KYCLAY-L Archives

Archiver > KYCLAY > 2004-02 > 1075648091


From: "Jess Wilson" <>
Subject: [KYCLAY] CEMETERIES IN JACKSON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 10:08:19 -0500


CEMETERIES IN JACKSON COUNTY, KENTUCKY

By Jess Wilson


There are two books of reports of surveys of all the known cemeteries in Jackson County. The first was done by Judy and her mother Jean Smith. The second by Pauline Kerby-McCowan and Judy Kirby-Ball. Note the two spellings of their maiden names. I claim no credit for the fact that Jackson County, Kentucky has the most complete record of graves of any county I know of except maybe neighboring Estill County. Never the less, I wonder about the following:

One Saturday I was driving between the two cemeteries at Tyner when I noticed my friend Lester Reynolds and some of his friends in the Reynolds section. I stopped.

At that time Lester Reynolds was the Executive-Secretary of the Registered Engineers of Kentucky. His friends in the cemetery were engineers from various offices in the state. He was showing them his family cemetery. They jokingly said that they were forming The Kentucky Cemetery Restoration Association.

I thought they were serious, I was taken in. I took a group picture and made the story into an article for my column "It Happened Here" in the Coop`s newsletter. When the magazine came out the article was sent to the many engineering offices and they all had a good laugh about how they had fooled me. Then someone said "That sounds like a good idea." They then incorporated The Kentucky Cemetery Restoration Society.

A member of the Society at Glasgow, I have forgotten his name, got excited and lobbied with the Kentucky Legislature to pass a law awarding the Kentucky Historical Society $200,000 every two years to promote a program to record and protect the graves in all the cemeteries in the state and locate them on topo maps.

I was appointed Chairman for Jackson County, and was furnished form sheets and copies of all the topo maps covering Jackson County. I never did anything about the survey.

If I had anything to do with the subsequent surveys of the cemeteries in Jackson it may have been that Jean Smith was the wife of my able assistant, Claymon Smith. Jean and her daughter, Judy may have got the idea from me. I think the word is inadvertently. .

As to the other book: The Kentucky Historical Society`s program that was financed by the grant may have asked the Jackson County Public Library to have a survey made. The library contacted Pauline McCowan and Judy Ball.


This thread: