Anita Campbell
County Reporter
Memorial Day is a time when family and friends visit cemeteries where their loved ones have been laid to rest, but local historical buff Jeff Polly has been spending a great deal of time at a local cemetery working to restore headstones and maintain the cemetery in general.
Mount Herman Cemetery located in southern Benton County, south of Fristoe, was in need of repair as some stones were hard to read. The oldest stone was Robert Wright Kirby who was a veteran of the Wars of 1812. Kirby was a relative of Polly’s so he was very interested in researching the people buried at Mount Herman and helping to restore the stones.
John Fergerson of Oregon and Dennis Kopp of Odessa also helped with the clean up and repair. Fergerson reached out to the Benton County Historical Society to find the location of his relative’s grave and Polly who is the vice president of the BCHS helped with the cleanup.
Mount Herman, also known as the Joplin Cemetery or the Kirby Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Benton County. The last person to be buried in Mount Herman was Lorinda Caroline Minner McShane in 1933. Since then the cemetery had fallen into disrepair.
Another forgotten Benton County cemetery is Halligan Cemetery located at the corner of U.S. Highway 65 and Missouri Highway 7 to the west of Pump and Munch.
At one point many years ago, the headstones at Halligan Cemetery were removed and used as posts and then later the stones were discovered in the creek where the water had destroyed the inscriptions. While it is impossible to know where these graves are located, the stones have been repaired and placed in what was once Halligan Cemetery.
“Some of the stones were discovered by a farmer when he was plowing up the land,” said Polly. “In fact, one stone was taken by someone who just happened to be driving by when the farmer was plowing.”
One of the stones was inscribed as Richard Halligan born in 1817 and died in 1878. Two Civil War soldiers, John Potter and David Kidwell, are also buried in the Halligan Cemetery.
“There are many small cemeteries located in Benton County since most people were buried close to their homes,” said Polly. “People researching their family history find a cemetery to be a good resource.”
When Truman Dam was built, many cemeteries had to be moved and many of those remains were excavated and taken to what is now the Shawnee Cemetery. To find out more about area cemeteries, check out the Benton County Museum for information.
