LUNSFORD, Ark. (AP) - Brenda Hutcheson and her husband Donnie were tired of seeing Prairie Cemetery - the final resting place of several early members of their community - neglected and overgrown.
“My husband and I grew up in the area, and each year just added more neglect to it,” Hutcheson said. “People didn’t even realize it was a cemetery. We just thought it was terrible these deceased people were not being treated with the respect they deserved.”
Thus, Hutcheson, who is a teacher and Lake City council member, and her husband decided to do something to save the square-mile of cemetery, located on Craighead County Road 812 near Lunsford.
“It was near and dear to our hearts to make this a respected, lasting memorial for these people,” Hutcheson said. “No matter how far in the future you go, the generations before you still need to be respected.”
She said reasons for the cemetery’s degradation were because many loved ones who served as caretakers had died themselves, but also, because Prairie primarily served the area’s black residents, and support from the community at large was lacking in the area’s more divisive past.
“It was a predominantly black cemetery, and I felt a lot of people were neglecting it for that reason,” Hutchenson said. “I thought that was so totally wrong and they deserved just as much respect as anyone. My husband and I agreed on that.”
“Into our work, we discovered there were white people buried here as well,” she added.
The Jonesboro Sun reports that through the cleanup, much has been learned about the people buried there. Founded in 1862, the cemetery is the final resting place of 19 people. Many of those buried there were laborers in the timber or agriculture industries.
“When you have anyone living in an area, people are going to be born and die,” Hutcheson said. “A cemetery is one of the first things they commit to. This was a thriving area because would hire laborer to clear the land and then turn it into farmland.”
Many tombstones were lost when a farmer cleared the land decades ago, but three remaining markers contain the names Hayward, Bynum and Hinterson, all members of the Prince Hall Masons, a national black fraternity of the day.
“The group is the black equivalent of the Masons,” Hutcheson said. “If they were a member, they were guaranteed a tombstone upon their death. I contacted them, but they lost all their records or they would have been able to tell me who else was buried here.”
Wilma Freeman of Jonesboro learned several years ago that she had a great-grandfather and other family members buried there. Wilma and her husband Ron paid for the ground penetrating radar that led to the exact location of many of the 19 graves in Prairie Cemetery.
“I am eternally grateful, from the bottom of my heart,” Freeman said. “It was a jungle, an absolute jungle. I didn’t even know about the cemetery until about four years ago. I had a second cousin who asked me if I knew where the Prairie Cemetery was because that is where our great-grandfather was located.”
Members of the community, college students, the county road department and inmate work crews, businesses and even a badge-seeking Boy Scout pitched in to help.
“I prayed about it. I asked God to open doors and make it a clear path,” Hutcheson said. “The first Saturday in February I ended up with about 25 volunteers. Every Saturday in February I had 10-25 volunteers. My husband and I continued the work with volunteers along the way.”
The cemetery on. 11 looked much different than the patch of scrub is was just a few months ago. A wrought iron sign was recently erected. Sod is being placed and a small wooden footbridge to replace the original is planned. Small monuments are in the works to mark the graves.
“Brett Foster from Needham monument has donated some little monuments that say ’soul at rest’ because I don’t know who is buried where,” Hutcheson said. “Through donations I purchased a memorial stone that will tell when the cemetery began and the 13 names I have been able to find.”
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Information from: The Jonesboro Sun, https://www.jonesborosun.com
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