I.  INTRODUCTION
     As shown by the first eleven chapters of this dissertation, the people of the Boonslick have held traditional beliefs since they settled the region.  Each generation conformed as closely as possible to the standards of their time.  The people were always followers, rather than innovators.  No new, major artistic style develops in the Boonslick and spreads throughout the country.  Rather, the reverse occurs with the major artistic and cultural motifs, styles and beliefs coming into the Boonslick from other regions and being assimilated into this mid-Missouri culture.

     But even though the people were not leading the vanguard of change, they did react to ideas, themes, and cultural attitudes which were presented to them, even if that presentation was far behind the vanguard of a movement.  Sometimes the people reacted negatively and sometimes they reacted positively.  What matters is that they did react and in doing so they left a record of their view of the world.

     Cemeteries exist from the days of earliest white settlement, through the westward migration period, the Victorian era, the agricultural world of the turn of the century, and the modern twentieth century.  Thus, these cemeteries can legitimately serve as a index of the region so that the Boonslick can be better understood in relation to the entire state.  The purpose of this dissertation, therefore, was to explore what did transpire in the Boonslick by using cemeteries and gravestones as a yardstick to measure how these people memorialized and commemorated their dead.  Because of the relative stability of the population, this region also offers the continuity of trends from the past carried into the twentieth century.

     This cemetery survey examined the following areas:

1.  The physical layout of the cemetery grounds

2.  Cemetery contents beside gravestones

3.  The gravestones were then assessed by the following
    criteria--
    a.  The most "typical" or common gravestone type and  style in the cemetery
    b.  An example of great artistic worth
    c.  A gravestone that was signed
    d.  A gravestone that was unique, not just to the  cemetery but to the Boonslick region

II.  UNRESOLVED ISSUES
     This survey uncovered some questions to which only provisional answers can be given.  The role of women in these cemeteries has been mentioned.  Women were assigned the role of mourning by social convention and with it the upkeep of burial places.  The local Boonville paper in the 1850's calls upon the women of the area to have a fund raiser for money for a plank road to Walnut Grove Cemetery since "they are the ones who go there weekly to tend the graves."¹  Evidently, the women did not respond and the idea died because it is not mentioned again and no plank road was constructed.  But, the inference is interesting.  The women were supposed to do the fund raising since they were the ones who used the cemetery.  However, they did not serve on any Board of Directors for any of these cemeteries.  Their role and the problems they faced in carrying out that role would be an interesting topic.

     In the same vein, mourning jewelry worn by women often appears in the Boonslick, but few people know what it actually is.  The mourning jewelry of Frances McMurry Bloom (Illustration 319) was sold at her estate auction in the fall of 1988 as regular jewelry.  An appraiser brought in to appraise this estate of an old Missouri family had excellent antique credentials and was knowledgeable in jewelry, but this jewelry eluded even his knowledge.²  The subject of mourning from a Midwestern perspective has never been explored.  It also could be the topic of an entire paper.

      Still dealing with the female role and perspective, it became quickly obvious in the course of this survey that many of the largest gravestones commemorated young matrons.  Many of these women must have died in childbirth which was the major cause of death in the nineteenth century for females.  It is tantalizing to think that guilt stricken husbands erected these large monuments in an attempt to assuage their own guilt as the contributing partner to the death.  This could be an area that would be fascinating to study further.

     After the survey was completed, the gravestones photographed and recorded were matched with the E. Maurice Bloch catalogue on the portraits done by George Caleb Bingham.  Twenty-two gravestones commemorating people he painted had been recorded in the survey, not intentionally, but because these people also had gravestones of interest.  This cultural bias toward art in all areas, reflects what?  Were these people merely interested in showing off their money?  Were they truly interested in culture?  Were they interested in "art?"  This could be another full study.  The criteria for this study was to find out what existed in the Boonslick region and to do a pioneering attempt at looking at these cemeteries from a cultural viewpoint, rather than really delving into the above questions.

     Continuing in this "arts" theme, why is it that painters appear to be on a more elite social plane than the men and the families who sculpted gravestones?  They appear on cursory examination to be viewed as "craftsmen" rather than "artists."  Why?  Or does George Caleb Bingham too often obscure the view?  Bingham, after all, was admired in the Boonslick for his political stance against Order No. 11 far more than his artistic ability.  Oral tradition in the old Southern, Boonslick families still talks about "Mister Bingham and politics," not "Mister Bingham and art."³  No other artists, such as Morrison Hughes or Lou Swann Isaacs Carson, receive the distinguished admiration of Bingham and they came from families of the same social class as he.  But they were not politically involved, they persevered with art.  It would be fascinating to follow this further.

III.  VANDALISM AND DESTRUCTION
     Vandalism ranks as the worst problem in the Boonslick cemeteries.  Yet, many of the cemeteries have intentionally destroyed the gravestones.  Most of the maintained cemeteries have removed the footstones for mowing ease.  Although this may destroy the original intent of those footstones, this could be more easily tolerated if these footstones were truly removed.  Often, they are merely thrown in a corner and not even stacked, adding a disheveled look to the cemetery.  One cemetery, Mt. Zion United Methodist Graveyard (B27) in Boone County, removed the footstones in the early 1980's and used them to pave the floors of the adjacent, outdoor toilets.  The initials were all upwardly placed so the person using the facility could guess from which graves the stones came, while being unavoidably detained in the outhouse.

     Some of the cemeteries have suffered vandalism, probably from local youths and from Halloween festivities over the years.  Walnut Grove Cemetery (C10) in Boonville in Cooper County is patrolled all Halloween night since local youths overturned several, large gravestones about five years ago on that holiday.⁴  At Locust Grove Baptist Church Graveyard (B10) in Boone County, a metal monument has been used for target practice and is riddled with bullet holes, allowing moisture inside.  Corrosion is rapidly ruining the work.

     The church cemeteries suffer from lack of funds (as discussed in the next section) and no cemetery of any type has done any conservation work on the gravestones which range from being in excellent shape to being totally illegible.  But, at least the church and municipal cemeteries attempt some sort of mowing and maintenance program of the cemetery grounds.  That is better than many of the private family and community burial grounds scattered throughout the region.  In many instances, these burial grounds contain less than six graves and the family moved away from the area decades ago.  Or, even if the family still lives in the Boonslick region, enough time has elapsed that the living descendants no longer realize they have ancestors buried in the middle of a farm.  Even more sad, if they do realize it, often they could care less.⁵

     The result is abandoned burial grounds which are left to the good nature of the farm owner to maintain.  With the large size of farming equipment, these small plots of ground are hard to avoid and are usually viewed as nuisances, rather than treasures.  Rented land (farmed by people other than the owner) suffers even more than the owner/operator farm.  In either case, often the farm owner or operator merely "forgets" to swerve one spring and that ends that cemetery.⁶  During the course of this survey, one woman took this writer and a friend to the back of her farm to see a family cemetery and the adjacent historic house.  Her husband was rather upset and upon arriving at the location the reason was obvious.  He had bulldozed it and had "forgotten" to tell his wife (it was her ancestors).⁷  As noted on the three county highway maps, the cemeteries that could not be found were invariably these private, family plots.

IV.  ENDOWMENT FUNDING
     Many cemeteries have Perpetual Funds started in the 1890's when there was a concerted push across the nation to keep these cemeteries in excellent condition when the marble gravestones began to visibly weather.  The Endowment Funds are administered by Cemetery Boards.  Unfortunately, the Board of Directors for these Boonslick cemeteries are usually filled by men who view it as a duty to serve, rather than a desired position.  Hence, they do not expend much effort.  Their fathers and grandfathers served and so these men feel compelled to serve as well.  However, one hundred years ago, the average person was in a cemetery for a funeral on a more regular basis and thus, cemeteries were in public view.  In 1989, the average person is involved in making funeral plans only 1.4 times in his/her lifetime.⁸  Death is invisible and money no longer automatically flows into the cemetery coffers as it from wills did when death was more in view.  Wills no longer automatically contain clauses with designated money for cemetery Perpetual Funds.

     The result is that the money donated over 75 years ago is not sufficient for the late twentieth century and many worthy projects cannot be done.  Also, the smaller cemeteries have difficulty finding people to mow them because of budget restraints and mowing usually takes all the perpetual funds available for the year.  Thus, the gravestones themselves, the plantings and the fences deteriorate more each year.  As the population shift continues from rural to urban, with 80% of the population now living in urban areas and 20% in rural areas with only 3% of the 20% actually being farmers, it is obvious that the human resources are lacking.⁹  Not only that, the people who have the finances to make a difference no longer live in the Boonslick region, and have no incentive to remember the cemetery in their will.  Death is so invisible that lawyers no longer mention cemeteries when people ask about charitable places to leave their money.  In 1987, even a funeral home director expressed amazement when memorial money was donated to a cemetery.  He had never heard of such a donation.¹⁰

V.  SOLUTIONS
     Given the traditional, conservative political temperament of Missouri combined with the Hancock Amendment on taxation and it is easy to see that the prognosis for any type of state funding to help in the maintenance of these cemeteries is nill.  In 1988, Democrat Betty Hearnes ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor against the incumbent, Republican governor, John Ashcroft.  Governor Ashcroft used a bill she sponsored dealing with cemetery vandalism as an example of how worthless her legislative priorities were.¹¹

     It also appears unlikely that churches and towns will do more than attempt to keep up their own cemeteries.  Therefore, several suggestions seem necessary:

1.   Remove the gravestones from family and community burial  grounds to municipal plots and record this information  in the Missouri State Historical Society and the  Missouri Archives so people doing genealogical research  will know where to look.  Accept the obvious fact that  it is better to move the gravestones and have them as  cenotaphs rather than no stones at all.  Several  Boonslick families have already done this and  cemeteries have markers with the information that these  stones have been moved there.  The best example of this  is in Bonne Femme Baptist Church Graveyard (B51) in  Boone County where a bronze plaque gives the original  location, the names and why the stones were moved to  the church.  The stones have been cleaned and restored.   Although far from the ideal solution, it is at least  workable.

2.   The Board of Directors of these cemeteries have a  large pool of senior citizens, (for example, 20% of  Howard County is over the age of 65) that could be  tapped for help.  These people know people of their  peer group who are writing wills and who no longer live  in the Boonslick.  They could make telephone calls,  write letters and solicit funds for cemetery upkeep.   Given their own advanced age, their interest in  cemeteries is rapidly increasing.  Many of them are  looking for some worthy project as well.  Each county  in the Boonslick has a Senior Citizen program that  could be tapped.  Money for conservation work and  continued maintenance is desperately needed and that  money will have to come from outside the Boonslick.   These senior citizens know where that money is located.

3.   Burial grounds are truly the last bastions of the  prairies of Missouri.  In many cases, the deceased was  buried and the grass immediately put back into  position.  Thus, these rural burial grounds offer the  best chance of finding undisturbed, prairie vegetation.   This vegetation is important because of the gene pool  it represents and the potential it contains for the  future.  In 1989, the Missouri Department of  Conservation is conducting a study on the subject and  has been for the past eight years.  One cemetery in  Cooper County has rare buffalo clover and the  Conservation Department is wanting to work with that  land.

4.   Finally, there are cemeteries which are not on any  maps.  Many of these cemeteries are African American  based.  Local genealogical associations should double  check their records to see if they have all the  cemeteries for all the ethnic groups.  If they do not,  they need to catalogue the rest.  In the course of this  survey, three African American cemeteries on the backs  of farms were discovered, but the winter road  conditions prevented driving to them.  There  probably are more.  Also, for example, at the Boonville  Correctional Center (medium security prison), there is  a graveyard to two boys who died there in the  nineteenth century when the facility was the  Reformatory School For Boys.  These boys were buried  and two plain stones placed either over or by the  graves.  The school then had about two dozen more  stones made and these were also eventually placed out  in the grave area.  Nobody now knows which are the  actual graves and which are the extra gravestones.   This needs to be noted in the local genealogical  records, rather than recording nothing because of the  uncertainty of the location.

     None of the above suggestions are ideal, but they are possible.  The alternative is to continue to do nothing and to have these places totally ruined.  Twenty years ago, the American public realized they were losing their historic architecture and that something needed to be done to halt the destruction.  In 1989, Boonslick cemeteries are in the same position as architecture in the 1960's.  Some will be destroyed no matter what happens, but some have potential.  It is up to the people who live in the Boonslick region to make this potential happen.  Time will tell, one way or the other.

ENDNOTES

   ¹Quotation by S. W. Ravenel in 1881 from an earlier 1850's newspaper article, in the Walnut Grove Cemetery Archives located in Walnut Grove Cemetery (C10) in Boonville, Missouri.

   ^2Interview with Sarah Borg of Fayette, Missouri, conducted September 26, 1988.  A close family of the Blooms, she helped the Bloom family prepare for the estate sale.

   ³Interview with Betty Crigler Geiger conducted on April 20, 1980.  Mrs. Geiger is a descendant of Lewis Crigler whose gravestone in the Fayette Cemetery (H64) contains signatures of both the sculptor and the owner of the company who sold the gravestone.

   ⁴Interview with John Hulbert, Walnut Grove Cemetery superintendent in Boonville, Missouri, conducted in early October 1982.

   ⁵Interview with Virginia Weiker who has undertaken the upkeep of her husband's ancestral burial grounds much against his wishes.  Located in Howard County, the burial grounds are on the farm owned and occupied by the Weiker family, but Mr. Weiker refuses to participate.  The interview was conducted in the spring of 1980.

   ⁶Interview with Lewis Tanner of Centralia, Missouri, concerning a tombstone formerly located on the adjoining farm.  The tombstone was destroyed as described in 1985.

   ⁷Information from the Helen Shrout family of Bunceton, Missouri.

   ⁸Interview with Julie Thacher, owner of Thacher-Woods Funeral Home in Boonville, Missouri, conducted on January 10, 1989.

   ⁹Population statistics available from the mid-Missouri Census Bureau, located at Parkade Plaza in Columbia, Missouri.

   ¹⁰Interview with funeral home director when discussing preparations for the funeral of Paul Rhodes Mossholder, on November 14, 1987.

   ¹¹Article from Boonville Daily News, October 5, 1988.

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