City: Merritt Island   County: Brevard   Year: 2023
Location: Marine Harbor Drive

Indianola Pioneer Cemetery is the final resting place of early white settlers who carved homesteads out of the lush growth of the Florida peninsula. It was created on November 4, 1898, when Thomas H. Sanders and his wife Mary recognized that the residents of this section of Brevard County, generally known as Indianola, were urgently in need of a public place of burial or Cemetery and donated land for that purpose. Thomas and his brother William, both Civil War veterans, moved their families to Brevard County after the war and established citrus farms. The original deed referred to Evergreen Cemetery, which later became known as Indianola Cemetery. Today, the Cemetery covers 4.36 acres, and its oldest grave marker is dated seven years before the land was deeded to the community. Among the cemetery’s 328 gravesites are the original settlers of Merritt Island and their descendants. Military veterans of the Spanish-American War through the Viet Nam conflict are laid to rest along with hearty pioneer schoolteachers, farmers, and laborers who helped build communities on Merritt Island.