- Cemetery Restoration

Conner - Morris Cemetery

In the not too distant past Billy Morris Conner and Genevieve Clatterbuck Conner acquired the 'family homestead' of Bill's Mother's family, the Morris family. A number of years had intervened between the time the Morris family sold the land and moved to other areas and the time that Bill and Genevieve reacquired the land. After they bought the land they discovered that the Morris family cemetery was on the land that they had acquired. During that period of time the cemetery had fallen prey to the effects of time, neglect, and damage by livestock, and was in the deplorable condition that many of our pioneer family cemeteries are in, near extinction. In fact, this cemetery had fared better than many, due to its' location in the remote stretches of Callaway County it had escaped the vandalism that has plagued many family cemeteries located closer to urban centers. For a number of years they had decided to "clean up" the cemetery; but were unable to find the time in their busy family lives to get started on that "clean up" only maintaining it as they had found it.

In early 1999, their son Allen Conner, forty years old at the time, was diagnosed with cancer. After a long and hard fought battle with the disease, he sucummed to the disease in June of 2000. Allen, in his short lifetime, had been deeply involved in the history of Callaway County, a long time member of Elijah Gates Camp Sons of Confederate Veterans and a past President of Kingdom of Callaway Historical Society. It was Allen's decision that he be buried in the family cemetery on the family farm. Acting on this decision, work began in ernest in "cleaning up" the cemetery and that work has been carried on by his parents.

Today, this cemetery stands as one of the finest examples of what can be accomplished with one of the family cemeteries suffering from neglect. A six foot high steel fence guards the lane that winds approximately two hundred feet into the forested land that surrounds the cemetery. This lane opens into a clearing that contains the approximately forty by sixty foot Conner-Morris Cemetery. The cemetery is surrounded by a new six foot high solid steel decorative fence with a decorative steel gate bearing a placque containing "Conner - Morris Cemetery, Established 1820's, Re-established 2000". The cemetery contains approximately 45 original stones ranging from simple field stone markers to moderately ornate tombstones. They are arranged in rows marking the points at which the burials are known to be or at which they were most likely to be. Several of the stones have suffered severe damage and the manner in which they were repaired for placement is exceptional. The broken tablet stones are fitted into a welded aluminum channel on each side of the stone and secured by aluminum cross-members placed so as not to obscure the burial information on the stone (see example at bottom of the page). All stones which were down were set in a new concrete base, in their present positions, which secures the stone in position and minimizes further damage. The cemetery is well maintained from the entry gate, up the two hundred foot path with its benches and newly planted decorative trees, to the cemetery itself.