9 Months later…

It has been a year since my parents and I met Julie Fineman. She met us at the cemetery, and then we went to her house and saw the cemetery she transformed next door. She explained how she transformed the cemetery next door. She got her neighborhood involved, and it snowballed into a community that joined together to create a beautiful masterpiece. We loved the idea!

3rd accident this year at the Albert Carver Cemetery, 2024

I started researching Carver's history as we headed into the fall season. I grew up knowing the history of Moses Carver, who raised the young scientist George W. Carver, but I knew nothing about Albert, his wife, Mary, or anyone in the family who was buried at the cemetery. I wanted to know who was at the cemetery and was curious about how life was back then.

I had already learned that my great great granddad, John C. West, was one of the last Cherokee Lighthorseman on my maternal side. He was the captain. Basically, the chief of police for the Cherokee. He and his brother, Frank, dealt with crimes, murders, and robberies. The most famous of the criminals was Sam and Belle Starr. Belle was actually from a prominate family from Pleasant Grove. She was well educated but chose crime as a career. Uncle Frank had arrested Sam, and when Sam was released, he went and found Frank at home. They had a shoot out both were killed instantly. There is a West cemetery in Porum, OK that only has 5 graves. John, Margaret (wife), Ruth (sister), Thomas (son) and a Joel (unknown). This little cemetery is inside a little chain link fence.

Now it is time to see what I can find on the Carver side of my family. It is interesting to see how both of my gg granddads line up in history. While John was in Porum Ok, Albert was in Dallas raising cattle.

I spent most of the winter months tracing my Carver history. There are 28 memorials (from find a grave). I have been on Ancestry and Find a Grave, trying to find descendants to see if they are interested in the cemetery's fence issues and it’s upcoming transformation. I have spent countless hours researching. Sending many emails to people that have saved a headstone of any Carver in the cemetery. I found out I could also sponsor a memorial on Find a grave. This will allow me to post more than the limited pictures of 5.

I find it interesting to see the census reports from the past. It shows where they lived, who lived in the home/farm, their education, and even how many hours they worked & if they had a radio. Back then it was not until 1900 that women gained property and wage rights. Women were not allowed to wear pants until 1910! In 1920, white women could vote, but black women were not allowed to vote until 1965.

I soon learned that The Carvers were all farmers and seemed to take care of each other by sharing the family farm. Albert & Mary had 5 boys, all buried at the Albert Carver Cemetery(It should be the Albert & Mary Carver cemetery). George is my great grandfather. The census reports would show the women as “homemakers” or “keeps house.” The women took care of the family and always had several kids. The cemetery has several babies buried there. Ophelia Carver lost twins and one other. Another Ophie Carver lost 1 child at 3 yrs. old, Ingle. Another infant was Thelma LuciIe, parents are Mary Lucinda & John A. Carver. also noticed on the census reports that my great-grandmother, Josie, lost a child. he had 7 living and lost one. I do not have any information on the baby she lost, and he/she is not in the cemetery. As you walk the cemetery and see the baby headstones, it is hard to imagine the grief the families had.

I was tracing my gg grandmothers side, Josie Humphries, and discovered that I am related to Kathy Ann (also part of the CLM project). Josie’s mom, Minerva Coates, had 14 kids! Her sister, Harriet, is where Kathy Ann’s mom was found. Kathy Ann introduced Julie to my family cemetery. Small world!

Every cemetery received a metal sign to place at the entrance of cemetery to introduce the CLM project. Our cemetery entrance faces the busy street, it is never used and goes unnoticed. I had 2 large banners made (with the information on the smaller sign) and placed them on the opposite side of the cemetery so traffic could safely view each one. Unfortunately, one of the banners was stolen. We still have one left adjacent to 711. I hope it stays put. I may have to paint a 4x4 sign myself and screw it down. Going forward I will need to plan on anything to be a target of theft. I spent countless hours online trying to figure out how to find out about the Dallas Police Camera at the busy intersection. There is also a sizeable, tall police camera placed by 711.

I had not been on Facebook for about 10 years. I created a FB page for the cemetery when my parents were trying to get help from the City of Dallas. I joined the other CLM cemetery pages and also started to follow other pages that were about pollination, gardening, other cemetery enthusiast pages, etc. I quickly learned I knew nothing about pollination, flora, and fauna & to keep the leaves and stumps. There is a lot of information to learn. We need to spread the news and have it be a good “contagious” for Mother Earth.

Throughout the months, we stayed connected via Zoom calls. We all waited for Spring to come to see what native plants each cemetery had.

In January, I started the 501c3. I have researched many types of grants to apply for. Some grants have certain time frames of the year within which you can apply. When you apply for the grants, you must complete a questionnaire. One of the questions is: Is your establishment close to our business? I made a big aerial map of all the large businesses in the area and started to hit those first. So far, I have not been able to acquire any grants.

Several years ago, a Boy Scout troop helped mow and clean up trash at the cemetery. I tried to contact them, but they are no longer active. I had a few meetings with an ex-Scout and planned to find a new Boy Scout troop interested in helping us out.

I had visited the cemetery several times after a rain, and I noticed that there was the low spot where water would always accumulate. One trip the ATT repair guy was using a pump to get the water out his man hole. The long hose he had the water drained to was headed to the cemetery. I told him I need to have ATT water the plants in the future! There is a ton of electrical boxes by ATT and other companies around the perimeter. It seems like we could have some of there electric for an outdoor plug.

Since we were letting the grass grow, I started to focus on the headstone area. It was all overgrown with leaves & some weeds and branches. The trees need trimming. Even though we are at a busy intersection, the overgrown trees would make it feel like nobody could see you. We did get a few comments from people at the light who were encouraging us. We worked on transforming the area from weeds to mulch. The best solution would have been to have a truck deliver mulch so we could start working. Logistically, a truck would not work. There is a small gated entrance for a car to enter but not a big truck carrying mulch. We used bag mulch and drove a pickup load adjacent to the headstones. I brought a cart to move the mulch, and it worked great! A truckload looks more considerable in the truck than on the ground. We have about 100+ more bags that we could use. I am working on getting the tree trims and using a mulcher to spread in the needed areas. Once we complete that, I will better understand how many more bags we need.

February:
2/15 Monthly meeting at Julies

March:

It was time to take pictures of what was growing. I also wanted to see what trees we have & I was able to use an app. that tells the identity. Some of the cemeteries bought plants and had to bring water up to water all summer. I decided not to plant due to the increased heat coming. I did get a few bee balm plants that I am growing at home to replant at the cemetery.

3/15 Zoom call

April:

We have our 1st flora and fauna survey in May. So, we did a dry run at Oakland Cemetery and were able to use the INaturalist app. take pictures of each species we found in a designated area. These areas will be used for the next 2 years. We then went to Julie’s to learn how to use the Texas A&M portal to upload our research. We will be doing the surveys 3 times a year, May, July & October.

We also began to put 2 rolls of weed fabric down around the headstone area to prepare it for mulch. Each truckload only holds about 30 bags of mulch.

Later in the month, my notes show rain, rain, rain. The Pioneer Picnic was moved inside the church. After the meeting, I met a lady who told me to use Find a Grave to research ancestors (vs. Ancestry). It was after that I realized I could sponsor a memorial and post more pictures than the average user. I wanted to show the damage to the cemetery to get people's attention.

May:

The flora survey was delayed by about a week due to the rain. We did the 1st survey the 1st week of May.

Met w/Ebony and Michael (from Inaturalist group working at Oakland). Michael walked the cemetery and picked out 2 invasive plants. He suggested we keep the prairie land the same and to focus on adding new plants around the headstone area (around October).

Monthly meeting at Julies 5/20

June:

The month of June I continued to keep the cemetery weed wacked and we maintained the trash clean up. There is so much trash on the corner (across from 711) we need a city trash can. I thought about how I can buy a trash can and secure it to a tree or fence so it will stay put. I made a wooden box that holds trash bags and gloves. I screwed it to a tree so nobody could take it.

Monthly meeting at Julies 6/23

July:

Flora survey on 7/10. It was hot, so we started early @ 8:30.

Scot, Kat, and May helped with the survey. I had a small batch of mulch to put out, and I weed-wacked. Trash also needed to be picked up. I also started to mark the headstones on a map to audit if we were missing any headstones, etc.

Volunteer day: 7/20. Brought another load of mulch to spread. Put more weed fabric out to get ready for the next load.

I also started measuring the fence areas that had been struck to determine the number of boulders to place in the needed areas. Julie, Kathy, and I went to Waxahachie to pick out boulders for our cemeteries. Julie showed us how some of the boulders have been made into a water feature. This will allow water to the birds and other animals. However, we have no power or water at the cemeteries. This will be a big challenge! I purchased a small solar fountain to try out at my house. I found that the water was drying up almost daily in the hot heat. The fountain ended up not working by the end of the summmer. If we try to do something similar at the cemetery, keeping the fountain basin filled during the hotter months will be impossible.

August:

8/16 Volunteer day:

I picked up another load of mulch, picked up trash, weed-whacked, fixed the signage, and put up a few bee houses and tree faces. The cemetery has been such an eye sore for so long. I want the kids sitting at the stoplight to see some of the hidden faces and birdhouses.

The trees need to be trimmed. I reached out to a local company and have not heard back. I am trying to get someone who will mulch the trees as they trim them. I am curious how much mulch we will get. I still need alot more mulch and I am hoping we will utilize the mulch from the tree trimming in the needed areas.

I also reached out to a welder that was interested in helping repair the fence. I have not heard back. So, I will reach out to more companies to get a quote on the repairs of the fence. The fence is going to be a logistical issue. I need to get the rod iron fence moved back 3’ to accommodate the large boulders. We do not have the funds to get the boulders and repair the fence simultaneously. I have been working on making a no dig, farm-style fence that will temporarily be placed behind the boulders (until we get funds to repair the rod iron fence).

9/11 Volunteer day:

We got rain that day. I took the lawnmower but was not able to use it. There is a small area to the side of the headstones where I want to have wildflower seeds spread. I need to get the area mowed, tilled, and cleaned up to create a small wildflower area. I had another load of mulch that we spread. I was able to weed whack and place a few bee houses up. As we picked up trash, we had a surprise volunteer. He wanted to help us pick up the trash, so we gave him gloves, a bag, and a trash picker. How much trash blows in the cemetery from the busy street amazes me. I had intentions of measuring for the boulders and marking were to place. Since we had rain we were not able to do it. A&TT also had the sidewalk marked and had done some kind of work with w/placing equipment under the sidewalk. They left a lot of trash, and we picked it up.