BATTLEFIELD TREES

Pea Ridge. At battlefields across the south - Shiloh for example - similar dense coverage often surrounded and covered the areas of conflict. At Shiloh soldiers had to walk right through a path with packed foliage on either side and the result earned it the nickname, the Hornet's Nest. Such scenes bring to vivid life the struggles and challenges our ancestors as they fought in these locations. In some of these places, sadness is a fog covering the ground and nurturing the trees.

Pea Ridge Battlefield

Pea Ridge Battlefield

Arnhart Cemetery, Barry Co., Mo

Gravestone of Wesley Sartin Terry and Edna Maggie Boyd Terry.

CONNER FAMILY

This stone is located in the Bennington, Kansas cemetery.

Terry Family Headstone

This headstone is located in Howell Cemetary, Milford, Mo.

IN MEMORY: MELVIN DANIEL PRIEST (1931-1999)

An almost lifelong motocycle racer, Melvin Priest maintained a love of the bikes long after his racing days were over. He had over 200 trophies for races he had won or placed in from the 1950's and 1960's. His name was once mentioned by the announcer in a race covered by ABC's "Wide World of Sports." He passed away Monday, April 12, 1999, services were held at Long-Bumback Funeral Home, conducted by Rev. larry Garfield and internment was at Howell Cemetery, Milford, Mo. His pallbearers were: Randy Crockett, Wayne Wilson, Mark Cross, Larry Martinez, Jon DeMent, and Gary Potter.

Cemetary Art

It has been said a people are judged by the way they treat their dead. Once families regularly visited graves, tenderly planting flowers and shurbs, and adding elaborate headstones with impressive art sculptures. Where Victorian trends tended to be overly concerned with the dead, the modern trend to replacing headstones with numbers and flat headstones to enhance mowing efficiency seems merely crass and distant. If a people are judged by how they treat their dead, one has to wonder what history will say of us?

HEADSTONE RUBBING

A headstone rubbing for Jess Hudson, Okmulgee Cemetary, Okmulgee, Ok. Jess was killed in Bristow in a gas main explosion in August of 1929.

The Last Rites for Louis Priest, 2008