Jamie Gifford
Patty Jo Dederich
History 2700-01
Fall 2001
Cedar City Cemetery: Points of Interest Brochure
How The Project Came To Be:
The emphasis of our service-learning project was decided upon in a round about sort of way. Initially it was the brainchild of Jamie Gifford who was going to approach it as a single person project. Jamie was struggling with the all too typical problem of having a lot of different interests in history and no clue where to begin. While looking through the service-learning packet provided at the beginning of the semester she thought of mapping out and highlighting historical sites of interest in the area so as to make it available to the public at large. Then, having done a minimal amount of research, she came to realize that there was such a map already in existence. However, the concept led to other avenues of exploration. She found there was a interest in individuals living in Old Cedar Fort and the Desert Alphabet, which was used on the headstones of old Mormon pioneers. Ultimately, these two ideas led her to the cemetery. While she was there, Wally Davis, the cemetery sexton, showed her the earliest cemetery records and gave her a brief tour and some highlights of the cemetery. It occurred to Jaime as she talking to the sexton that he was spending a lot of time showing her around when there were many other important matters he could be attending to. She thought that it would be easier if there were a guide through and map of the cemetery. She asked him if there was one. He told her that they had thought of doing one, but that with all they had to do there was just not enough time to create one. Jamie had found her project.
Having had a short tour of the cemetery, Jamie had a decent idea as to how she wanted to approach the brochure. She eventually came to the conclusion that it was the perfect project but it looked like it had the potential of consuming a lot of her time. When Patty was talking to her in class one day, it was found that Patty was also having difficulty in finding an appropriate project. She had many ideas but they all seemed geared toward politics rather than history. Seeing a glimmer of light, Jamie asked Patty if she would like to collaborate on the brochure for the cemetery. Patty was intrigued with the idea and eagerly hopped aboard.
During our first meeting we tried to define the topics that we wanted to include in the brochure. The list was quite extensive. It included: highlighting prominent mayors, focusing on the different styles of the designers of the headstones, biographies on prominent individuals and where they are buried, a short clip on the founding of Cedar City, all the different struggles the cemetery had during its existence, and much more.
We came to the conclusion that the best thing to do would be to research each of these topics and then weed out anything that we found was not pertinent to the brochure. Both of us went to the SUU Library. Out of the four or five books we found, there were basically two books that covered the topics that we were curious about (see sources). As we meet again we decided that our scope for the brochure was too broad if we wanted to remain true to the original vision of the project; to create a brochure of the cemetery that the sexton could pull off his computer and change if needed, not a brochure of the area. We decided to reprioritize and decide what was really needed in the brochure. The question could be asked, why didn’t we approach Wally Davis and ask him what he wanted in the brochure? A couple of reasons: one, Wally had already given us a tour and had obviously pointed out the things that he felt were important. Two, Wally was the sexton and had worked at the cemetery for some time and knew the stories; what would interest the general public would be mundane to him, since he was so familiar with it.
Narrowing our scope was not as difficult as one might think. We found that if we highlighted certain mayors it would take a great deal of research on our part to determine just exactly who these individuals were. Also many of them were not buried in the cemetery and others are still alive. It was easy to discard that point of interest. We were able to ask similar questions with the rest of our list and finally decided on a select few. Our brochure would cover the history of the cemetery and Cedar City, interesting headstones in the historical part of the cemetery, a blurb on the deterioration and eventual loss of the old headstones, a section on the Veterans Memorial, the cemetery wall, and the Paiute Indian burial grounds. These topics were the only ones that held true to the vision of the brochure.
Project Timetable:
The first few weeks proved to be quite smooth. We were able to stick to the scheduled hours that we had originally planned. We had a lot of enthusiasm and were eager to work. The first few meetings were spent discussing and debating ideas. All in all, we seemed to have the same ideas and goals for the project. As we became more involved in the project, the more detailed everything seemed to get. We found that photography was also going to play a big part in our project. We needed time for research and discussion as well as time to take pictures, develop them, and then learn how to scan and modify them on a computer. Needless to say, with each meeting the project became far more involved than we had anticipated. Overall, from discussing ideas, to touring museums and visiting historical sites, by the time we were done the project had taken about fifty-five working hours.
The Project’s Audience:
From the beginning, we had planned on reaching genealogists, cemetery buffs, tourists, as well as Cedar City and local area residents. We thought that this would be useful to them in finding family members, exploring the cemetery, and just as a piece of local history. After revising our entries for the brochure, we discovered that it might not be as useful to genealogists except that some might find that their ancestors are buried in the cemetery but not recorded in cemetery records. They might also find that their ancestors are buried in an unmarked grave. This is because they started burying people in the cemetery in 1853 but did not start keeping records until 1858. Genealogists will learn that they might be able to have a mock headstone placed in the cemetery simply to represent their deceased relatives.
Local Contacts:
There were not very many contacts involved in our project. We only involved three people in our research. Janet Seegmiller was the first person that we approached with our idea. She is the director of the SUU Special Collections Department in the campus library. Janet provided a stack of information about the Deseret Alphabet and how to decipher sentences written in that phonetic language. She also pointed us to some books that would give us information about Cedar City, its mayors, and the first settlers. Janet was key in directing the research part of our project. She is well versed in the history of Iron County because she wrote the historical book about it for the Utah Counties Book Series.
The next person who assisted us, as was mentioned previously, was Wally Davis. He is the cemetery sexton and was essential in providing history about the cemetery and the people buried there. He was very gracious about offering his assistance whenever we needed it. Unfortunately, our schedules did not coincide with his as the project progressed. This is how we came in contact with the third person that assisted us. We only know her by the name of Sharon.
Sharon is a grounds keeper for Iron County Parks and Recreation. She specializes in maintain the cemetery grounds. She directed us to the Veterans Memorial and told us about the peculiar story of Mary Jane McCune, which is a particular favorite of hers. She acted as a sort of mediator between Wally and us since we could not meet with him personally. She was very gracious and extremely fun to chat with.
Technology:
The technology involved in this project consisted of a personal computer. Since the cemetery only has the Microsoft Word program on its computer system, we were inclined to use that program so as to efficiently transfer the template brochure to the cemetery’s computer via 3-½ floppy disk. The computer also allowed us to scan the photos with Storm Technology: Imaging by Kodak.
We used a point and shoot camera for the majority of the pictures. For the picture of Nellie Unthank we were able to use a digital camera and had to learn the workings of that particular camera and computer program. Connections to Other Service Learning Projects:
This Service-learning project can be a springboard for many other projects, such as brochures for other cemeteries and Cedar City brochures, as well as a brochure on the Old Cedar Fort. Another idea could stem from the section on the Indian burial ground in the cemetery. This could lead to research on Indian burial rights, beliefs and other issues facing the Paiutes.
Our Personal Perspectives:
Patty: At first I wasn’t sure if this was going to be a fun project, but I was glad to be working on a project. But after we got started and took off on it, I really had a lot of fun. It has sparked an interest in my own personal family history.
One day as we were taking pictures, I remembered an experience I had when my grandmother died. It was my senior year in high school and I was a bit of a brat at the time. We were heading home from Colorado Springs and had stopped in a little town in Colorado called Del Norte. This is where my great grandmother had grown up and a lot of my mother’s side of the family was buried in the cemetery there. My family stopped at the cemetery so my mother could do some genealogy sleuthing. I was bored and got upset at my mother and stormed to the car. I regret now that I didn’t take that opportunity to ask about her family and hear their stories while we were there.
This project has really changed my outlook on life in a way. I realize know why it is important to record history and preserve the history that we do have. I am glad that I was able help Jamie.
Jamie: I was really excited about the opportunity to perform a service to the community that somewhat tied in with my career interests. I am a single mother as well as a student and this combination has the tendency to refrain me from participating in any sort of extracurricular activity. This was a chance for me to find some personal fulfillment in my college career.
I was somewhat frustrated when it came to choosing a project because I had to bridle my passions as far as historical research went. I always have the tendency to make a simple thing become much more difficult than it needs to be. I wanted to find out everything that I could about Cedar City and it’s occupants. Pulling in the reigns was a sad thing to have to do. However, this project allowed me to open my mind to the many services that I could provide to the community as far as its history is concerned. I would really enjoy compiling a listing or book about the many historical buildings in Cedar that are still standing and the ones that have been destroyed. Old architecture fascinates me.
Working for the cemetery was a very fulfilling thing for me to do. I found myself drawn to walking the grounds and admiring the beautiful headstones and mourning over the loss of so many children in our town. I couldn’t help but get a little choked up whenever Patty and I paid the cemetery a visit. Simply reading a headstone and learning a little bit about a person can make connections to the past. I was grateful for this experience.
The project did require much more time than I was prepared to give. I found that some of my other classes were suffering due to this project. I also felt that, with the amount of work that one must put into this service- learning project, one needs to be somewhat compensated with something other than a grade. Maybe the project could be a lab that is required for the class and offers the students an extra credit hour or something. The requirement of writing a ten-page paper at the end of the semester for this project was somewhat difficult to do. Ten pages seem a little unnecessary when the project could be eloquently and effectively summarized in five pages or less.
I definitely learned a great deal by performing this service and would enjoy another opportunity similar to this one. I hope that more professors begin to employ such critical thinking tasks in their classes.
Sources Used in Project Research:
1. Shirts, Morris A., Kathryn H. Shirts. A Trial Furnace: Southern Utah’s Iron Mission. 2000. pgs. 451-478.
2. Jones, Evelyn K., York F. Jones. Mayors of Cedar City. 1986. Misc. pgs.