----- Original Message ----- From: "Joyce Dever" <skipdever@earthlink.net> To: <Melungeon-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 3:59 PM Subject: [Melungeon] FW: [MONCRIEF-L] Cemetery Destruction > Hi all, I rec'd this today, I find this horrible. Joyce > > > > > > Hello Dennis, > > > > I read your account of the cemetery destruction. It is appalling to me > that > > this could happen. Would you mind if I "shared" your email with some of > the > > other lists I belong to? > > > > Thanks, > > > > Joyce Lucas Dever > > > Not at all Joyce, go ahead. - Dennis > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Dennis Muncrief [mailto:mudman@cableone.net] > Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 4:28 PM > To: MONCRIEF-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: [MONCRIEF-L] Cemetery Destruction > > Hello All, > Received an email from a retired Marine Corps fighter pilot from this area > of Okla. It's so incredible that someone would do this to a cemetery. > > Last year this retired Major drove from Florida to Wapanucka, OK to take > pictures of the grandparents and great-great grandparents graves in a rural > cemetery. The directions were confusing to him so he stopped at a grocery > store and asked directions. The owner of the store told him it would do no > good to go there. When he asked why, the store owner told him the owner of > the land had removed all the tombstones and put them in a boggy creek bottom > on his farm so it would be easier to drive across the creek in wet weather. > > In 2000, a farmer in western Murray county, OK, near Ft. Arbuckle, bulldozed > all the tombstones in an old Negro freedmen cemetery into a ditch. Many of > these interred there were listed on the 1860 Slave Census of the Chickasaw > Nation. When asked why he did this he said he thought nobody cared about > the old cemetery anymore. > > I have asked my State Representative, who is the House Majority Leader, to > look into creating new laws to protect these old Pioneer, Historic and > Abandoned cemeteries in Oklahoma. Since many of you have relatives buried > in this state, I hope you will join the effort to create new laws to protect > these cemeteries. > > If you choose to be a part of this effort, contact: > > Rep. Danny Hilliard > State Capitol Bldg, Room 442 > 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. > OKC, OK 73105-4885 > > email: hilliardda@lsb.state.ok.us > > Here is the link to the letter I sent to him as well as the proposed laws to > be created. Please take a look at them and join the effort if you feel as > upset about these occurrences as I do. You CAN make a difference. > http://www.rootsweb.com/~okmurray/pioneer_cemeteries.htm > > > Thank You, > Dennis > > > > > > > > ==== Melungeon Mailing List ==== > Helen Campbell's Melungeon Homepage: > http://www.melungeons.com > Contains an abundance of Melungeon related articles and links. > >