Nancy Barnett - Otis Gibbs

They say they buried Nancy Barnett

Up above the banks of Sugar Creek

Since she always loved the hillside

It became her final resting place

For forty years her grave sat silent

‘Til a brand new road was being laid

The workers came to Johnson County

To build a bridge across the creek

With orders that the grave

Would be dug up and taken away

Carried far from the hillside

Overlooking the banks of Sugar Creek

A man who claimed to be her grandson

Stepped up and fired a warning shot

And he vowed to kill the first man

Who tried to move the family plot

He stood for weeks beside her headstone

And guarded her grave both night and day

The workers tried to persuade him

But he refused to be driven away

He said, «I'm a peaceful man

But if you touch my grandma’s grave

Your blood will flow down the hillside

All across the banks of Sugar Creek»

Today the cars are passing

On a winding road heading out of town

Peaceful Indiana byway

County Road 400 heading South

That’s where the lanes divide

And in the middle stands a grave

Still protected on the hillside

Overlooking the banks of Sugar Creek

They had to build the road around her

Overlooking the banks of Sugar Creek