Locating the Pulaski County Poor Farm Cemetery (November 2009)

After locating the site of the Poor Farm Resident's Building, the hunt was on for the Poor Farm Cemetery. We assumed that it had to be somewhere on the original acreage of the farm, and our gut told us that it was located near the main buildings of the farm. Betty Pritchett Atterberry told me that it was located alongside the bluff in that area. Terrie and I took many trips down the dirt road past the Resident's Building looking off the side scanning for what we thought would be a suitable location to bury the dead. Most of these trips happened during the late summer, when the leaves were still on the trees, so it was hard to see through the foilage. Imagining the landscape as it would have been 50 years ago also was not as easy an task as we had assumed.



While we searching for the exact location of the cemetery itself, I approached the Pulaski County Historical Society & Museum about trying to save the old property. I had visions of the restoration of the Old Stagecoach Stop in my head, but did not have the pocketbook to back my plan up. Heck, I did not even have a plan, because I had never even dreamed of taking on a restoration project, especially one of this magnitude. After a brief discussion with the members present at August meetimg it was decided that we would at least check into the possibility of restoring the cemetery. Which at that time, was still lost, at least to me. I also became a member of the Historical Society at that meeting, and after talking to their President, Mrs. Marge Scott, I offered to construct a fan page on Facebook.com to help draw more interest from the community to the Historical Society and the things that they do in the community.



While working on uploading pictures to the fan page, I hesitated on adding a picture of the Resident's Building. My concern was that since the building was vacant that vandals may try to tamper with it. After wavering back and forth with myself about it, I did decide to post a photo, and I am glad that I did. As a result of the picture being posted, Tammy Moreau messaged me that she knew exactly where the cemetery was located and offered to lead me to it. We met the following weekend.

Tammy and her mother led me directly into the cemetery. Ironically, Terrie and I, had been in this very spot before, but the cemetery is in such poor condition, and the absence of visible markers, made us think that we were looking on the wrong spot. We were unable to find the tombstone that Tammy recalled. However, we did find one for William Hendershot. Finding his tombstone brought our confirmed burial total up to 24. His death certificate only states that he was buried in Waynesville, Missouri, it does not specify the Poor Farm Cemetery.