Some Carl Junction residents worry about cemetery's future

CARL JUNCTION, Mo. -- As Gloria Bowers sat alone reading under a pop-up tent on a chilly Friday morning before Memorial Day not far from gravestones that dated to the Civil War, Art Maddox used a hammer to tap a wooden sign into the soggy ground at the Carl Junction Cemetery.

Its hand-painted letters spelled out, "Thanks for your support."

"Maybe that will help you get some donations," he told her.

On her folding table, a Folgers coffee jar with a slit in the lid for money held nothing but a rock to weigh it down, The Joplin Globe reported.

Bowers, along with several other volunteers, comes to the 135-year-old cemetery each Memorial Day weekend in hopes that those who stop to pay respects to their loved ones might make a financial contribution for upkeep of the cemetery, owned by the Carl Junction Cemetery Association.

That upkeep costs about $35,000 annually, said Maddox, 88.

"So many of the old folks who have contributed are up here now," he said, gesturing at the graves. "And families haven't carried on the giving. They either don't have it in their budget or don't have the interest."

The cemetery is one of two in Carl Junction; the other, Howard Cemetery, is a small family cemetery less than a mile away with just 33 interments. Carl Junction Cemetery, by comparison, has more than 4,000.

But it evokes a rural feel, noted Maddox. As volunteers placed small American flags on the graves of veterans, a pair of bobwhite quail hopped along a tree line draped in honeysuckle, and only birdsong interrupted the silence

Bowers, now retired, remembers when families came to the cemetery with their own lawn mowers to care for it.

"But this is an old cemetery and a lot of families have just about died out or moved away," she said. "They don't have as close a connection to it."

Several days a week from May through September, Maddox is joined here by Bob Miller, who turned 93 on May 24, to help make sure it's taken care of.

Both are lifelong Carl Junction residents, born and raised in Carl Junction in the 1920s when the town of just 1,000 people hadn't yet reached it on North Grimes Street.

Miller's dad, who served as both the postmaster and local newspaper editor, was the instigator in getting perpetual care for the cemetery.

"On Memorial Day weekends, he got a group together to weed, mow, trim -- just generally take care of things," recalled Miller. "Then he set up a formal organization, supported strictly by donation."

That was the 1950s, Miller recalled. When the elder Miller died in 1959, his seat on the Carl Junction Cemetery Association's 12-person board of directors went to his son.

"And the only way you can get out of office is to be buried here," Miller said with a chuckle.

Maddox, a former mayor, has been involved for about 37 years, and has been in charge of a paid, five-man cemetery crew since 1998.

Miller's wife, Clara, who died in 2008, and Maddox's wife, Nona, who died in 1999, as well as their parents, grandparents and several siblings are buried here. Maddox said one of his ancestors, William Davey, was one of the first to buried at the cemetery, in 1889.

Maddox and Miller say they eventually will end up here, too; they both already have their names on gravestones shared jointly with their wives.

But they worry about who will take responsibility for the cemetery's care when they're gone.

In recent years, the association hired Howard Laurence, a paid caretaker, to ensure each plot is mowed and trimmed around gravestones, to reset them when they topple, and to assist families who need to purchase a plot.

And with Carl Junction's population today at more than 7,000, it will continue to grow.

"We just want it to be taken care of," Maddox said. "It's an important thing. An important place."

The Carl Junction Cemetery has veterans buried in it representing the Civil War, World War I, World War II and Vietnam. It's possible it's also the burial site of a veteran or two from the Korean War, as well, caretakers speculated. "It's a big place," noted Art Maddox.

Information from: The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, http://www.joplinglobe.com