I guess that's everyone I've pestered about this place. Moss Springs Cemetery is the resting place for many of my Spence/Spencer ancestors. it is also the resting place for many of my Perry, Jones, etc. etc. etc. people. I received a letter today from my cousin, Clyde Hood. He sent me an article that just appeared in the "Joplin Globe" dated Tuesday, Nov. 16, 1999. The article was written by Debby Woodin, who is a Globe Staff Writer and the headline reads "A New Battle over Moss Springs" Briefly, this fight has been brewing over the last three to six years "depending upon whom you ask." It concerns access to the cemetery. The article states that although a recent court hearing in Jasper County Circuit court at Joplin presumably decided the issue of access once and for all, "attorneys hinted to the judge that litigation that started in 1996 may not be over yet in the court battle for Moss Springs." In 1996 the Moss Springs Cemetery Association was deeded the cemetery by the Spring River Baptist Association. That year, the cemetery association filed a lawsuit against the owners of the farm on which the cemetery is located for the right of way to the cemetery. This article is quite lengthy. The Cemetery Association claimed that the farm owners locked out cemetery visitors, a charge the property owner denied. And apparently the farm owners have been to court five or six times over this matter. The farm owner won in circuit court; the Association appealed the ruling, and then they won. And the whole matter is still raging. When we were there in May of this year, we couldn't even see the lane leading down to the cemetery, much less the tombstones. We didn't venture in there. I had one report from someone who was taking an inventory in that cemetery. Her husband lifted one of the large toppled stones, only to be greeted with a surprised nest of copperheads! I believe this cemetery is extremely important to Jasper County history. It is estimated that between 100 and 200 of the early pioneers are buried there. The article states that burials continued in the cemetery until 1947. The Civil War history alone surrounding this cemetery is terribly important. Thought I would pass this information along to everyone. I wish that I owned that farm. That cemetery would become a shrine! Barbara Dr. Barbara Inman Beall, Ph.D, BIBeall@email.msn.com, BBeall43@yahoo.com Lancaster-Wormiston Press P.O. Box 173 Broomfield, CO 80038-0173 Home Page and for Access to Website: http://mail.ancestry.com/ancestry/users/bibeall