The 16th annual edition of the Chariton Cemetery Heritage Tour is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 22, but one thing we're not going to be able to manage by then is a new tombstone for one of the subjects, Pvt. Alexander Van Meter, Company K, 34th Iowa Volunteer Infantry. Alexander died at the Whitebreast Township home of his mother and stepfather, probably of dysentery, on May 4, 1863 --- one of only a handful of Lucas County's 150 Civil War dead buried near his home. The remainder are buried in graves scattered from Missouri and Arkansas east to the Atlantic.
Alexander probably was buried first in the old cemetery on the Blue Grass Road just southeast of town, near his father, Miles, and brother, Lewis. But when Chariton's Iseminger Post, Grand Army of the Republic, developed the G.A.R. Section of the Chariton Cemetery in 1894 for veteran burials, his remains and his tombstone were relocated there --- the first burial in the section.
Although badly eroded (Alexander's name has nearly vanished although his dates remain clear), his little tombstone stood upright for more than 150 years --- until perhaps four years ago when it had an unfortunate encounter with an inexperienced groundskeeper and a very large lawnmower. I moaned a lot about that, gnashed my teeth and chewed on the city manager at the time --- and a good faith effort was made to repair the stone. But the bond didn't hold.
While it's possible the stone could be bedded in a new concrete backing and stood upright again, the Chariton Historic Preservation Commission (sponsor of the annual cemetery tour) and the city have decided the best course is to obtain a new tombstone for Alexander --- a replica of the vintage white marble stones that mark the graves of other Civil War veterans in the cemetery and in national cemeteries everywhere.
So with the help of veterans affairs officer Dave Amos, we're working our way through that process (the government will provide a new stone providing a number of conditions are met) and hope to have it in place by Memorial Day, 2020. The remains of the original stone will go to the museum campus.
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Alexander will be one of six subjects from Lucas County's past featured in this year's tour, which will be conducted in the Grand Army of the Republic section --- under the flagpole overlooking Highway 14 at the cemetery's eastern edge.
Another subject, also buried in the G.A.R. Section, will be Fred B. Sanders --- a California veteran of World War II who fell upon hard times during the 1960s and found himself traveling through Chariton, riding the rails on a freight train. During September of 1966, he fell from a freight as it was passing over the viaduct near Pin Oak Marsh south of town and died in the brush below, where his remains were discovered some weeks later. Because none of his family would claim his body, he was buried here with full military honors provided by members of Carl L. Caviness Post No. 102, American Legion.
Because 2019 is the centennial of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, approved June 4, 1919, and ratified Aug. 18, 1920, ensuring universal suffrage for women, we'll also visit with Virginia Branner, buried near the G.A.R. Section. She was Lucas County's leading suffragist and influential statewide, a campaigner for equal rights for more than 30 years. A native of East Tennessee, she was a member of Chariton's privileged Branner family who used her wealth and influence to work for the common good rather than her own comfort.
Another subject will be John Kay, born into slavery in Mississippi who escaped at the outbreak of the Civil War and enlisted for Union service in a U.S. Colored Troops regiment. After the war, he came to Iowa, married into the Jeffers family --- free people of color who had farmed in Lucas and Marion counties since 1848 --- and settled in Chariton where he became an acclaimed horseman, managing the breeding operations of such luminaries as rail entrepreneur Smith H. Mallory.
Ellen Berry was 12 when she pulled into Chariton aboard a prairie schooner on an October afternoon during 1853 with her sister and brother-in-law and older brother, Aleck. After the Civil War, she married a veteran --- Samuel Badger --- and lived a long life, well into her 90s. She also loved to share her memories of the trek west and life during Lucas County's earliest days. On Sept. 22, she will share memories of the trip from Indiana to Chariton.
Finally, we'll visit with Jeanette Cramer, a Chariton businesswoman who with her husband, Harry, built the Ritz Theater, then rebuilt it during 1930 after it had been heavily damaged in a huge fire that destroyed other buildings on the south side of the square.
The tour will begin at 2 p.m. on Sept. 22. Seating will be provided in the G.A.R. Section, although those who wish to bring their own lawn chairs may do so. Refreshments will be served after the program.
This is the only fund-raising effort of the Chariton Historic Preservation Commission, an unfunded entity of Chariton's city government. So there will be an admission charge: $5 for adults, $2.50 for K-12. Past proceeds have been used to fund the cemetery's nomination for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic District and to mark Potter's Field. Those who attend this year will help to pay incidental expenses involved in the new tombstone for Pvt. Van Meter.
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