Tribute

Our Cemeteries Are Our History

By COL(R) Roger King

I spent more than three decades in the Army, and much of that time included participating in and observing the aftermath of death in American society. We treat death differently here. We honor it for the life that came before.

As a young soldier, I served on funeral details; standing in the rain to honor an old soldier with ‘volleys of musketry’. Later, while stationed in Germany, I travelled to Belgium, France, and the Netherlands to participate in ceremonies at the American cemeteries there, honoring the dead of World War II.

In the 1990s, I went on missions to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to search for and repatriate the remains of the missing from the Vietnam War. This cemented for me the thought that America treats death differently than other countries. No other nation on earth would invest the time, talent and treasure to give closure to the more than two thousand families who were unsure of the fate of their loved ones. No other country treats their overseas cemeteries as we do. They are beautifully maintained parks of peace. They are a constant reminder to one and all that Americans sacrificed to save the world, repeatedly. They are also reminders to one and all that America honors those who sacrificed all.

I once stood in the cemetery at Normandy, looking at two particular headstones. They were both carved with the name Roosevelt. Those stones marked the final resting place of two sons of President Theodore Roosevelt. Both died in war. Both died in France, but more than twenty years apart. I write of this simply to note that every grave tells a story. Every burial plot is a paragraph in our history. Some are long, and filled with great meaning to the world; some short, with scant information, but still of great import to the families affected by the loss.

I’ve come to realize that all cemeteries have this in common. They mark our history. Each grave is a page, and taken as a whole, they tell us who we are; what we come from; and possibly, where we’re headed.

The Wharton Cemetery is just such a history book, with almost two hundred years-worth of pages. It should be preserved and cared for. There are many stories there, that speak to who we are. The graves mark good people and bad, rich and poor, celebrated and unknown; but all played a part in making us who we are. The people in those graves made us.

Most people have learned to treat a book with reverence and care; no dog-eared pages, please. We should be no less reverent toward the book of our history embodied by the cemetery.

I can go to the Wharton Cemetery and stand before the grave of George Dawson. He was my cousin; one I never got to know. He served in the Marines, and died in the Pacific during World War II. I can walk a bit, and stand at the grave of Effie Clark, my great aunt. She taught me to recognize birds by their songs, and she made the best fried apple pies this side of heaven. My great grandparents are buried there. My grandparents are buried there. My father and mother are buried there. My history is buried there.

If we feel our lives have worth, we must acknowledge the part the lives honored in the Wharton Cemetery played in giving us the life we enjoy.

Our cemetery is in financial trouble, and needs our support. Many volunteers have given of their time and talent to improve it, but the cemetery needs funding to care for it in years to come. Visit the Wharton, Texas Cemetery Facebook page, and please consider a donation to the Wharton Cemetery Association at PO Box 681, Wharton, TX 77488. Together we can preserve our history for future generations.

Roger King is a retired Colonel in the US Army. He served more than 33 years on active duty, including combat tours in Desert Storm and Afghanistan. He grew up in Wharton County and is a graduate of Boling High School.