LETTERS: HELP RESTORE CEMETERY'S DIGNITY

To the editor:

Sometime in the 1906, Delsie and Elsie Hanner, twin sisters, were born and died. Seven years later, 1-year-old Irene Hanner died. Their family members and friends laid them to rest on a two-acre plot of land that W.T. Hanner and Victoria Hanner later in 1914 deeded to the Abernathy Chapel Methodist Church.

The Hanner twins were not the first burials in the Abernathy Chapel Cemetery. Older folks in the their 70s and 80s can remember folks being buried under the shade of the trees near the church. Most had only rocks for headstones. Only one stone remains. The rest have been removed. During the early 1900s, the Baker, Bergmann, Clubb, Fields, Gobble, Shell, Stilts, Whitner and Wills families would be laid to rest in eternity in the small, peaceful cemetery.

In 1997, the membership of Abernathy Chapel had dwindled down to five members. They signed the property over to the trustees of the Methodist church of Puxico. The church property, including the cemetery,w as auctioned and sold.

Frank and Glen Hanner, descendants of the donors of the property, were mortified when they discovered the piles of scrap metal, junk cars and piles of lawn mowers on the unmarked graves. The Hanners aren't the only ones hurt by the cemetery desecration. Judy Stilts, descendent of Peter Stilts, one of three Civil War soldiers buried in an unmarked grave at the cemetery, wants to know what she can do to help clean up the cemetery. At least two headstones have been broken.

Cemeteries are like open history books whose pages are tablets of stone. Historians and genealogists consult cemetery records to confirm events that happened in the past. Sometimes there is no recorded information about a community except what can be found in a cemetery.

Cemeteries are a non-renewable resource. Over time, if they are not cared for, these last reminders of early settlements could be lost forever.

County officials, such as the prosecuting attorney, have been asked for help. The only answer is for the Hanners to sue. Why should they be forced to spend their money for something that, in the eyes of most people and Missouri law, is criminal? They just want the cemetery returned to its original condition. Cemeteries are supposed to be places of peace, quiet and reverence, not junk yards. If something is not done now, your loved ones may be next. No one should come to a cemetery to remember their loved ones and leave weeping for society.

Please take time to call or write Bill Hopkins, prosecuting attorney of Bollinger County (P.O. Box 1010, Marble Hill, Mo., 63764-1010). Voice your concern. Only by speaking out wil anything be done for this and future burials in our county.

KAY McGREGOR, Coordinator

Bollinger County USGenWeb

Puxico