Musings on family history, regional history, book reviews, and miscellaneous observations and comments by a genealogist and librarian living near the Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Vandalism Discovered
We were in the general area of the Hester Cemetery in Monroe County, Mississippi where my great grandparents and great-great grandparents are buried today so we decided to stop and see if the new fence had been erected. There's an old fence there, but family members had collected money to have a new one installed. It was obvious as we drove up that the old fence was still there, but I told Mom and Dad that I was going to walk in anyway. I wasn't quite prepared for what I discovered. All of the pottery markers were broken, and most were not even there now. Two of the sturdier monuments had been toppled off their base. Some of the older granite markers were broken that had been intact the last time I visited. When we got back to my parents' house, we called the cemetery's caretaker and asked whether or not he was aware of what we had seen. He was not. I hope that he called the sheriff's department to report the vandalism. When I get back home tomorrow, I plan to dig out my sketch of the cemetery and the photos or the CD of photos that I had taken so that we can do some comparisons. I will send the photos to the sheriff's department, if needed. I hope that the vandals are caught, but I have no idea how long they had been this way. I was pretty upset when I made the discovery. Mom came on out and walked around with me.
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2 comments:
Lori
I'm so sorry to hear about this and on Easter Sunday. It really is heartbreaking to see especially since it seems so mindless.
It sounds like your records can help restore things a bit - can you keep us posted on how things go in terms of restoration and hopefully catching the culprits?
I think as punishment they should have to not only assist with the restoration, but perhaps trace their own family trees so they can appreciate the signifigance of an old cemetery.
This is so sad. I hope they catch whoever did it.
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