Photo by Mark Kreps
From notes of Mark Kreps: There was a long drawn out mystery about the Broyles marker. For a period of time, it was thought this man was buried in Hinton Cemetery, when he actually had markers in two different cemeteries.
The mystery started when some cleanup work was being done at the Hinton Cemetery, where a temporary metal marker from Raven Funeral Home of Marion, Indiana, was found in pieces. The lettering had fallen out of the frame, but the pieces showed the name, Paul BRO, with date of birth and death. This led the researchers to believe the last name might be Broadwater or Bryan, as those were the names close to where the marker pieces were found. Eventually, more marker letters and a "Y" were found in Hinton Cemetery, which could then have been read as Paul Belroy; the name Paul Broyles was also considered. After a round of serious research, it was found that a Paul Broyles was NOT buried in the Hinton Cemetery. He was actually buried in Zion Church Cemetery, where the funeral home responsible for his burial, had used temporary metal markers from Raven Funeral Home! An unknown miscreant took the funeral home's temporary marker from Zion Cemetery to the Hinton Cemetery, where it fell to pieces or was put there in pieces, thus laying the groundwork for considerable confusion concerning the burial place of Paul Broyles. This temporary marker was still in Hinton Cemetery as late as 2004.
In an unknown year, a permanent veteran marker for Paul Broyles was set in Zion Cemetery. He then would have had two markers, one in Zion and one in Hinton. Fortunately, this mystery was finally solved by the persistent sleuthing of Mark Kreps, Cindy Welsh, and Bob Good.
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