LAWRENCE, Indiana — A walk through Spring Valley Cemetery in Lawrence is a walking history lesson.
The cemetery was first established in 1825 — the same year the United States elected its sixth president, John Quincy Adams.
Some of the headstones are so old, they don't even have names on them.
"My family's buried here," said Mark Rhodes, a retired history teacher who spends several hours a week at the cemetery. "As you get older, you're looking for something to do with your time."
He cleans up graves at the cemetery — and not just ones belonging to his family.
"The major thing that caught my eye is the large number of veterans that we have in this cemetery whose headstones and gravesites were not being maintained correctly," Rhodes said.
Something else caught his attention — a little Irish flag someone left at a grave belonging to a man whose son helped settle the city of Lawrence.
Private William Reddick fought in the Revolutionary War.
"He was born in 1760 in Ireland. His family is Scots-Irish. He moved here in 1774," Rhodes said.
Recently, Rhodes noticed the Irish flag was gone, and the cemetery trustees had put up a handwritten sign. The sign lets visitors to know that cemetery trustees have banned foreign flags at gravesites, and visitors can only take care of graves belonging to their family.
"I'm pretty sure a lawyer will have something to say about that," Rhodes said. "Most cemeteries, the only thing they are going to ban is a Nazi flag or a Confederate flag."
The cemetery is run by trustees. The head trustee is Rhodes' cousin.
"If you're going to make a change like that as trustees, you have to present that kind of change to your donors. You cannot make these kinds of radical changes without some feedback from your community," Rhodes said.
The retired history teacher also takes exception with the policy that visitors can only tend to family graves.
"I would say 90% of this cemetery has no family coming, and if you don't have a caretaker and you don't have family coming and you don't let volunteers work, then where are you going to end up?" Rhodes asked.
Cemetery trustees say the cemetery is maintained through donations. Rhodes said he donates about $200 a year.
The head trustee didn't want to go on camera, but they told 13News the cemetery doesn't want to just assume Reddick would want to celebrate his Irish heritage because he lived during a time when that wasn't the custom.
The trustee said they'd reconsider their decision about the flag at his grave, only if one of Reddick's descendants gives the OK.
Rhodes is trying to find them.
"Every person should have the right to honor where they come from or where their family comes from," Rhodes said.
The head cemetery trustee said the cemetery doesn't have money for a legal battle, which could force the cemetery to close. If that happens, the trustee says the taxpayers of Lawrence would have to foot the bill for maintaining the cemetery.