Saturday, January 24, 2009

Hiking to the cemetery.

This top photo was taken from the bluffs of Kansas overlooking the Missouri river.
The State of Missouri is in the distant background.
We were standing inside of the predominantly "Taylor" cemetery.

The "Taylor's", cemetery,
also included their slaves.
I think that there were at least 30 plus burial spots.
Pictured above is a "Robinson" head stone. I wondered why she was buried here.
The Taylor's had many carved headstones.
Some of them were very beautiful, but many were turned over , or have been damaged in some way.
Their slaves had rocks that marked where they had been buried.


This cemetery was secluded, and we had to hike a trail that was at least a mile long . It was a beautiful peaceful setting. However I thought that the markers of the slaves graves were very unsettling.
This is Joseph complaining about how difficult it was to walk back to the car.
Then I explained to him that on his right beside his hand was a "cow patty ", he quickly stood up.

3 comments:

Melody K said...

Old cemeteries are so fascinating; especially if you are connected to the families there. But I'm with you, the slave graves only marked with a rock would be unsettling; a reminder that some people were indeed treated as less than fully human.
That was cute about Joseph and the cow patty!

belinda said...

I was confused by the slaves because I know that Kansas was a "Free State".

Lola said...

How does one get "in" the exclusive Taylor cemetary?

BTW, the trees look just like I remember winter in Missouri, and I guess Kansas too!