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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.