By Bill Young, Daily Sun
In the past 30 or 40 years, there have been a number of vandalism incidents occurring within some of our county cemeteries. I cannot begin to grasp why anyone would want to go into a cemetery and destroy tombstones and markers. What is there to gain? No one is being paid to do this and I don’t understand why someone would think this was a fun thing to do. It isn’t just a local problem because I have read from time to time about other acts of vandalism happening in cemeteries across the nation. From what I have been able to ascertain, these incidents didn’t start happening until around 1960. People living prior to about that time period seemed to have had more respect not only for cemeteries but for other people’s property. When I was growing up, it was very common for us not to lock the door during the day simply because everyone felt their homes were a safe haven. Now it is an entirely different environment!
Following is a partial list of some of the vandalism acts I am personally aware of. Oakwood Cemetery here in Corsicana, has suffered through at least two major episodes of vandalism. The last one occurred about 10 years ago and the damage estimate was around $300,000. Many of the older tombstones were broken, some past the stage of repair. I know there was an earlier episode back in the 1980s but I haven’t heard or read a dollar estimate of the damage.
Just a few years ago, the Eureka Cemetery was vandalized with tombstones turned over or damaged. However, the vandals were eventually caught and restitution was made. Lone Oak Cemetery northwest of Blooming Grove had a vandalism incident recently. Stones were turned over and part of the gate was ripped out but as far as I have been able to tell, no one has been caught for this malicious act.
Someone dug into the Stovall grave site near Corbet a few years ago for some unknown reason. The same thing happened in what is known as the David Pevehouse or Cross Roads Cemetery located south of Frost. Not only was a grave disturbed, spray paint was applied to a tombstone and part of an old wrought iron fence was stolen. The Old Pevehouse Cemetery, which is also known as the John Pevehouse Cemetery, (David Pevehouse was the son of John Pevehouse), has had several tombstones removed, three of which eventually came back and there have been burned candles found on top of some of the stones.
One cemetery here in Corsicana was either destroyed or all of the graves moved to make way for a large sewer line. This happened back in the 1950s and there isn’t any available information about what really happened. Also there seem to be no descendants of any of the deceased who might shed some light on this matter. Hopefully one day we can settle this issue.
A small family cemetery known as the William Richey Cemetery was destroyed on purpose about 20 years ago. One of the graves was marked as being the son of William Richey and this was recorded in one of the Navarro County Genealogical Society cemetery books. According to the genealogical book, the cemetery was located next to the old stage stop. Research has proven the William Richey house also served as a stage stop on the original road from Corsicana to Waco. We were told there were as many as six or seven graves in this little cemetery. I was able to locate two witnesses who told me where the cemetery was once located. According to one of the witnesses, he was present the day the landowner destroyed the cemetery. He asked the landowner why he was doing this and was told it was his land and he could do whatever he wanted with his land. After destroying the cemetery, the landowner built a barn on top of the graves. In the past two years, I have been sending e-mails back and forth with a descendent of William Richey, a professor at a Pennsylvania University. He has been searching for the graves of Mr. Richey and his wife and there is little doubt those graves were next to the stage stop. The professor also told me of another Richey descendent who is a vice president of a Dallas bank. William Richey moved north of present-day Dawson in the middle 1840s. He was related to Britton Dawson through marriage and he managed Mr. Dawson’s land holdings here in Navarro County until the Dawson family moved just prior to 1850. William Richey shows up in the 1893 “Lone Star State” book published about Navarro, Leon, Anderson, Freestone, Limestone and Henderson counties. The book is both informative and fictional. Individuals could have a section published about themselves and invariably most of the personal information leaned towards the bragging side. In the section about William Richey, it stated he had several fine fruit orchards so we know he was still living on the land in 1893.
The last destroyed cemetery I am going to mention really “takes the cake.” The cemetery is known as the Haynes Cemetery. The Haynes family gave some land for a facility and the family cemetery was next door with six or seven graves. Two of the Haynes graves were marked with nice tall tombstones and the others were reported to have been marked with concrete stones which had weathered away. People involved decided to go through the procedure of moving the graves and correctly followed the rules up until it got down to actually moving the graves. The two stones were moved but not moved to a perpetual care cemetery, which the law required, and a few shovels of top soil were taken as a token of moving the graves. Then recently, they bulldozed the cemetery and built another facility on the site. Two newspapers have called me a couple of times wanting this story but I am so disappointed in who did this, I have decided to let it be for now.
Next week: Changes in archeology
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Bill Young is a Daily Sun columnist.
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