News
Cleanup kicks off at Mount Olive Cemetery in Montgomery County
March 28, 2010
The roughly
seven acres of hallowed ground is laden with vinca vines, the
occasional sunken tomb and tilted headstone.
The vines were placed there
as far back as 1817, as a tribute to the person laid to rest. The
tombs have sunken in, possibly because the person was never in a
casket or were laid in the grave in a fetal position.
Such is the scene at Mount Olive Cemetery, a
seemingly innocuous location nestled in the heart of Clarksville
that has gone relatively untouched since the first person was laid
to rest there in nearly 200 years ago.
Austin Peay
State University Professor Howard Winn described the area as a
"treasure" for the local community, though not much is known about
those buried there, when the cemetery came to be or even how it was
named.
Winn said the cemetery is special for the
simple fact that at least 20 black Civil War soldiers have been
buried there, which was uncommon during that time.
"It's really important to do because we don't
know much about it yet," he said.
On Saturday,
the first event in a series of landscaping, renovation and
improvement at the cemetery took place with the Day of
Service kickoff event, organized and led by Geneva Bell,
executive director of the Mount Olive Cemetery Historical
Preservation Society, who has partnered with the Clarksville
congregations and the Hopkinsville, Ky., Stake in The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle
Club.
County Mayor Carolyn Bowers, three City
Council members and the motorcycle club president Jonas Cloud Sr.
all laid commemorative headstones at the cemetery.
Mark Miller, president of the Hopkinsville
Latter-Day Saints, said the goal is not to overhaul the property,
but rather touch it up in the right places.
"We'd like it to be somewhat pristine and
untouched," he said.
Cloud said the cemetery effort is just another
of the group's growing activities, which include a monthly visit to
the Montgomery County Rehab Center and three annual cleanups of
Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.
Sporadic and
small clean-up efforts have happened at the cemetery previously, but
nothing compared to what will take place over the next few weeks.
The highlight will be a 500-person cleanup and improvement effort by
members of the Latter-Day Saints, the bike club and others on April
24, the national Day of Service for the church.
Paths will be
marked and mulched, border fences built and lost grave sites — which
are estimated at more than 1,000 — will be marked during the day. It
will be the most work since the cemetery was discovery some 60 years
ago.
"I'm very
much looking forward to (the cleanup)," said Bowers, who in December
suggested the cemetery to the members of the Latter-Day Saints as a
community service project.
Cedric Reid, business manager for
Buffalo Soldiers, read 120 names of known graves, which sent chills,
he said, as a
retired soldier of 25 years himself.
Talmage Peden, a life scout with Boy Scout
Troop 514, will be one of the first to make his mark with his eagle
scout project of building a bridge over a winding ravine through the
cemetery.
But before
Peden can begin his project, APSU geoscience
professors Dan Frederick and Christine Mathenge will use ground
radar technology to locate unmarked graves, which Frederick said are
everywhere and unorganized.
"You can't walk around here without walking
over a grave," he said.
Bell, who has been the prime organizer behind
the preservation society and restoration effort, said the massive
effort is like a dream come true.
"It's been a dream, but I thought it would
happen, just didn't know when," she said.
Winn said Bell, and the late Robert Davis, who
owned the land before, should be thanked for keeping it at the
forefront of the community's mind.
"(Davis) kept landscapers and bulldozers out
of here for 60 years," Winn said.