Recent Hollingsworth Cemetery Discoveries

On Friday, 14 Apr 2006, Dan Carder of Elliott's Scouts (CSA Reenactors) and I visited Hollingsworth Cemetery. We "found" some missing pieces of the ornate wrought iron fence including the gate. Actually, I knew where the gate was, but it was underneath an inch or so of soil. Like patient archaeologists, we carefully swept leaves and dirt away in an attempt to stand the gate up. We made good progress, but it is still on the ground.

There is still quite a bit of fence missing. Like the gate, I'm sure the pieces are buried somewhere nearby. Two of the corner posts are missing, too. As big as they are (about 4" x 4" x 4'0") it should seem easy to locate them. They may be gone altogether. It will take a lot of work and skillful hands to replicate them.

Dan and I also located the bases to both of the headstones. Neither of the headstones are situated upon them at this time, although Gideon's headstone was only inches away from one. It was buried in the dirt. We found it by sticking a screwdriver into the earth. Jeptha's marker was moved about 15' away from the other base. It is partially exposed and has a metal peg protruding upward from it. In front of both markers are depressions about a foot deep. It's obvious now that the two graves are located under these depressions. The earth has settled as the bodies and whatever they were buried in decomposed over the past 144+ years.

The next day marked the 144th anniversary of the day Jeptha Hollingsworth died on 15 Apr 1862.

A moment of silence, please.

Thank you.

I made another trip to the cemetery on Monday, 17 Apr. This time there were three other helpers with me including Liz Murphy of the James Farm, Carol Dildine of the Daughters of American Colonists, Osage Chapter, and Charles McCorkendale of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Westport Camp #64 (as I am) as well as the Civil War Roundtable of Western Missouri. Together we discussed a plan of attack on the cleanup.

One of the first steps we decided upon was to work our way inwards by removing brush and then trees. Brush will either need to be burned (if we can get permission), mulched (if we can get a wood chipper), or hauled away (if we can get trucks and dumping locations). Liz lives nearby and said we may be able to haul it to her place. Once the trees and brush are removed we can focus on the fence (Dan knows a blacksmith that may be able to help repair/reconstruct it), and the landscaping as well as stone setting.

Everyone who has visited the cemetery this Easter weekend agreed that it is more than they expected, but it is a gem of a cemetery despite the condition it is currently in. It will get tougher to reach it as time goes by until the hay is cut and bailed. It would be nice to complete this project before school starts up again in August. As a matter of fact a good target date for a commemoration would be 15 Aug 2006, marking the 145th anniversary of Gideon Hollingsworth's death.