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| kennymester.com |
It may come as a surprise to some, but to the many residents
living in and around the city of Evansville it really hasn’t come as much of a
surprise to learn this week that there have been many grave sites recently
discovered after being lost for many decades.
According to the article in the Courier & Press, the
latest discovery comes at the corner of Vann Ave and the Lloyd Expressway where
city officials were busy building a pedestrian bridge to an area that is now
magically nothing but a parking lot filled with piles of rubble…
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2013/jan/26/there-are-unknown-grave-sites-among-us/?partner=popular
Yes, I don’t discount the fact that both Locust Hill and Oak
Hill Cemeteries are currently shielded from nearby developments with long and
distinctive walls. And yes, I don’t discount the fact that these two cemeteries
have established quite reputable names that should not be forgotten any time
soon. But at the same time, these lost grave sites are a perfect example of why
we need to clean up these cemeteries and prevent future neglect.
City Councilwoman Connie Robinson’s letter to the
City-County Observer in regards to the horrible conditions of our two
cemeteries, most notably Oak Hill, hit the nail on the head…
"I ask myself the question, how do we plot the burials? A tombstone was hanging on the sewer. Was that tombstone just stuck there or is a casket in the sewer?"
Even though Oak Hill is safely guarded from nearby
developments, it still isn’t protected from roads inside its own confines. If
Councilwoman Robinson had not discovered the grave marker laying on top of the
sewer line, would anyone have noticed that it was gone from its proper
location? I mean does anyone really believe that someone is buried on top of,
inside, or underneath a sewer line? If this marker isn’t placed back in its
correct location, who’s to say a road won’t accidentally be built on top of the
buried body only to find out later through records that the marker that was
stuck on top of a sewer line should have been sitting where the road is now
built?
Evansville has a long history of neglecting their cemeteries
with the 1980s being the worst. In the mid 1980s, Evansville saw the director
of cemeteries fired while controversy brewed over the way he maintained the two
cemeteries. Then, John West was fired by then mayor Michael Vandeveer after
serving only a few months in the position…
It’s bad enough that our city has lost grave sites all
across the townships that circle the city of Evansville. It doesn’t appear that
we will be able to find all of the lost grave sites any time soon. So while we
are taking on the extraordinary task of locating all lost grave sites in and
around the city of Evansville, let’s make sure we aren’t adding to the problem
at Oak Hill and Locust Hill Cemeteries.
Losing more grave sites…. Now that would be A Gave
Injustice!
