By Jessica Gorman
There are small cemeteries scattered all across our parish. Many of those are family cemeteries, often located on private property, hidden away in the woods, tucked into neighborhoods. Some are cared for by the property owners, others not. They tell the stories of these families and mark the locations of old home places and communities.
One of those cemeteries is located at the end of Harvey’s Way, just off the service road, behind the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Modern listings refer to it as the Seventh-day Adventist Cemetery. Historically, it is not. There is a group of graves that tell a different story.
Two intact headstones remain, another broken. The largest headstone, somewhat substantial in size, is that of Alexander Newman. Born 10 March 1836, he was 81 years old at the time of his death on 4 August 1917. Alex Newman was a carpenter and one of the first deacons of St. Rest Baptist Church. His headstone reveals that he served the church in that capacity for 41 years.
The other headstone belongs to Kittie Wilson. It gives her date of birth as 10 May 1834. Census records imply an earlier birth year. She was the mother-in-law of Alex Newman.
A third headstone is broken; no identifying information remains. The only hint we have is the location of the grave, right next to Alexander Newman. The presumption is that the grave most likely belongs to Louisa Wilson Newman, his wife.
A few weeks ago, important information was shared with me about this cemetery. It was revealed that the cemetery once held more marked graves. An explanation for what happened or why, we can speculate, but I have no evidence to provide the answer. There is however evidence to support the claim that there are more graves present – footstones. The footstones no longer mark the graves. Broken, they are neatly set upon the bases of the other graves. Initials upon these stones are EM, MMM, and MTM indicating that none belong to the marked graves. If anyone has any additional information about the now unknown graves that must have once existed here, you can contact me at (318)377-3002 or dorcheatmuseum@yahoo.com to ensure that information is not lost to time.
Similar situations exist all over our parish. In fact, to our knowledge, the family cemetery of the first permanent settler in this area, Isaac Alden, has been lost. It’s general location is known, but the markers no longer seem to be present. There are countless people who lived and died here over the course of history that we are not able to account for their burial place. Some we know from an obituary or a death certificate even when a marker isn’t present. For others, we can reason a probable or likely location, but we don’t know with any certainty.
It is so important that we document our cemeteries, their locations, any records associated with them, and who is or may be buried there. While they sometimes have their faults, crowdsourced websites like FindAGrave have played an important role in documenting burial sites and have served as an important research tool. In Louisiana, we now have, through the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation, the Louisiana Historic Cemetery Register. From their website, “The Louisiana Register of Historic Cemeteries recognizes cemeteries among the most valuable historic resources of the state for their information about events, religion, lifestyles, and genealogy of a local community. Goals of the program include increasing awareness of historic cemeteries, for their protection, maintenance and respect of those buried within them.”
Webster Parish currently has 150 cemeteries included on the register, but most of these need more information. This is a project that I have intended to work on since the register was created. However, for this or many other projects on my list, time simply has not allowed. I encourage you to help maintain, and in some cases create, a record of the burial places located within our parish. Visit the Louisiana Register of Historic Cemeteries website, https://historic-cemeteries.lthp.org/,where you can contribute information about a cemetery and find other important information related to preservation, cemetery laws, symbolism, and other resources. We would love for you to also contribute information to the museum to improve our local records.
Let’s do what we can to ensure that our burial sites are known, protected, and cared for.
(Jessica Gorman is Executive Director of the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, Webster Parish Historian, President of the Minden Cemetery Association, and an avid genealogist.)