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Mitchell Cemetery Home to History, Mystery |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Monday, 06 June 2005 |
MITCHELL, S.D. - When Kevin Thurman assumed the position of Mitchell cemetery director more than 20 years ago, he didn't know his job description would include historian and detective.
But it's a role that fascinates him and he thinks helps connect the cemetery with the rest of the community.
"The burials here represent someone's family and friends," he said. "The more we learn about the people who are buried here and share some of that history with the community, the more the community will appreciate what we have here."
Two historical mysteries in particular involving Mitchell deaths intrigue Thurman.
The first is the death of Robert Fullerton, presumably the son of Thomas Fullerton, an early Mitchell businessman who started what became Fullerton Lumber Co. According to an entry in the cemetery's first burial record book, a Thomas Fullerton was buried on Sept. 22, 1885, at the age of 4 years. The book lists the cause of death as homicide, but a newspaper record from the Mitchell Capital of Sept. 25, 1885, said the young Fullerton was shot accidentally at a friend's house.
Was the Fullerton child actually murdered, or was it a mistake in the record book? It's a question Thurman would like to research more - when he has time.
Although not connected with the cemetery, another child's death from years ago has recently sparked Thurman's interest. About three years ago, a resident living near Hitchcock Park was clearing brush on his property when he discovered a triangular-shaped stone.
Crudely carved into the rock were the four simple words, "Baby Heintz Died 1919." Thurman was informed of the discovery, and the stone now sits in the cemetery office.
"There wasn't anything illegal back then about burying someone in your backyard," he said. "Many old farmsteads out in the country have people buried on them. The sad thing is for people like Baby Heintz, they never had a chance to live."
While the mysteries intrigue Thurman, the cemetery also contains the graves of a number of other fascinating people from the past.
Perhaps the most famous is Israel Greene, who came close to killing famous abolitionist leader John Brown at Harpers Ferry before the Civil War.
Thurman said the story goes that Greene, then a U.S. Marine officer, was attending a dress party in Washington, D.C., on an October night in 1859 when he received news of Brown's raid on the federal arsenal building at Harpers Ferry, then in Virginia, but now in West Virginia.
When Greene and the other Marines arrived, they stormed the arsenal. Greene reached Brown, but he was wearing only a short saber to go with his dress uniform instead of a longer sword normally used in combat. He swung at Brown with the saber anyway and knocked him out long enough for him to be apprehended.
Brown was later hanged. The Civil War broke out a year and a half later.
A Virginian, Greene served in the Confederacy during the Civil War, but he moved to Mitchell after the war. While in Mitchell, Greene became the city's first civil engineer and designed Highway 52 west from Yankton, which Thurman said became the first highway to the Black Hills.
Along with Greene, other colorful characters have their final resting places in the cemetery. Among them are Catharine McIntyre, believed to be one of the first women postmasters, who carried a gun for protection when she delivered mail to rural residences; John Foster, who led a New York colony to Bon Homme County in 1864 and became the first superintendent of Dakota Territory schools and first commissioner of emigration for Dakota Territory in 1867; Lawrence O. Gale, co-founder of the Corn Palace and early Mitchell businessman; and Richard E. Higgs, a radio soap opera star during the World War II era.
With the cemetery's rich history and more than 13,000 burials, Thurman and his three-person full-time staff spend much of their time helping people with genealogical research and showing visitors where relatives are buried.
"One of the most important things we do is deal with the public," he said. "It can be a very emotional experience, but it is part of our being a service to people."
To help connect with younger people, Thurman said he began inviting school groups to tour the cemetery to etch headstones and to even see where family members are buried. As a result, he said many Mitchell schoolchildren are more comfortable around the cemetery and have a new respect for the property.
"The number of vandalisms has dropped since we started having the tours," he said. "I think people are less likely to vandalize something they respect and feel a connection to."
Mitchell's cemetery dates back to 1884 and actually contains five cemeteries: the original Graceland Cemetery; Calvary Catholic Cemetery, added in the early 1900s; the American Legion Cemetery, added in the 1950s; the Serviceman's Cemetery, added in the 1960s and 1970s; and the Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery, where a number of Civil War veterans are buried.
Thurman said an earlier cemetery existed in Firesteel, but when that town was abandoned, the bodies in that cemetery were exhumed and reburied in Graceland. As a result, he said the cemetery's earliest recorded burial is for a Mrs. Adelaide Miles, who was buried in the Firesteel cemetery in 1882 and then reburied in Graceland.
According to Thurman, the cemetery's records not only serve a genealogical or historical purpose, they also have practical applications for today.
For instance, Thurman said records indicating that a person died of a disease such as cholera - fairly common in Mitchell's early history - would help current cemetery workers in case a new gravesite was to be dug near the burial place of the cholera victim or in the extremely rare case an exhumation was needed.
"Bacteria from cholera can have a long lifespan in the soil," he said. "If we ever had to dig near a cholera victim, we would have to put on hazmat suits and everything. Fortunately, that's never happened before."
Thurman began his service with the city as Lakeview Golf Course director. But about 23 years ago, the city decided to combine the golf course and cemetery into one department and named Thurman as golf course and cemetery director. Thurman said he didn't mind the extra responsibility.
"When you're one of 15 children, you learn to move pretty fast," he said.
Source: Aberdeen News
HAROLD CAMPBELL
Associated Press |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“The living come with grassy tread To read the gravestones on the hill; The graveyard draws the living still, But never anymore the dead. The verses in it say and say: 'The ones who living come today To read the stones and go away Tomorrow dead will come to stay.'” by Robert Frost from 1923 N
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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