Hello out there, in the Midwest Mo. I most likely have ancestors who have contributed as stated in the messgae below. I will see what I can do to contact all my E mail relatives and see if any have money they can donate to a fund to get help to clean up our ancestors resting place. I would have to go to the cemetery site and check. if they were indead bur. there but some must have been. I am a grt grt grt grandau of the JOSEPH and ELIZABETH " JACKSON " ROOKS who went to Grundy Co. Mo abt 1837/8 from Randolph Co Ind. Joseph had gotten quite a large land grant for there and many or most all his children 15 of them, some older ones who were married and some not old enough to be yet married,. He gave them some of the Land so I know many of them had done things for the Trenton, Lindley, Galt, etc. area. Some of them lived in the Marion TWP area etc. many are still in the area with varying surnames as of now. Chrisman, Ishmael. Snodgrass, Chowning, McAlister, Scott, Dye, Holloway, and many others. Also with some of these surnames intermarrying down through the years. I ask any remaining persons there that descend from any of our Rooks 15 children of Joseph and Elizabeth Rooks who died 1869 and abt 1880 and are buried there, maybe can come forward and help form a committee of some kind to start or help jump start some funding to go to a Bank in the are that donations could be sent to with a Chairman person and a secretary and treasurer to take charge of clean up and keeping this Cem clean. and records of the funds. Has it been filled and not in use now and or why has it been abandoned??? Letting it go back to its natural state is no excuse nor reason to abandon any cemetery. Let us all rally around here and get to the bottom of this. Is or was there a Cemetery Association in the area for this cem?? I am willing to help get something started but since I am 73 yrs old and live in Washington State I can only ask others in my own genealogy line to help with any amount of spare money they can in place of labor others can donate. Please let me know about how we can help. Our descendants may no doubt want to some day go and visit the cemetery and be able to still see a Head stone with names etc. Thank you GRUNDY CO, Mo for any imformation. here. Maxine M Baldwin Wilton. and I am a , Descend of son of Joe and Eliz, William " Billie" Rooks b 1817 d 14 sep 1875 and bur. in Susanville Ca mar Mahala Smithson in 1837 in Randolph Co. Ind Lived in Grundy Co. Marion Twp where Mahala died abt 1855 to 1859 Unknown date and place of burial but there?? They had 6 ch. Isaac, Smith, Allen Unknown where they went aftere mother Mahala died. , Louisa , Wm Harrison, and Millie Maxine Rooks , ( as I am from Millie) I have found imfo on. Thank you much and would like to hear from any descenandts of any of these 15 ch here. and Wm's ch. Thanks much. Maxine Wilton in Roy, Wa. mmwaw@sprynet.com Below is the first message I saw about this Grundy Co Mo cem's condition. What a disgrace. read on. -----Original Message----- From: Jorge Awapara <jawapara@ruf.rice.edu> To: MOGRUNDY-L@rootsweb.com <MOGRUNDY-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Monday, June 17, 2002 1:55 PM Subject: [MOGRUNDY-L] Old City Cemetery >Dear list, > >I have just heard from someone who visited Trenton that the Old City >Cemetery is in absolutely deplorable condition with weeds three feet high. >He mentioned that there was a sign which indicated that they were honoring >the original settlers of Trenton by letting their final resting place go to >its natural state. I hope that was a sarcastic criticism of the condition >of the cemetery. Who in the world could one contact in Trenton to find out >if there isn't any group of folks there who care enough about the original >settlers or history of the area to do something about that cemetery? Many >of the original settlers of the area are buried there I understand, and >many of those contributed to the city in donations of money as well as land >for things such as the railroad going through the area early on. Others >helped form the first churches, etc. Is there any group with a sense of >history who might get involved in doing something about the cemetery? Is >there an Historical Society which may raise funds for projects such as >cleaning up and mowing and seeing that this old historical site is >maintained? > >Harriet Murphy Awapara >email: jawapara@ruf.rice.edu > >