One of the new cemetery bills passed by our state legislature modified some of the older laws by adding either new wording or entirely new paragraphs. This was done in an effort to close some of the possible loopholes and misunderstood clauses dealing with cemeteries managed by either a non-profit organization or a public entity. One section deals with the moneys charged for a burial plot stating a certain percentage of those fees must be set aside in a trust fund. It also goes on to say what this trust fund can be used for and requires there must be a set of records kept for this fund and the interest it receives from wherever it was deposited.

Maintenance requirements for a cemetery are spelled out in another section in which are covered fencing, general maintenance, and tombstones or markers which may be leaning enough to possibly present a hazard or endangerment to someone. Off of the top of my head, I don’t think I have ever heard or read where a leaning tombstone fell over and injured someone but I have seen a few which might fall at any given time. Most of the stones purchased today for individuals are of the nearly flat type which would never be a problem. However, some of the family stones marking a larger plot for an entire family might at some point in time start leaning. Much of this depends on the soil where a stone is to be placed. Some soils are known to shift as much as three or four feet up or down depending on how much water has been absorbed into the soil or vice versa when the soil is subjected to a long drought. Think what would happen to tombstones if there was a cemetery located on top of the fault line running down Third Avenue in Corsicana.

Some of the new laws were put into effect because of two well-known cemeteries. Freedmen Cemetery, an African-American cemetery, located near the intersection of Lemon Avenue and North Central Expressway in Dallas, had been turned into a playground. Only when the Texas Department of Public Transportation decided to widen North Central Expressway, someone came forward and notified the public officials about the presence of this cemetery. The archeologist charged with finding, marking, and removing any graves which might be affected by the highway project was told there might be about 150 to 170 graves in this particular cemetery. Eventually the total number of graves found numbered over 1,700. Not all of these had to be removed for the project but it shows what might happen to a fairly large cemetery if proper records are not kept. Eventually a cemetery no longer has space for any more burials. Once this happens, people’s memories about the location of the cemetery or the perimeters of the facility will start to fade. After the current generation who knew where the cemetery was located passes away, there is a good chance the cemetery will slowly begin to disappear. This is especially true of cemeteries where there were few if any tombstones. At the Freedman Cemetery, I believe the archeologist found one complete tombstone and a few fragments of others. Tombstones cost money and many families never went to the trouble to mark their ancestors’ graves. Some descendants meant to go back and at some point in the future purchase a stone but, for whatever reason, never completed the task. In many of the older small cemeteries scattered about in Navarro County, there is no telling how many graves were never marked because of the lack of funds. Also back in the earlier years of our county, tombstones were ordered from some far off company to be shipped into Navarro County. I have always felt some of the mistakes I have noticed on some of our local tombstones in the rural cemeteries were mistakes made at the tombstone factory and then shipped to the families here. When the stones arrived and the mistakes were discovered, families had to go ahead and accept the stone knowing full well a mistake had been carved into the stone. What would it be like to have to ship a stone back to the factory and ask either for a refund or a new correctly marked stone. Just how long did it take for some family to receive a stone?

The other large cemetery which brought about some of the new changes in cemetery law was the pauper cemetery located next to the Ranger Museum, on the Brazos River in Waco. A few years ago, an add-on project to the museum was started and after a number of ditches had been dug, an individual picked up bones from several different burials which had been disturbed by the excavations. To date I have never read or heard of an estimate of approximately how many graves were in this cemetery, but I would imagine this cemetery was at least the size of the Freedman Cemetery in Dallas. The problems associated with this cemetery and the construction project are still going back and forth through the legal system so, for now, there is no any definite number or result which can be written.

It is my opinion that if any person has maliciously destroyed a cemetery, even a single grave, they should not be entitled to have a tombstone on his or her grave! This opinion is only my opinion and not the opinion of the newspaper. For someone to knowingly destroy a tombstone placed there by family decedents indicates to me a person who has little or no morals. Remember in a previous article I stated we were taught in real estate school, someone only holds the land for a period of time and then possibly, it passes to a new owner. If there is a cemetery on this land with recognizable tombstones which has been there for many years and is part of the land, it should remain there and be protected. The rules don’t require any maintenance but just to leave it alone. A landowner does have the choice of paying for the removal of all of the graves to another cemetery if he feels as if the small cemetery hinders whatever he wants to do with the land, but to go out and brazenly try to eradicate a cemetery without moving the graves and the accompanying grave markers is an act which I cannot comprehend.

Next week: Other comments about cemeteries

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Bill Young is a Daily Sun columnist.

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