SITE NEAR WEIR TO BE STUDIED FOR GRAVES

Cattle said to be grazing on cemetery from which gravestones were stolen

Sometime between 1958 and 1964, a cemetery at the southern edge of Weir---one which may have contained as many as 400 graves---disappeared from view.

That cemetery may reappear---at least by boundaries and a symbolic marker---now that the Cherokee County commissioners have authorized a scientific study of the site where the cemetery is listed in legal records.

Norma Tolson of Wichita, who grew up and attended school in Weir, met with the commissioners this week and received approval for a Wichita State University professor and his students in an archeology class to conduct the study.

Tolson told the commissioners that accounts from residents of the area, as well as printed records, indicate a cemetery for black people was located in an area southwest of the Weir Grade School and was visibly present until at least the late 1950's.

The Wichita woman said she has been told by a resident of the area the cemetery was fenced and contained gravestones at least until 1958. The resident, who left the area at that time, moved back in 1964 to find the grave stones gone and cattle grazing on the site.

Not first site

Tolson told the county board of a study she and a WSU team had undertaken in 2001 of an area south of Scammon where it has long been said a number of black miners are buried.

County Commissioner Dewey Smith said his parents lived in that area southeast of Scammon and had told him an account of burials there. He noted his family lived a mile east of where a stockade built to house black miners and the nearby burial site are said to have been located.

It is said black miners from the Alabama and Tennessee area were lured to the area by promises of high wages and new homes, but brought here in railroad cattle cars and not told of a labor strike underway by angry white miners.

The 2001 study of the Scammon burial site by the WSU team was inclusive because the ground had previously been disturbed by mining activity, later cave-ins and subsequent filling.

Tolson said members of her family worked in the mines and she would like to see at least a plaque put at the area of the Weir cemetery. Commissioner Collins suggested a stone marker would be better, as there are those who might steal a plaque.

Cemetery, not farm

The Wichita author said land for the black cemetery at Weir had originally been provided to the miners and had never been part of a private farm, although it has since apparently been utilized for that purpose.

Records show land surrounding the cemetery site changed private ownership in 1936. The deed transaction at that time says land not included in the sale was a tract used as a graveyard.

Tolson explained that recently the Kansas state attorney general's office was contacted concerning the situation. That resulted in a new deed for the cemetery land being issued to Cherokee Township.

New verification

Documents show that on June 26, 2003, Central National Resources, Inc., a Delaware Corporation formerly known as Central Coal & Coke Corporation, filed a corporation quitclaim deed in Jackson County, Mo., assigning ownership of the cemetery land to Cherokee Township located in Cherokee County, Ks. The deed was filed by the township on October 31, 2003 at the Cherokee County courthouse and recorded by the county clerk and county register of deeds.

The deed affirms ownership of Cherokee Township of a piece of land in Section 33, Township 31, Range 24 in Cherokee County.

Pinpointing the location

The documents describe the parcel of land as beginning 495 feet west of the southeast corner of the northwest quarter of section 33, then north 210 feet, then west 100 feet, then south 210 feet, and then east 100 feet to the point of beginning---a rectangle 210 by 100 feet.

The square mile which Section 33 encompasses contains a small portion of the southern and western city limits of Weir and the rural area to the southwest.

The legal description pinpoints the cemetery land as being just northwest of the center of Section 33. The 'southeast corner of the northwest quarter of a square mile section is the center of that mile section. While a commonly used cemetery would have had an access road, two visits there by the Advocate in recent days found no marked or visible roads---only farmland and a cattle pasture.

The mile section where the black cemetery is said to be located is bordered by 20th and 30th streets to the west and east. The north boundary is K103 Highway, which is also Weir Main Street. Ironically, the southern boundary is Liberty Road.

Weir Attendance Center, the elementary school for that portion of Cherokee Unified School District 247, sits within the Weir city limits in the northeast corner of the mile section.

The city of Weir has had no part in and was not involved in the situation concerning the black cemetery. The area though to be the cemetery is situated outside the city limits in Cherokee Township, which is a geographical subdivision of the county.

The attempt to re-establish--or at least recognize that the cemetery at Weir exists---is part of Tolson's continuing effort to accurately record and recognize the full history and heritage of the county where she was raised.

Aside from business

Very little of the meeting between the three white commissioners and the black Weir native was actually spent on official business for authorization of a scientific study of the cemetery site.

When Tolson first explained the reason for her presence, the commissioners immediately agreed to the study, with Commissioner Pat Collins saying he would like to also talk to the WSU team about another cemetery of which he knows...."that isn't there anymore."

Much of the session---which all three commissioners called the high point of their business-filled day---was spent in mutual recollections of people and events in the Weir area.

Autographed copies

When the Wichita resident mentioned she has already written a book---"An Account of Afro Americans in Weir, Kansas, 1868-1988"---the commissioners asked where they could acquire a copy. Tolson, who was accompanied to the meeting by her son and young grandson, asked the son to see if there were copies of the book in their car. The result was all three commissioners and County Clerk Sandy Soper, who serves as recording secretary of commission meetings, each purchased a copy of the book and had it signed by Tolson.

Commissioner Smith and Tolson shared accounts they have heard of burials at the Scammon site, which came about after what may have been a disease outbreak and what may have been murder.

Commissioner Smith recalled a large pipe which laid in that area for many years and was said to have been intended by the white miners for use as a cannon to shoot into the stockade. Either the strike ended or other events apparently kept that from happening.

Where's that from here?

During the reminiscing, mention was made of the former Jackson's Grocery Store in Weir, a building which still sits at the corner of Main and Dreber Streets.

"We still mark everything in the county from there," Commissioner Collins said of the Weir landmark, which was operated by George Jackson and his wife.

Commissioner Smith recalled his father saying Jackson's was the original convenience store---"because if he (Jackson) was there, it was open."

County Clerk Soper recalled the store had "saved her life" once when she realized she didn't have enough candy to throw to youngsters along the route of the annual Weir Homecoming parade.

After attending grade school and graduating from high school in Weir in 1946, Tolson attended a year at what is now Pittsburg State University. Upon her family moving to Wichita, she earned a bachelor of science degree and later a masters degree from Wichita State. After a career, she retired in 2000. Since publishing her book on black families in Weir, Tolson is now writing a book on the desecration of black cemeteries in Kansas.

The Scammon site in 2001

The previous efforts of Tolson and the WSU-conducted scientific study at the site south of Scammon were reported in the Advocate on October 29, 2001. Part of that account included:

For 100 years in northern Cherokee County, stories have been told of bodies buried in a field south of Scammon. The bodies are said to be those of black miners brought here from Alabama and Tennessee around the turn of the century. A labor strike was underway in the coal mines and the black miners were brought in to replace striking white miners.

Murder or disease?

One version of the story says cold-blooded, mass murder occurred one night in Scammon. Three street cars were carrying black miners. When the cars stopped, they were boarded by a group of white men who bludgeoned the blacks to death.

It is said that 18 bodies were taken to a site south of the city. A trench was dug, the bodies placed in it and the trench refilled.

Another story agrees that black miners are buried in the field, but says the men died when disease broke out in the crowded stockade where the miners were being housed.

Seeking answers

A hundred years later a Wichita State University professor and his students used modern day science in an attempt to determine if either account is true, and if a pasture near an electrical sub-station at Coalfield Road and 10th Street is indeed a burial site.

On Saturday, Oct. 27, 2001, Dr. Peer H. Moore-Jansen and a group of graduate students from Wichita State brought to the site equipment which might be able to determine if a grave or graves exist there.

The equipment---a direct current resistivity meter originally developed by the petroleum industry for use in oil exploration---gives a profile of the ground to a depth of about six feet.

Nothing disturbed

WSU student Scott Hall explained the equipment is used in what is called non-invasive archeology. Graves or other items can be located without being disturbed.

The area to be searched was marked in a grid and the resistivity meter was moved to take a reading about every foot in strips one meter wide. The many readings taken were recorded by the meter and later transferred to a computer to be analyzed.

Dr. Moore-Jansen explained the meter does not actually 'see' bones. Rather, the readings taken provide a profile of the layers of ground and a pattern if the ground has been disturbed. The readings may show an outline of a grave or a depression in the ground.

First-hand account

The Wichita State professor and his students came to the Scammon site at the request of Tolson who explained she had written an article for a Wichita newspaper and as a result received telephone calls from people who said they had information about a burial site south of Scammon.

A woman told her that as a child she had been taken to the site by her father and they had seen a depression in the ground.

Mrs. Tolson got in touch with the university and Dr. Moore-Jansen became involved.

Well qualified

Originally from Denmark, Moore-Jansen is chairman of the department of anthropology at Wichita State and also an associate professor of criminal justice. Forensic anthropology is the doctor's specialty and he has been all over the world working with law enforcement officials, Tolson explained.

The university professor said he became involved in the project after receiving a call from the school's vice president.

"We teach academics, but we're also a part of the community," said Moore-Jansen.

He added that the search was also a learning event for the students, all of whom volunteered for the project. The equipment used was on loan from Ft. Riley Army base.

Evidence remains

Even after 100 years, there would likely still be significant portions of bones remaining in a grave, the forensics anthropologist said. He added that if graves were located, the results would be shared with the community and several options would be available.

A marker could be placed at the grave site, or the remains could be exhumed and relocated elsewhere. If bones were found and exhumed, it could be determined if the cause of death was murder or disease, the doctor said, adding such findings are his specialty.

Personally involved

Normal Tolson's father was John Young. She grew up in Weir but has no immediate family remaining in this area now.

The Wichita woman noted that it was mining that also brought her family to the area. Her grandfather came to Cherokee County work in the mines and later owned a mine.

Columbus Daily Advocate

by Al Storey, Advocate editor