing development that has been in the works for about two years.
Puterbaugh references a public hearing with township trustees in December 2023.
“I was at a meeting and they assured the community that they would preserve that,” she said.
Less than a year later, in September 2024, minutes from a different meeting show a decision to relocate Huston Cemetery a half a mile down the road to Fallis Pioneer Cemetery.
Township Trustee Fred Carmer explained what happened.
“Unfortunately, as construction started, the county engineer said, ‘ooh, we have to have a right of way in case we have to have a road improvement because of the development. So we’re going to have to have more land, and the cemetery has got to be moved, whether you develop on it or not,’” Cramer said.
He said the owner of the land, and any family related to those buried at Huston Cemetery, have signed off on moving the bodies.
He added that Fallis Pioneer Cemetery was chosen because there are no active burials and the township maintains the land.
[SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2025 Cox Media Group
