RICHMOND —
When Thomas J. Smith III and Donald Roberts were elected to the Richmond Cemetery board 11 years ago this November, the election had been prompted by a lawsuit.
Many families who owned plots in the cemetery were unhappy, and much maintenance work needed to be done on the cemetery that was founded in 1851 and contains the graves of many historical figures, Roberts said.
“I was late to the first board meeting, so I ended up being elected chair,” Smith said.
After more than a decade, Smith is rotating off the board and Roberts is succeeding him as chair. Retired Circuit Judge William T. Jennings is taking Smith place on the board.
“We’ve made a lot of progress,” Roberts said after Smith chaired his last board meeting Friday. “We haven’t made everybody happy, but when Tom and I first got on the board, I don’t think anybody was happy. Our first goal was to clean up the cemetery, and now, I think at least 90 percent of the people are happy.”
Some people with family members buried in the cemetery say, “It looks better than we’ve ever seen it,” Roberts said.
“I think we have good people working for the cemetery,” Smith said, “both in the office and on the grounds. They keep the grounds looking relatively good throughout the year.”
Not everyone is happy, however. Gayle Hackworth, who attended Friday’s board meeting and also called the Richmond Register, said groundskeepers do not trim around grave markers and allow mowers to blow cut grass onto them. If the grass is wet, she said, it clings to the markers and then gets baked on by the sun, leaving stains.
Demolition of the old two-story house, that once served as a caretaker’s home, and construction of a modern brick office building have been among the highlights of Smith’s tenure as board chair, Roberts said.
Contracting to have the apparently unused areas of the cemetery surveyed with ground-penetrating radar is another highlight. While results of the survey are not complete, areas verified to be unused may be divided into plots and sold, generating income for the cemetery. From 40 to 80 plots could be made available, Smith said.
About 10 acres of the 85-acre cemetery is undeveloped. It will go into use after the remaining 2,000 burial plots are filled. The cemetery has about 200 burials each year, Roberts said.
For Smith and Roberts, serving as cemetery trustees is more than a civic duty. Both have three generations of ancestors buried in there, including both of their parents.
“My great-grandfather, Thomas J. Smith I, moved to Richmond in the 1880s from Knox County,” Smith said, “and he was buried here in 1921.”
Smith’s father also served on the cemetery board, as did both of his uncles.
Both men have ancestors who fought in the Civil War.
One of Smith’s maternal great-grandfathers, Lindsay Blanton, was a Confederate chaplain. He later served as a president of Central University, the predecessor to Eastern Kentucky University.
Union veteran Phillip Roberts, who is buried in the cemetery, was a great uncle of the new board chair.
As Madison County prepares to observe the anniversary of the 1862 Battle of Richmond, the descendant of a Confederate veteran is turning leadership of the cemetery board over to a descendant of a Union veteran.
“Now, that’s a sign of progress and civility,” Smith said.
Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.
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