The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is
copyright 2003 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the
permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at
http://www.RootsForum.com.
Victory: Endangered Cemetery Named a Historic Landmark
Occasionally genealogists win a battle. In the May 26, 2003 edition of this
newsletter, I wrote an article entitled, "Move the Dead for a Commuter Rail
Line." I described the efforts of the public officials in Charlotte, North
Carolina, who planned to dig up 950 graves in a historic cemetery and to
relocate them in order to put in a new railroad line. You can read that
article at
http://www.rootsforum.com/archives/news0321.htm.
This week the Charlotte City Council designated Elmwood and Pinewood
cemeteries historic landmarks. Council members voted 9-1 for the designation
after dozens of people with pro-cemetery signs, stickers, and T-shirts
packed the chamber. A few showed the council photos and portraits of their
dead relatives. And Shanna Palmer, a leader in the effort, brought a 6-foot
wooden coffin to the meeting to underscore her point.
The designation will make it more difficult for city and state officials to
disturb graves for a rail line to north Mecklenburg -- but doesn't stop it
entirely.
You can read more about this in an article in the Charlotte Observer at
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/6104992.htm.
To discuss this story further, please visit the newsletter Discussion Board
at
http://www.RootsForum.com and click on "Discussion Board."
Sam Cline
Morgan County Historian [IHB/IHS]
Hoosier History & Genealogy
http://www.hoosierweb.org/
The candle light will always be gleaming through the sycamores.
The latch string is always out.