Most Southwest Indiana residents who travel I-69 north through Vanderburgh County have seen one of the most visible depictions of the need to eradicate abortion, the Cemetery of the Innocents that sits on the Durchholz family farm. Since the 90’s the Durchholz’s, extended family and friends have helped maintained this plot of sacred ground.
Right to Life spoke with Angie (Durchholz) Lasher about the history and impact the Cemetery of the Innocents has had on the community. The idea originated from Mike Fichter, former Vanderburgh County Right to Life’s Executive Director (Right to Life of Southwest Indiana’s predecessor) and Bill Butterfield were looking for a farm whose location would have the greatest visual impact. The Durchholz farm ground was the perfect spot and the family agreed.
In the early days of the Cemetery, 4,000 wooden crosses representing the number of daily abortions in the U.S. were used. The crosses were placed each year after harvest and then gathered back up and stored until they would reappear later in the year. The undertaking of this project called for a lot of extra help through the years from Mark Ikoff helping to make the grid for the crosses to be lined up, to John Lasher and Albert Sturgeon keeping the area mowed, to Chuck Wigger helping install the vinyl signs by the interstate and many more.
In 2009, the family decided to divide the crosses and donated 2,000 to a Gibson County farm owned by Sylvester and Pat Elpers, who would display the crosses on his property on Hwy 41 just south of the I-64 junction to have double the visual impact. The Durchholz’s decided to have a more permanent installation and created 2,009 crosses using PVC pipe that fit over metal rods in the ground for each cross.
Donations from the community helped to complete the project in a unique way. For each donation, a certificate containing a baby’s name was spiritually adopted and inserted into a capped compartment of the cross; and, it remains there to this day. A ceremony was held for the community with Father Chris Forler presiding to bless the field.
Tending to the Cemetery for all of these years had become part of the fabric of the Durchholz family, but Lasher says there was one time she started to have doubts about keeping the project up and made it a matter of prayer asking God if it even made a difference. Unbeknown to Lasher, a regular passerby of the Cemetery on his way from Louisville to Evansville, Wayne Carroll, a songwriter, was so moved by the Cemetery’s presence and message that he wrote a song called, “4,000 Crosses” about the experience. Carroll recorded the song and sent CD copies to Right to Life. On her daughter’s 18th birthday, Lasher received a package filled with CDs of Carroll’s song “4,000 Crosses” and the answer to her prayer! God was using the Cemetery of the Innocents to make an impact in the hearts of people who saw it, and she now held it the proof in her hands.
“The main thing I hope the Cemetery of the Innocents would accomplish is to help those who pass by start thinking about the babies and hopefully have their hearts soften,” says Lasher. “This type of project affects the whole community and helps to educate in a five second window about the effects of abortion and will possibly start conversations that change hearts within the cars that pass by.”
Right to Life of Southwest Indiana and the entire region would like to thank Angie Lasher and the entire Durchholz family for standing (and maintaining, mowing and spraying for weeds) for life in a very public way.