Pioneer cemeteries fall under plow’s threat
January 5, 2013 at 11:15 pm in Grand Forks Herald
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A small grove of trees at the Boerner family cemetery is gone. When investigators got a search warrant they found evidence of what Minnesota’s state archeologist says is a growing concern, the destruction after years of abandonment of one of the state’s thousands of small cemeteries. Continue Reading
Just another greedy farmer who has to put every inch of land to the plow. To desecrate a burial place is a terrible thing……. maybe we can get a little understanding of how the Native Americans feel about the desecration of their burial places.
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I remember walking along some riverbanks among tall grass, tripping over the remains of a headstone of a long abandoned cemetery. It hadn’t been touched since the 50′s when the church it belonged to dissolved. For most part any farmer that knows a cemetery is an area, he will leave it be. There are a number of farmsteads that also have burial locations due to illnesses that went thru area in late 1800′s, early 1900′s, they are unmarked. In cases when there was unmarked gravesites, how do you know there was a cemetery or burial site there? Many early ones were only shallow burial in wood box with a wooden cross which long rotted away, not stone or granite which still stands. I do believe we should return to shallow burials in a plain wood box so we can return to nature as intended, become fertilizer for a tree or grass, not entombed in a fancy box inside a concrete box.
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Cremation fixes all that and more.
Embalming was popularized by the Civil War, where bodies rotted on the train back to the family. Embalming is a crime against nature, just hateful.
Folks make a huge profit from funerals and weddings. The costs of both are out-of-control. A two-hour ceremony and a meal costs thousands; I guess they justify it because both are supposed-to-be once-for-a-lifetime events. One of them actually is, nearly all the time.
It’s crazy to put money into a hole in the ground that isn’t going to be deliberately dug up again (except under very unusual circumstances.)
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Does that mean if their are no living decendants it is OK to desecrate graves?? Yup, go ahead and sue the dead people but good luck on collecting.
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Cemeteries are excempt from taxes. Any lot that has a body in it is the property of the person buried there, Any part of the cemetery that is damaged, tombstones, trees etc, are subject to replacement cost. This farmer could not only face felony charges, but also cost of putting the cemetery back to its original condition. That could be the tip of the iceberg. Even if it was on his land it was not his.
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Ok, minor update based largely on Smartimus’ comment about genealogy and history below:
The farmer could have taken photos, called the historical society so they could document the site, etc. before plowing it under.
Of course, that would have prevented him from plowing it under; so I kinda understand why he chose “stealth mode”.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Funny how people “don’t beleive” when they dont want to take the time to google something.
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Fine. Young Mister Norman was in the city council chamber (rightfully, in my opinion) complaining about the new tax the city was inflicting on him. This would be “something” like five years ago. The Herald carried the story. All beyond that has faded from my neurons.
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Farmers pay a fraction of what everybody else pays in property taxes!
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“Cemeteries are excempt from taxes. Any lot that has a body in it is the property of the person buried there,”
I don’t accept that.
If it is true, can I be buried in my backyard, so my surviving wife doesn’t have to pay property tax on the home any more?
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Again Google. Its against the law in most states to be buried in your yard. This isnt the 19th century. This cemetary was in the middle of the field and was exempt weither it was one acre or 10. But this does not mean the whole field was exempt. Only the land the cemetary was on.
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There is a lot of valuable geneological history in pioneer cemeteries. It is hard for me to fathom why anyone would want to farm through them. I have no idea why anyone would want to farm through a known Native American cemetery either.
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When I die just cut me up and throw me in a field for the birds and other critters to feast…….They way we were meant to die…..Circle of life. Personally i find all the sentiment attached to graves and the whole after death concerns of our bodies to be a bit over the top. When I’m gone, my body is just meat. Granted there’s health issues to not doing something with the dead, but the rest really doesn’t seem all that necessary to me. Like visiting grave sites. I know some get great comfort, but I’ve never seen the logic in looking at the spot where a decomposed body of someone I might have been close to lies.
What was that old bar room song of the cannibals? “When I die don’t bury me…just cut me up and pass me around”. Now that’s a fine send off eh?
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God bless you, Tundrabeast. The sentiment attached to rotting bodies has never made sense to me.
Don’t get me started on private-party shrines on Public land.
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Put me down for the Fargo double option:
- Wood chipper dispersal recycling
- Wood chipper IPA at the wake
More fun, environmentally greener, and saves paying a fortune to the funeral business.
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Ever hear of the “Sky Burials” of the Buddhist of Tibet? It started out of necessity, but they place the body on an alter and leave it for the vultures. That’s kind of the direction I was going. That does make sense to basically become food and eventually fertilizer as part of the circle of life. I like that option better then the elderly amount the Eskimos going out to the icebergs to be a snack for a polar bear. I’d prefer to be dead first…
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