The Old Cathedral - "French and Indian" Cemetery ~ Vincennes, IN
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 40.755 W 087° 32.049
16S E 453538 N 4281318
Part of the Battle of Sackville was fought here, early citizens buiried here, peace was made here, and oath to the Americas was taken here.
Waymark Code: WM5A94
Location: Indiana, United States
Date Posted: 12/06/2008
Views: 17
History Marker Erected by: The Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin Societies of the Sons of the American Revolution.
County of Cemetery: Knox County.
Location of Cemetery: Vigo St., next to George Rogers Clark Historic Site, Vincennes.
Historic Marker Text:
THE OLD CATHEDRAL
"FRENCH AND INDIAN" CEMETERY
1750 - 1846
--- * * * ---
Contains the graves (mostly unmarked) of some 4,000 inhabitants of early Vincennes, including soldiers and patriots of the American Revolution who helped Colonel George Rogers Clark to capture nearby Fort Sackville in 1779. The cemetery marks the site of the log church where the people of Vincennes swore an oath of allegiance to the Republic of Virginia and the United States on July 20, 1778. During the siege of Fort Sackville (February 23-24, 1779), Clark's men took positions at the church and cemetery. It was at the church that Colonel Clark and the British commander, Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton, negotiated terms of surrender on February 24. The surrender of Fort Sackville occurred the next day, February 25, 1779. As a result, Hamilton's plan to crush the Revolution in the west was checked and a basis was laid for the United States to later claim the area northwest of the Ohio River, from which were eventually formed the states of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota.
The Old Cathedral and Cemetery are located in the Vincennes Historic District, which was laced on the National Register of Historical Places on December 31, 1974.
Tomb Stone Text:
REV. JEAN FRANCOIS RIVET
1757 - 1804
First Headmaster of
Jefferson Academy
Later Vincennes University
Monument Front:
Sacred to the Memory of
JEAN FRANCOIS RIVET, V.G. Born at Grosmorne, Island of Martinique, 1757. Died at Vincennes, Indiana, February, 26, 1804.
Monument Right:
"Defunctus Adhuc Loquitur": "He Being Dead Yet Speaketh."; Hebrews XI, 4 Quoted in his last will by Father Rivet.
Monument Left:
I ask that I may be buried in the midst of the people confided to me, that is, near the center of the cemetery.
Rear of Monument:
To the memory of Indiana's first public school teacher. This monument is respectfully dedicated.