Memorial to Alexander Buckner

May 27 is Memorial Day, a time to remember the men and women who have died in the service of the United States of America.

Many have expanded that  observance to include remembering all who have died, taking the opportunity to visit cemeteries and clean and decorate the graves of their loved ones.

Although the occasion wasn't Memorial Day, I thought this photo embodied much of the holiday's spirit.

In August 1967, master Masons and others of Cape Girardeau and Indiana placed a memorial Masonic emblem on the grave of Senator Alexander Buckner in Old Lorimier Cemetery, as a tribute to his work in Masonry and especially in helping found the fraternity in Indiana. At left in the above photo, Alton Bray, worshipful master of Cape Girardeau's St. Mark's Lodge, looked on as Paul F. Sitze, district deputy grand master, and Dwight L. Smith of Indianapolis, Ind., prepared to place the memorial. At right were Paul W. Anderson, senior deacon, and Loren L. Hopper Jr., warden. The occasion was the 150th anniversary of the founding of Indiana Masonry.

Buckner, the man honored, was the first grand master of the Grand Lodge of Indiana.

Although this is his final resting place, it wasn't Buckner's first. He died of cholera on June 6, 1833, at his farm five miles south of Jackson. His wife died a few hours later, and they were hurriedly buried together in a single grave on the farm.

The grave lay neglected and unrecognized until 1897, when the Grand Lodge of Indiana petitioned the Cape Girardeau lodge to aid its efforts to have the remains re-interred in Old Lorimier Cemetery.

A better description of the events surrounding the re-interment were printed in the Missourian on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the event:

While I can't say I'm a fan of Louis Houck's writing style, I've included some excerpts from his speech that reflect on Buckner's history and character. I've bold-faced a line or two in the address that, to me, say a lot about Houck's character and seem most appropriate for Memorial Day.

"We meet today to pay posthumous honor to one of the pioneers of our country, to pay him those funeral honors he did not receive, although occupying an exalted public position, at the time when he fell a victim to a dreadful epidemic. In the anxiety and struggle, excitement and enjoyment of the present we too often forget the men of the past. Soon all memory of their labor vanishes from the common recollection of men. Soon their very names become an unfamiliar sound. Soon neglected and forgotten are their graves...

"As one of the most distinguished pioneers, not only of Missouri, but of Indiana and the West, we must consider Alexander Buckner, to whose memory today we pay honor. He was a native of Kentucky, born in 1785, the son of Nicholas Buckner.

"Nicholas Buckner doubtless was a descendant of the Buckners that settled in Glocester County, Virginia, as far back as 1635. Like so many Virginians of that period, he came to Kentucky, then a county of Virginia, to take possession of a land-claim received for military services, and settled in what is now Jefferson County, or, as then said, near the falls of the Ohio.

"And in Kentucky Alexander Buckner was born.

"When he first saw the light of day the Revolutionary War had just ended. Some of the soldiers of the Revolution must have been his earliest friends, for Kentucky was principally settled by Revolutionary soldiers... Around and near the falls of the Ohio especially did these soldiers settle. There the great hero, General George Rogers Clark, lived, who, with a small band of Virginians, had conquered the vast territory between the Ohio and the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. In the neighborhood of the falls many of his officers and soldiers had acquired land, and on the opposite shore in Indiana the state of Virginia had located a military grant to reward Clark and his men.

"Alexander Buckner grew up among these Revolutionary patriots. His earliest recollections must have related to the transcendent struggle. The heroes of this struggle he always loved and cherished. He was always ready to show them every honor...

"Where Senator Buckner was educated cannot now be ascertained, but that he received a liberal education is manifest from the papers and letters still in existence written by him. That he was a man of literary tastes is shown by the library inventoried by his executor after his death.

"He was a lawyer by profession. In 1812, at the age of 27 years, we find him a resident of Charlestown, Clark County, Indiana, engaged in the active practice of law... And there he lived until 1818, when he removed to the territory of Missouri. Why he removed from Indiana is not now definitely known, but in a sketch of his life published in the Jackson Eagle after his death it is said that he removed to Missouri because he became involved in a duel in Charlestown. At that time a duel was the ordinary method by which questions of honor were settled among gentlemen...

"When Senator Buckner settled in what is now Indiana, in 1812, the land had not been admitted to the Union. That great commonwealth, with a population now of over two millions, at that time only had a population of a little more than twenty-four thousand, and that population was dispersed along the Ohio and Wabash rivers. The central and northern section of the state was a wilderness with here and there a log cabin scattered in the vast forests. Among these Indiana pioneers Alexander Buckner acted certainly no inconsiderable part. But all those matters which may have seemed to him most important when living, and by which, perhaps, he hoped to be remembered, seem utterly to have faded from the recollection of men. The fact that he was once a resident of Indiana, a pioneer of that great state, even would have vanished in oblivion but for the circumstances that he took prominent and leading part in organizing the Grand Lodge of Masons of Indiana. Where he was made a Mason is not now known. But he became a member of the Blazing Star Lodge of Charlestown...

"As a representative of this lodge at Corydon, Alexander  Buckner, in 1817, wrote the report and suggested the first steps to be taken to organize the Grand Lodge of the State of Indiana. In January, 1818, he was elected first Grand Master of Indiana, but in that year he also removed to Missouri Territory, and in September, 1818, his successor was elected. That he was active in high Masonic affairs this record shows. And the Grand Lodge of Indiana has not allowed his name to perish, nor his grave to lie forgotten in obscurity and neglect. All honor to them for their loyalty to the early fathers of the craft, for their filial devotion, their homage to the men of the past who labored so well and builded so wisely. But not only have the loyal and devoted Masons of Indiana preserved well the work of this pioneer of the craft in that state; they have also preserved for us in Missouri a thread showing an early and intimate connection between the earliest Missouri Masons and the craft in Indiana. After Past Grand Master Buckner left Indiana, his interests in Masonry did not cease. Mainly through his efforts, it is to be supposed by special dispensation from the Grand Lodge of Indiana, privileges were granted to establish Unity Lodge at Jackson. And Buckner was its first master. This Unity Lodge was no doubt one of the first, if not the first, lodge of Masons organized in Missouri, but all its records have been lost...

"When Alexander Buckner moved to Missouri Territory he was accompanied by his father and five sisters. The family was wealthy for those days, and owned a number of servants. One of his sisters married James Evans, then a leading attorney of Southern Missouri, residing at Jackson. The public and political career of Buckner in Missouri was conspicuous from the beginning. Scarcely had he settled in this state when he was appointed to the office of circuit attorney. Within fourteen months after his arrival he was elected one of the five representatives of Cape Girardeau County to the Constitutional convention to frame the first organic law of the state. His brother-in-law, Evans, was also elected a member, and Colonel Abraham Byrd, Judge Thomas and Joseph McFerron being the other members from our county. These were all old and prominent citizens. Colonel Byrd had settled in the county during the Spanish dominion. Judge Thomas had been judge of the Territorial courts for a number of years, and McFerron was long clerk of the court. So the fact that he was elected as a member of the Constitutional convention, although just settled in the territory, must be taken as evidence that he was a man of solid if not pre-eminent ability, popular in manners, and convincing, if not eloquent, as a public speaker...

"In the struggles of the Constitutional convention Buckner must have acceptably represented the people of this county, for, after the organization of the state government, he was elected a member of the state Senate. IN 1830 he was elected a member of Congress, and while a member of Congress was elected to the Senate of the United States as the success of (David) Barton, and thus became the third Senator of Missouri.

"Senator Buckner, after he came to this county, married Mrs. (Rebecca) Weems, a member of the Horrell family, originally from Maryland, and this marriage allied him with one of the oldest and most respected families of our county.

"But just arrived at the threshold of a great career, and ready to take part in the great political struggles of the time, he fell a victim of epidemic cholera, prevailing extensively in 1833 in this country. He died on the 6th day of June, 1833, on his farm about five miles south of Jackson. His wife died within a few hours after him, and both were buried on the farm in the same grave, leaving no descendants. There, over sixty-four years, he has rested undisturbed by the great changes that have taken place, all unconscious of the sad neglect of his grave, and all unconcerned that the very recollection of his name has faded away in the scenes of his former activity.

"Senator Buckner, it is said by those who remember him personally, was of medium height and well proportioned. His bearing was dignified, some even say proud. He was genial in his manner, affable and courteous, and as a public speaker persuasive, if not eloquent. He was a man of unblemished character and reputation. He was industrious, and it is evident from the papers of his estate that he was methodical in his habits and careful in his contracts, and punctual in all his engagements. He was affectionate in his disposition, liberal and charitable, as is evidenced by the bequest of $1,000 he makes in his well for the education of a little nephew by marriage to whom he seems to have been much attached. He was a man of literary tastes, a lawyer of ability. His law library, for those times considerable, he willed to his friend Greer W. Davis, who a few years ago left us for his long home.

"At the time of his death Senator Buckner was rapidly growing in popular esteem in this State. His public career was unbroken by defeat. This fact in itself is remarkable, evidencing, as it does, his wisdom, sagacity, moderation and profound knowledge of popular wants...

"Take, then, all the little we know and that has come down to us of the active life of Alexander Buckner, and we must say that he was a pioneer of whom we have just reason to be proud, and that it is fit that we should pay him honor today; that in honoring him the Grand Lodge of Indiana has honored itself and put to shame us, -- in whose midst his bones have rested so long unnoticed, unmarked and unhonored.

"The culture, refinement, and, in fact, the civilization of a people can be measured by the respect paid its honored and distinguished dead. From a people taking no interest in the history of its past, taking no interest in the struggles that led to the establishment of its existence, drawing no inspiration from the lives and examples of its eminent men of an earlier time, little can be expected. Such a people and such men, sunk in a gross materialism, and living only to make gains, oblivion has already marked for its own.

"And now, here in this old graveyard, where sleep so many of the pioneers of this section of our great state, the Grand Lodge of Indiana rears this monument over the ashes of its earliest Grand Master. May this memorial stone stand as an enduring testimonial of filial affection as long as this river at your feet flows to the all-embracing and boundless rolling sea."