Back in 2012, this sign identifying 38 of an unknown number of burials in the Lucas County Farm Cemetery was placed by the Chariton Historic Preservation Commission and Lucas County Genealogical Society.
Only five graves in the cemetery, where burials began in 1869, are marked; we have no idea how many men, women and children actually rest here, but these names and dates were obtained from county death records (after 1880) and other sources.
As a rule, anyone who died while a resident of the county farm was buried here until the early years of the 20th century unless remains were claimed and buried elsewhere by relatives. Burials ceased in the late 1920s and after that remains were interred in the Potters Field section of the Chariton Cemetery.
In any case, I've come across a brief newspaper item that clarifies a little one entry on the sign, "Bryan, James O., 1867-1885."
As it turns out the young man's name actually was James O'Bryan and The Chariton Democrat of Sept. 10, 1885, contains a single paragraph about his death:
"A boy with only one leg, about 18 years old, and from Chicago, by the name of James O'Bryan, was shipped in here on Saturday night, Sept. 5, from Kansas City. On Monday morning, being very sick, he was removed to the County farm and everything done that could be to make him comfortable; but on Friday morning he died and was buried the same day by the Superintendent of the County farm."
It's unlikely more information will surface, but at least we now know his name and a few of the sad circumstances of his death.
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