Originally posted March 12, 2002 1:00pm
Reposted by Sheri Millikin March 27, 2002

I am a resident within bones throw of the site. I really don't have a strong opinion either way on this issue. I do, however, wonder about the importance of a gravesite that no one thought enough about to mark in the first place or to keep up over time.

It seems to me that anyone anywhere could possibly have a house built on a grave of someone from sometime in history. Do we think that the spirits of these will somehow rise up and invade our homes like ants in the spring time? Is it simply out of respect for the dead? Perhaps a bit of both...

Comments?

Originally posted March 12, 2002 2:34 pm
Reposted by Sheri Millikin March 27, 2002

You started to hit on it when you mentioned "Respect", but in reality it's so much more than that. A cemetery is a vital irreplacable piece of our history in many aspects, be it the history of a family, a community, a state or a nation. They are something that should command our respect. They are NOT something that some developer should simply discard just because they can build a couple of homes on the land and make a great deal of money off of.

I'd like to suggest that while there may not have been any markers at the location when this started, that's not to say that there were not prior to that. Do we know that a previous owner did not come in and remove them to cover up the fact that a cemetery was there. According to what I've seen there are descendants that were quite aware of this cemetery. Aware enough to bus people out to it to hold a family reunion. Aware enough to have buried people there as late as 1970.

Let me ask you this-would you care if it was a cemetery where one or more of your family was buried in, and they were dug up, bones broken by heavy work equipment, placed in trashcans and moved? Without your knowledge and input on the matter? Would you then see the importance in this?

Originally posted March 12, 2002 2:51pm
Reposted by Sheri Millikin

There was a family reunion in 1987 in Hanover of the Sydnor family as I've been told by a member of this family. Three Greyhound buses full of family members from all over. One of Oscar Via Jr.'s nephews is still living and recalls the day "the buses rolled up on the farm". There have been books written documenting the area and the family there. The last burial there took place in 1970. This entire thing is just awful. Would anyone want to see their own family members dug up & tossed like this after being dead for only 32 years??

Originally posted March 12, 2002 2:48pm
Reposted by Sheri Millikin

The gravesites were in fact marked at one time and there is an aerial photo that I've been told about that shows "beams of light coming from the ground"...reflections from these metal and pewter markers which gave names and dates. The problem is this: The land was set aside in the original deed of transfer from Sydnor to Johnson. We have located additional information today (copies of all deeds in question for this particular piece of property). All we need now is a real estate attorney's opinion, but we believe we already have the answer. That which does not belong to you, you can NOT build/develop on.

Originally posted March 12, 2002 6:09pm
Reposted by Sheri Millikin

In my other post I explained that they were once marked and the last burial there, was in fact, in 1970. A mere 31-32 years ago. As I've told other resident's within this subdivision, you can look at this from a variety of ways.

Property value concerns-If your builder only dug a few feet and not 4 or 6 or 8 feet as Rockview Homes did, you have no idea how structurally safe your foundation is if you are in fact on top of graves. Think about that.

Moral values-How would you feel if these were your parents, grandparents, etc. being dug up with construction equipment and tossed into trashcans like yesterday's garbage? Not too respectful, and a violation of the "with due respect and decency" as the court order reads, isn't it?

Biblical-There are several scriptures, if you read the bible (and I'm not trying to sound like a religious fanatic here..just bringing up a point).

Historical-Why did they side-step the Department of Historic Resources? They are supposed to do historic exhumations.

Health Issues-There are diseases/causes of death for which bodies may not be exhumed. You can contact the State Medical Examiners Office and verify this. No one bothered to do any research, so now anyone and everyone within that subdivision could be exposed to TB, Smallpox, etc. as well as arsenic in the soil from the arsenic used for embalming. (A much stronger and purer form of arsenic than what may be found naturally)

So, no matter how you look at this, there are reasons to want to ask questions and get answers. There are reasons to be upset. Heck, I'm not directly related to those buried there nor do I live in the subdivision. Why do I care so much? Because in 32 years, I would not want to hear ANYONE say that MY father's grave was some "unsightly" area that needed to have a home built on it nor would I stand by & watch him be dug up with a backhoe & tossed in a trashcan.

These people were someone's children, or fathers, or mothers or sisters or brothers. Someone loved them enough to make sure they had a final resting place. It should be sacred now as it was to them then. Period.

Originally posted March 12, 2002 6:11pm
Reposted by Sheri Millikin

There is a cemetery just outside of Chillicothe, Ohio in which the land owner in the past began removing the headstones and returning the land to pasture. The farmer was stopped from continuing. As it is my 3rd great grandfather's headstone was found broken off the base laying on the ground with the base stone removed. Perhaps this cemetery suffered the same fate as the one in Ohio, except all the markers were removed. Then as the decades rolled on, people passed away and a field of unmarked graves remained. REGARDLESS if there is a headstone or not, each of those graves represents a life of a person. Someone's father, mother, brother, sibling, etc. Even though we do not know whom occupies that grave, the grave should be respected as if a person had just been interred there minutes ago. Consider yourself as if this was your grave or your parents' grave. Would your thoughts be the same?

Originally posted March 13, 2002 5:47 am
Reposted by Sheri Millikin

Well, thanks everyone for your thoughtful expressions regarding my comments/questions. There are some very compelling responses here that I see I need to carefully consider as a resident of the community and also as I attempt to determine what responsibility I have as a citizen.

There was a common thread I see in your responses and that is "..how would I feel if it were my grave or a family member?" That's a very good question, however, it's too bad you asked me. You see I don't really feel the need for my dead body to be placed in a tomb, in an air tight box for eternity. I believe once I die, I have no further use for my body and over time, few (if any) will spend much time crying over my grave. In fact, I really don't like to think that anyone would. If I ever do anything so significant in life worth remembering for "all time", the fruits of that action will be my memorial. I don't need a 4 1/2 deep grave for that (no, they're not usually 6 feet deep). My family? Well, I leave this issue up to them to figure out how they feel about their dead bodies and will respect that to the best of my ability. Would I get upset if someone dug them up and put their remains in a barrel? Again, if it doesn't bother me to let their gravesite grow over than I suppose a barrel is not so bad. At least now I won't feel guilty for not trimming the grass from around their headstone. Oh yea, I forgot, I didn't buy them one...

That brings up another interesting thought. Someone mentioned the Sydnor family reunion back in 87. You'll never believe this but I had dinner with one of those Sydnors just last night (no joke!) We discussed this in much the same way we're (I'm) doing here. She remembered the buses but didn't know they came out to the gravesite. She said she didn't go on the "tour". Be that as it may, I asked her and will ask this group, "if there were 3 busloads of family members, why didn't they pitch in and buy a granite marker for the site?"

Comments?

Originally posted March 13, 2002 1:37pm
Reposted by Sheri Millikin

I respect your opinions and your right to have them, but I'll have to disagree with you and hope that you can agree to disagree with me.

Not knowing any of the people that may have been on that bus trip to the cemetery, I cannot attempt to address the question if they thought about a marker of some sort or not. However, I can tell you this. If they had wanted to do something like this, before they could have they first would have had to obtain permission from the land owner at that time to do anything to the property, be it build a monument or simply clean it up. This is the state law. To take this a step farther, if you want to go the route that the cemetery was not land that was owned, but set apart as stated in the original document then they would have had to request permission from the person(s) who owned the adjoining land to cross it. Given what we know about what went on here, it's a safe assumption that such permission would not have been granted under any conditions as it would not have served the interests of the property owner.

So, to reply to your question, no matter if they may have wanted to or not, as family members they did not have the legal right to have a monument placed on the property.

Originally posted March 13, 2002 6:00pm
Reposted by Sheri Millikin

I, too, respect your opinion regarding what to do with your remains once you pass on. But that is the very point. Someone should have respected those who chose to have excluded this one acre of property for graveyards as was written in the original deed. That was their choice. It was their property. These were their human remains.

There were two reunions for the Sydnor family that came through Hanover County. One in the 1970's and another in 1987. The one in the 1990's took them to England. I have spoken to several heart-broken Sydnor family members and the ones that I have spoken with are VERY upset that this has happened. (Keep in mind..the headstones/markers were bulldozed in the 1970's and may have been there when they visited then and then in 1987, the entire area surrounding the cemetery was farm land, so I doubt very seriously if they walked across acres & acres to try to get to the cemetery, which was being farmed too)

There are respect/moral issues at hand, there are legal issues at hand, there are health issues at hand, and the list goes on & on, but the major point to me personally is the "due respect and decency" which is specifically mentioned in the court order as well as the "excluding one acre for graveyards" which is included in the deed/transfer of the property in 1855. Those two things have not been followed AT ALL.

I will never accept backhoes & trashcans as being means of "due respect and decency" to the dead nor will I ever accept someone building/developing homes on property they never legally obtained in the first place.