CEMETERY NEWSAnother year to maintain cemeteries is under way as the grass is starting to grow. Flowers that were planted so many, many years ago are once again blooming in memory of those buried in our pioneer cemeteries. Thanks to those of you who have adopted cemeteries and are keeping them maintained. Without your help the cemeteries would once again be overgrown, and cleaning the cemeteries would be in vain. Our Society appreciates all the work you are doing to preserve our pioneer cemeteries. Thanks also to those who helped paint the Dutzow Evangelical Cemetery fence. It was truly a working together of neighbors and friends in the community who came to help. Youth from out local churches spent two days painting and there were also members of the Boone-Duden Historical Society who were there from start to finish. A job well done and one everyone can be proud of.
Numerous articles have been written regarding the destruction of our pioneer cemeteries. Destroying the graves of our pioneers who came to the wilds of Missouri to make a new life for themselves and their families. These are our ancestors. Many who are buried in our pioneer cemeteries came with Daniel Boone and his family or were followers of the Boones.
There were doctors who treated many of our ancestors' illnesses, farmers who cleared the land and help make the area beautiful as we know it today. Education first had it start with teachers paving the way and stressing the importance of education, merchants whose stores were the gathering place for the community, and men who dedicated themselves to the justice system or held a prominent place in government. Our early pioneer cemeteries are also the burial places of slaves, such a vital part of our history. Their graves are marked only with crude field stones or no marker at all, but this does not make them less important.
Many of our pioneers fought in wars so we can enjoy our freedom today. Today, those who give their lives for our country are honored with a grave marker denoting their bravery. However, our pioneer soldiers are buried, many in unmarked graves or at one time a wooden cross, only to be bulldozed off the side of a hill or in a near by creek. The Boone-Duden Historical Society has had a cemetery program in existence for many years, marking, cleaning and fencing the cemeteries when necessary. Through out the years gravestones have disappeared as additional ground was needed for farming or making it more convenient not to farm around a cemetery, vandalizing the cemetery to see how much could be destroyed. Today development threatens those cemeteries that are left. Do we have no respect for what our pioneers did for us? Do we not owe your pioneers a final resting place, a place that is undisturbed, peaceful and quiet? Are we so unappreciated for the freedom we have that we are willing to let development destroy our cemeteries? Other states fence their cemeteries with an attractive fence where descendants can visit their ancestors graves. As a group we need to say together, "Leave the pioneer cemeteries undisturbed and protect them."
A group of dedicated persons, including members of the Boone-Duden Historical Society, are fighting hard to save the James Baldridge/Frayser/Wilson Cemetery located off Hwy DD and off Hwy 40-61. Our first knowledge that the cemetery might be destroyed was when Sachs Properties purchased the property. Volz Engineering was in charge of the surveying of the property. Kim and Robert Ryba and Carl and Ida Gerdiman met with the surveyor to point out the cemetery according to the Baldridge deed. The property then was sold to THF Realty and they in turn hired John Carrel, an archeologist, to survey the property; he met with Roger Russell, Kim Ryba and Carl and Ida Gerdiman. We spent the day with Mr. Carrel as he examined the many depressions denoting graves in the cemetery and checking the soil for discoloration and texture. Someone decided that it was only necessary to move a few graves and that would make it official, but there are many more graves along with slave graves that are not even given a thought. If you are a descendant or like most of us who feel strongly about disturbing a cemetery, please call Jim Lewis with THF Realty 314-429-0900, Allen Bornstein, also with THF Realty 314-241-1800, and Frank Hackman, attorney for THF Realty 314-259-5804. On a local level to help us save this cemetery and that others will not meet this demise, please call Roger Russell 636-561-1181
The following letter was written by Bruce Ryba growing up on a near by farm. As a boy he did what he could to save the cemetery, we wish adults would have stepped forward to help him in his effort. Bruce spent a number of years in the Air Force and is now with the Space Program.
By Ida Gerdiman
Bruce Ryba
2425 Mango Ave.
Cocoa, Florida
My name is Bruce Ryba and this is a short statement of my recollections of the pioneer cemetery located on the ridge opposite of our family home, in St. Charles County, Missouri.
In 1968 my parents purchased the property now known as Stonebridge Stables. My brothers and myself soon located all the local fishing ponds and the discovery of the pioneer cemetery adjacent to one of the ponds was very exciting.
A brief description of the cemetery as we found it: Twelve headstones traced the history of several early Missouri families. About half the headstones remained standing, while the other half were on the ground and anyone wishing to read the names and dates had to wipe off oak leaves. Several of headstones lying on the ground were broken, although still legible.
In addition to the twelve complete headstones, pieces of marble which did not match the others were scattered around in no discernible pattern.
I took exception to one headstone in particular. The last name was Baldridge and the reason for my interest was that the person had passed away in 1846 at the age of 73. According to the date carved in the headstone, this settler was contemporary of, and must have known Daniel Boone who passed away in 1820.
As a child this concept was quite exciting, for me this was a direct link to Missouri's past. In Later years I even searched historical records to find out if this family had actually accompanied the Boone Party to Spanish Missouri.
Sadly in the years following our discovery of the cemetery, the headstones faired rather poorly. The pond attracted local children, who knocked over and vandalized the headstones.
In 1974, I witnessed a headstone theft which left me very angry. Two of the neighborhood teenagers decided to take one of the headstones home. They carried it down the hill, across the bottom land pasture to the O'Day Branch Creek.
After hauling the heavy headstone approximately one mile, they gave up and dumped the marble on the creek bank and went home. I believed what my neighbors had done was wrong and wished to correct their action. However I lacked the strength to carry the headstone back up to the cemetery. Never the less, I did my best to preserve it by wiring the stone to a tree in an upright position using some old barb wire. The name on the headstone left by the creek was Robert Frayser and I have forgotten the date.
I joined the United States Air Force in 1976 and left Missouri. In the years that I have returned on vacation, I have occasionally searched for that lost headstone but have never located it.
In conclusion, I hope my story can in some small way help protect a piece of Missouri's history.
Bruce Ryba