Web posted
Friday, September 12, 2008
Saving history
Effort to improve cemetery started
By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer
reporter@arkcity.net
Aubrey Hills praised the country doctor who brought him into this world as he stood by the doctor's grave in Forest Hill Cemetery.
Hills was born in 1928 in Ashton, just a few miles east of the cemetery, and now lives in Geuda Springs.
"Doc Pyle is the one that got me," said the 79-year-old Hills. "He practiced in Ashton and had a horse and buggy and a little black bag with castor oil and cough syrup made with whisky. He'd take a chicken or anything you could eat as pay."
Pyle smoked a big pipe and sported a goatee, Hills recalled Thursday as he gave a tour of the cemetery.
Like many others buried there, Pyle was from an age that too many people have forgotten, Hills said. Their forgetfulness is reflected in the poor condition of many of the graves in Forest Hill.
Many of the gravesites marked the resting place of early settlers to this area, who had died in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Others lived during that period and died in the middle part of the 20th century.
"A lot of them I knew," he said, surveying the cemetery.
He pointed out the graves of farmers, doctors, lawyers, a mailman and a blacksmith -- all neighbors and friends. His wife of 58 years, Lois, is buried across the road to in the newer section of the cemetery, referred to as the "northern cemetery."
Hills said he's on a mission to fix up the cemetery. It has many gravestones leaning at different angles -- some close to tipping over. Other gravesites are sunken in, the result of coffins, buried below, that have broken, he said.
The ground along rows of graves is uneven and Hills stopped several times on the tour to lean on a fixture to get his balance. He had a light stroke some years ago, he explained.
Parking also is a problem for people visiting gravesites or coming for funerals, he said.
Hills pointed to the grave of someone buried in 1890 -- its stone sitting perilously on a flat base stone. "It's been a long time since they made tombstones like that -- just set it on a rock," he said.
For the past year, Hills has voiced his dismay at the shape of the cemetery to Sumner County officials and officials of the Guelph Township, which has the responsibility of taking care of the cemetery.
He even contacted the Kansas Attorney General's Office, and was sent a long form to fill out, he said.
Sumner County Commissioner Eldon Gracy represents the district including Guelph Township. He said Thursday evening that he sympathizes with Hills, who has appeared a few times before the commission on the cemetery issue.
Gracy said the township board is responsible for the upkeep of the cemetery, but the board is "hard pressed for time."
"Aubrey has been in touch and showed me pictures and things on the cemetery," Gracy said. "But getting the township board to take action is just hard to do."
Gracy said he understands what Hills is talking about concerning the cemetery because he lives just west of Forest Hill. "I've visited with Aubrey but getting the township board to do something is just tough to do."
Guelph Township Trustee Chad Gressel is one of three members of the township board. He said the township has made several recent improvements to the south section of the cemetery. But it is limited in what it can do by an annual cemetery budget of only $5,200.
The township also has a fund for taking care of roads in the 5,400 square-mile township and another fund for maintenance and replacement of machines such as graders.
Recent cemetery improvements include filling in a south side ditch with rock for better parking access for cemetery visitors. The lawn at the cemetery is mowed regularly and some ground work has been done, Gressel said.
"We're doing a little at a time; we're trying to do the best we can," he said.
Taxpayers in the township are hard-pressed, and the mill levy will be raised two percent next year, he added.
But the township isn't moving fast enough for Hills, he said.
"Not many cemeteries you go to have so many bad tombstones or bad dirt," Hills said. "I'd donate time, money or machinery to fix up the place if I could get a little help."
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