Fire, fuming, funds & threats at Chariton Cemetery

I stopped at the Chariton Cemetery late Monday afternoon in search of a gentleman named Thomas Pearn, who departed this life during 1873, and took this shot from a vantage point near his grave --- to celebrate the fact the snow finally is gone. It won't be long now before the hills begin to green, the magnolia and other flowering trees burst into bloom --- and drivers begin to complain about the frost boils that have erupted here and there in the driveways.

Later on, I took a look at some of the issues that have affected the cemetery since its founding during 1864 as a replacement for two earlier graveyards in or near the city.

One appears to have been lack of business --- once the founding population, disinterred and relocated from what now is the Columbus School hill, had been installed.

The Chariton Democrat of May 2, 1868, reported as follows: "Not a Good Place for Sextons: Thos. Dawson, the sexton for the Chariton Cemetery, informs us that there have been only thirty-four interments made in the cemetery within the last three years. This number includes burials from the country, as well as from the city, and ten of these were aged persons. This speaks well for the healthfulness of a town of 1,800 population, surrounded by a thickly settled country. There have not been more than four or five interments within the past year."

That lack of patronage apparently resulted in a degree of carelessness among the shareholders in what then was a privately owned cemetery company. The Democrat of May 20, 1871, under the headline, "Look to Your Graves," published the following:

"The cemetery business is not a very good business in Chariton. The association has not, heretofore been able to get up enough enthusiasm to secure a meeting of the directors. The Secretary publishes a call for a meeting on the 1st day of June, and as there is some money in the treasury, it is desirable that there be a full attendance. Officers for the next year are also to be elected. See notice in another column."

It also would appear, if this report from The Patriot of Jan 1, 1872, reflects the situation accurately, that visitors to the cemetery occasionally strayed off the established roadways: "Mr. Bradrick, the undertaker, informs us that complaints are being made about the Cemetery, that teams are driven over the graves. The fault seems to grow out of the fact that visitors do not know the roadways, and Mr. B. suggests that large stakes be driven into the ground at the lot corners."

The manicured cemetery grounds we're accustomed to now are, in the grand scheme of things, a rather recent innovation; no attempt was made during early years to mow the grass regularly in the developed part of the 40-acre site --- or control vegetation in the remainder. That occasionally led to trouble, as was reported in The Patriot of March 19, 1873: "On Thursday last the grass in the cemetery grounds was fired, as is supposed from the wadding of the gun of some sportsman, and burned with such fury as to destroy many of the shade trees and much of the shrubbery in the grounds. The whole of the grounds was burned over and the tombstones badly blackened. More serious damage was prevented by the labors of Capt. (N.B.) Gardner and others."

A casual approach to cemetery management also seems to have resulted in the presence of several permanent residents whose loved ones had failed to pay for the space they occupied. That resulted in the cemetery board publishing this ominous-sounding notice in several issues of the Chariton newspapers during late summer, 1874:

"Notice: On a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Chariton Cemetery Company, the Secretary was required to notify all persons indebted to said company, for lots sold, to pay for the same within 60 days, and in default of such payment, the Board will sue the delinquents, or declare the purchase of such lots void, and proceed to remove any incumbrance thereon. Chariton, August 27, 1874. E.K. Gibbon, Secretary."

This seems to be a threat, depending upon how "incumbrance" is interpreted, to punish those in arrears by evicting their loved ones. There is no indication, however, that such dire threats ever were carried out.