History rises from old graves

Volunteer killing time uncovers cemetery’s rich past

Kristal Clark, who has spent three years researching Thomas Cemetery in North Little Rock, says there are more than 350 people buried in the previously unkempt cemetery dating back to the Civil War.
Kristal Clark, who has spent three years researching Thomas Cemetery in North Little Rock, says there are more than 350 people buried in the previously unkempt cemetery dating back to the Civil War.

— What started off simply as a way to kill time and avoid traffic, has turned into a three-year labor of love for Kristal Clark, grounds supervisor for North Little Rock’s Edgewood Cemetery.

Clark has been driving daily from Conway to the cemetery, which may be the second-oldest cemetery in North Little Rock. She quickly tired of the traffic and decided to leave home early and leave work late to let the congestion die down.

To pass time, Clark began clearing away brush and debris at the long-forgotten, 2-acre Thomas Cemetery.

She’d come across records at the Edgewood Cemetery offices that indicated that someone had shown some interest in the history of the Thomas Cemetery but hadn’t gotten very far.

It was thought that Edgewood, which Clark said was commissioned in 1923, was the city’s oldest cemetery. But records show Joe Thomas, who owned 80 acres alongside what is now Edgewood, was buried in Thomas Cemetery in 1885.

Thomas was buried in what likely began as a family grave site, Clark said. His well-preserved tombstone also notes that he moved to Arkansas from Haywood County, Tenn., in 1867.

Curious, Clark kept clearing the 2 acres in her spare time and kept discovering forgotten graves.

“The list we got from Owens Funeral Home shows 297,” she said. “That’s grown to 350. There’s so much history here that’s been forgotten. Right over here, we have a Union soldier buried next to a Confederate soldier from the Civil War. There are World War I and World War II veterans. We still don’t know just how many are buried here.”

Clark said she’s contacted professors at Arkansas State University and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff because each has equipment that can locate graves now the space is cleared.

“When I started, it was like being out in the woods,” she said. “You couldn’t see any of these houses around here.”

Jean Brister’s granddaughter Danielle Talbot, now 13, got her involved with the cemetery project three years ago. As part of a Girl Scouts community service project, Danielle’s troop had been volunteering at Edgewood.

“They brought in shrubs and trees for landscaping and built birdhouses and butterfly houses, so we were out here several times,” said Brister the Scout troop’s leader.

To earn a silver badge for the Girl Scouts, Danielle needed a three-year project. She set out to gather volunteers to help Clark. The group is now called Friends of Thomas Cemetery and has plans to apply for nonprofit status soon.

The group, which can be reached by e-mail at thomascemetery@yahoo. com, has since gotten a wrought-iron sign donated by Harper Sheet Metal Works in North Little Rock.

“Our first priority was to get a sign,” Brister said. “We got a bid of $1,400, then word got around in our neighborhood about what we were trying to do, and Jim Harper made us a sign for free,” she said referring to the owner. “It’s just gorgeous. It’s much more than a $1,400 sign. It’s over at [Pulaski Technical College] now waiting to be painted. They can’t get to it until January.

“Of course, by January, the ground may be too hard, and it’ll be too cold for us old folks to be out here, so we’ll probably have a rededication in the spring,” Brister said with a chuckle.

The last known interment at the cemetery was 1974, Brister said, citing records. Since then, there’s been little upkeep done by North Little Rock, which owns the cemetery by default, she said.

“When North Little Rock annexed Levy, they inherited the cemetery,” Brister said. “It appears that this was part of the second 40-acre tract that Mr. Thomas bought, but it wasn’t paid for when he died in 1885. His wife paid it off in 1890 and got the deed. She did a quick claim deed for the 2 acres that the cemetery is on. A lot of people thought it was a pauper’s cemetery, but it wasn’t.”

In addition to the veterans buried in the cemetery, Clark has found landowners and doctors, researching old census records and other documents found on the genealogy website Ancestry.com.She’s also contacted relatives and gotten great stories. She said she feels like she knows the people buried there.

“There was a Shillcutt girl who was supposedly murdered by a werewolf. There’s a doctor here who was listed as a rectal specialist,” she said, while walking around the site pointing to various graves. “We found that this lady is actually buried here next to her first husband and not her second. And these families turned out to be neighbors.”

The Shillcutt family owned farmland and woods along the bayou in Big Rock, Clark said.

Jim Brewer, 76, of Conway was among the easier relatives to find, Clark noted. He didn’t move very far away. She’s had contact with next of kin as far away as Minnesota.

Brewer has since bought headstones for his relatives buried at the cemetery and is a member of the Friends of Thomas. The graves were originally marked with small metal placards and a few stones, Brewer said.

“I remembered that big ol’ tree. I remember my daddy is buried by that big tree and then my grandpa and grandma are buried by him,” he said of a large oak near the north edge of the site. “I wanted to get the headstones before I leave here. My kids and family are about all gone. If I was gone, nobody would remember them.”

Brewer said he’s happy to see the site “looking like a cemetery and not a junkyard.”

“I knew the cemetery from way back when my daddy was buried there, my grandpa was buried there and my grandma is buried there,” he said. “It was a forgotten cemetery. Completely forgotten.The Thomas folks had died. They’ve done a lot of work getting it cleaned up and getting recognized again by the city of North Little Rock.”

Brister noted that the North Little Rock City Beautiful Commission has invited representatives from the group to a December meeting to discuss future work. She said they’ve reached the limits of their volunteer knowledge and need help.

Among the plans for the cemetery are fencing and restoration of some of the family plots, which have crumbling brick walls, held up only by the earth that’s pushed up around them nearly covering the walls up. A veteran’s memorial garden is also planned in what was likely once a creekbed, but is now filled with rocks and tree branches.

In the meantime, Clark can be found at the cemetery, at 3800 Division St. most days, before or after working at Edgewood.

She’s waiting for the daffodils to bloom.

Many century-old graves are lined with the yellow flowers.

They may reveal more of the cemetery’s secrets.

Arkansas, Pages 19 on 11/28/2010

Upcoming Events