Lost Cemeteries Search Group, 2019

In July of 2019, Jesse Glover, Matt Hayes, the late Andreh Head, and myself met in Chandler to form a Lost Cemeteries Search Group. Our activities were reported in the local newspaper, as can be seen below. Recognizing the difficulty of reading newsprint, I have transcribed the article for the readers convenience. It is written in the first person, and I (Wayne Pounds) was the author. 
     We visited a half dozen cemeteries around Lincoln County but our best work done in Glover Cemetery, perhaps because Jesse has family buried there.
    I am reprinting it in order to support Cheryl Johnson in her effort to repair the ravages to Wright Cemetery, Chandler's oldest graveyard and in the same condition of ruin as Glover Cemetery. Cheryl lives in Midwest City but has family buried at Wright. If you are interested in supporting her--and especially if you are willing to engage in some of the clean up work, please contact her. She has a FaceBook page called WRIGHT CEMETERY, CHANDLER OKLAHOMA. Please contact her.






 
Matt, Andreh, and Jesse




The Lost-Cemeteries Search Group

This past week I flew from Japan to Lincoln County OK where we spent five days looking for lost cemeteries and gathering records from the courthouse. The hardest cemeteries to find were Glover (black, about six miles south of Davenport), Fallis (white, about three miles NW of Fallis, and above all Dudley, also black, which lies within private property though as yet it’s unclear whose). With me for the first four days was Matt Hayes from Colorado, white like myself, and on July 4th we were joined by two black men, Andre’ Head (who runs the Coltrane group dedicated to preserving black towns as well as the Black Genealogy Group) and Jesse Glover (a playwright and filmmaker from Chandler who has produced plays locally like "Something Sweet Every Day" and descends from the Glover family of Chandler). Andre’ and Jesse are cousins on the Glover side.

Matt and I found Fallis and the four of us found Glover, and we achieved important breakthroughs for Dudley Cemetery, chiefly in locating the land owners. This started with a phone call to Ethel Gray Wilson of Chandler, aged 93 but of perfect mind and memory, whose ancestors are buried at Rock Springs north of Chandler but with Dudley connections as well. At the Lincoln County Museum I found a letter addressed to Ethel in 2005 from her cousin Rita Leitch of Fresno CA, who has inherited land around Dudley through her Kimber and Claypool kin. I spoke to Rita by phone. At first she didn't believe the Dudley Cemetery still existed. She and her family still own land around Dudley (sec. 36) but not the land the cemetery is on, which she is certain is in sec. 25 (36 and 25 are across the road from each other).

Rita believes that the parcel of land containing the cemetery is owned by a man named Berry who works in the Carney City Hall. She's going to check her records and I'm scheduled to phone her again in a few days to hear the result.

(Yes, it's possible to call Fresno from Tokyo.)

Andreh, Matt and I obtained the tax records from the County Assessor's office, where the staff was happy to help us. We have lists of the owners of both Sections 25, 26, and 36. For the sake of brevity, these are omitted here. For sec. 25 they are as follows: Charles and Helen BRADLEY of Wellston (160 acres), Larry Paul COX of Carney (160, 114, and 60 acres), Brice and Maegan NEWPORT of Carney (45.7 acres), Hughmerdes ALLAH of OKC (100 acres). I have addresses for all of these people, should anyone need them. Since Carney is a small town where everyone knows everyone, we hope that the Carney people will be contacted so that we can learn what they know.

Finally, since Rita mentioned the name Berry, Clarence B. BERRY of Carney owns 10 acres in Sec. 26. His land could well adjoin the cemetery. Somebody needs to ask him. The Assessor's lists use a hard-to-understand legal jargon, so we are still not certain about the exact location of the cemetery, which doesn't show up on any of the maps we saw in the courthouse. We’re hoping that my next phone conversation with Rita will clarify matters.

Our intention is to apply for federal money for the black Civil War soldiers, of which we have eight by my count, and state money to get the oil company to repair their depredations, but until we know exactly where the cemetery is and who owns the land, we can do nothing. We have a Carney History Buffs FaceBook Group dedicated to the preservation of Dudley Cemetery, so we are relying on them to contact the Carney people listed above. At this moment, our hopes are high. 


Wayne, Andre’, Jesse, and Matt





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