Yesterday, my wife Candice and I attended a memorial meeting on the Elijah Smith Cemetery in Dingus, Kentucky, in Morgan County. The cemetery is located on Kentucky 437 on White Oak Branch in a very rural part of Morgan county near the Johnson county line and not far from Crockett. The cemetery is a classic old Appalachian mountain cemetery on a high point of land with a pretty fair view and lots of large old trees. It still has an area set aside for church services in the upper corner with about six rows of benches made of 2 x 12's set on concrete blocks. The cemetery is fenced with a good chain link fence and has a gravel road up the hill from the highway. There is even a pulpit built out of a wooden post with a slanted board top on which a preacher can place a Bible or song book and there is a flat platform attached to a tree which fits one of those large orange water jugs. But the road does tend to wash out and become rough at times. It was in pretty good shape yesterday but several people still managed to become temporarily stuck due to driving too slow and having only rear wheel drive. There is a one seat outdoor toilet about a hundred feet further up the ridge above the cemetery which does not have a hole dug but is simply set on the edge of a bank near the edge of the timber. I realize that this is probably not acceptable to most health departments today but since the toilet is generally used only for the memorial meeting or an occasional burial, it gets the job done and a combination of weather and insects does the disposal work.
This is the second time Candice and I have attended this memorial service at the cemetery. We were there two years ago and one was not held last year due to heavy rain. There are 114 memorials documented for the cemetery on Find A Grave but there are also several with only sand stone markers which are not documented and so far as I know the identities of the people buried in them is no longer remembered by anyone. Several of the graves have tombstones dated in the late 19the century and it is likely that it may extend back somewhere close to 150 years. There seems to be a large number of graves from the Great Depression era, especially graves of young children. I wonder how many of those Great Depression deaths were attributable to poverty and starvation. There is also one row of children's graves with ten graves which one of the attendees told me were all the children of one set of parents who lost all their children in early childhood or childbirth except one son who lived to adulthood. There are four or five families represented with several members in the cemetery and it appears to have always been a genuine Appalachian cemetery where no one would have been denied burial.
We know two people who are buried there, Clint Howard and his wife Ella Howard, who were the parents of Shirley Howard Robbins who is a friend of Candice and cleans our house. But, due to our 27 years in this county, we generally know quite a few people who attend this service. There are numerous members of Shirley's extended family including her children, grandchildren, brothers, and cousins. We also know one woman and her daughter from the time when Candice was using physical therapy at our local ARH hospital and that woman was a physical therapy assistant. We have also come to know a couple of the preachers who usually come to this service. There was one babe in arms, several people in their twenties, and nearly every decade in age represented by at least one person including one man who is past 90. Due to the size of the attendance and the representation of a multitude of age groups, this memorial meeting gives me hope that such memorial services are not totally gone from the current Appalachian culture. The denomination in charge has always been Enterprise Baptist. They are one of the offshoots of the Old Regular Baptists who split off nearly a hundred years ago and became more liberal with instrumental music in their churches although there are never any instruments at this service.
The service usually starts with a song or two which are started by one of the preachers but not sung in traditional Appalachian lined hymnody which is a shame. Lined hymnody is the method which the traditional Old Regular Baptist churches still use and what I grew up around. I rarely hear it anymore since I rarely attend an Old Regular Baptist service. The Elijah Smith Cemetery service is usually begun, as I said, with a couple of songs and then a prayer and opening short sermon by one of the preachers. At some point, one of the usual preachers will offer an opportunity for anyone in the congregation to either give a testimony, sing a song, or voice a prayer request. Another of Clint and Ella Howard's children, son Jimmy Howard almost always sings a song or two and he is a wonderful singer in the manner most often seen in Enterprise Baptist congregations. But this year, Jimmy sang with another of the preachers and it just did not stand up to his solo singing from the previous occasions I have seen him sing. The preachers who preached were John Ed Howard, a descendant of some of the people buried there; Ben Smith, also a descendant of some of the people buried there; Lonnie B. Wright, also related to some of the people buried there; and a fairly young preacher whose name I do not remember who, I believe, is actually from Pike County.
When the service ended, approximately forty or so people, many of whom are related to Shirley Howard Robbins and her husband Russell Robbins, went to their home just up the creek for a wonderful dinner and conversation for two or three hours. For me, one of the best parts of the dinner and conversation is that Lonnie B. Wright always attends the dinner, is a wonderfully funny man who can talk about anything and has a broad history of working as a heavy equipment operator, knows everybody in the area, and loves to talk, make jokes, and become the center of attention. Also, he and I know each other pretty well and are passing friends without being bosom buddies and we love to play off each other's jokes. It makes for a fun time and one or two others who attend can also hold their own in a room with Lonnie B. and me. Candice and I also went there as we have done on other occasions. The food was awesome and we all enjoyed it a great deal since Shirley and several members of her extended family are wonderful cooks. There was ham, turkey, fried chicken strips, and chicken and dumplings along with green beans, baked beans, rolls, cole slaw, corn, and quite a few desserts such as a great fruit salad, chocolate pie, and a few other temptations for the sweet tooth. We stayed until about 4pm before we left for home and enjoyed the entire experience a great deal. This really is a throwback to old cemetery memorial meetings extending all the way back to the time which James Still wrote about in "River of Earth". This meeting is always held on the last Sunday in September and anyone is welcome whether or not you have ever been there, whether or not you are related to one of the dead, or whether or not you are even an Appalachian. If you are a student of Appalachian Culture, religion, or genealogy and have not seen a cemetery memorial service or just haven't seen one in a long while, just show up next year at about 10am on the last Sunday of September and you will have time to make friends before the service starts. I am also willing to bet that you will also be invited to the dinner afterward.
We know two people who are buried there, Clint Howard and his wife Ella Howard, who were the parents of Shirley Howard Robbins who is a friend of Candice and cleans our house. But, due to our 27 years in this county, we generally know quite a few people who attend this service. There are numerous members of Shirley's extended family including her children, grandchildren, brothers, and cousins. We also know one woman and her daughter from the time when Candice was using physical therapy at our local ARH hospital and that woman was a physical therapy assistant. We have also come to know a couple of the preachers who usually come to this service. There was one babe in arms, several people in their twenties, and nearly every decade in age represented by at least one person including one man who is past 90. Due to the size of the attendance and the representation of a multitude of age groups, this memorial meeting gives me hope that such memorial services are not totally gone from the current Appalachian culture. The denomination in charge has always been Enterprise Baptist. They are one of the offshoots of the Old Regular Baptists who split off nearly a hundred years ago and became more liberal with instrumental music in their churches although there are never any instruments at this service.
The service usually starts with a song or two which are started by one of the preachers but not sung in traditional Appalachian lined hymnody which is a shame. Lined hymnody is the method which the traditional Old Regular Baptist churches still use and what I grew up around. I rarely hear it anymore since I rarely attend an Old Regular Baptist service. The Elijah Smith Cemetery service is usually begun, as I said, with a couple of songs and then a prayer and opening short sermon by one of the preachers. At some point, one of the usual preachers will offer an opportunity for anyone in the congregation to either give a testimony, sing a song, or voice a prayer request. Another of Clint and Ella Howard's children, son Jimmy Howard almost always sings a song or two and he is a wonderful singer in the manner most often seen in Enterprise Baptist congregations. But this year, Jimmy sang with another of the preachers and it just did not stand up to his solo singing from the previous occasions I have seen him sing. The preachers who preached were John Ed Howard, a descendant of some of the people buried there; Ben Smith, also a descendant of some of the people buried there; Lonnie B. Wright, also related to some of the people buried there; and a fairly young preacher whose name I do not remember who, I believe, is actually from Pike County.
When the service ended, approximately forty or so people, many of whom are related to Shirley Howard Robbins and her husband Russell Robbins, went to their home just up the creek for a wonderful dinner and conversation for two or three hours. For me, one of the best parts of the dinner and conversation is that Lonnie B. Wright always attends the dinner, is a wonderfully funny man who can talk about anything and has a broad history of working as a heavy equipment operator, knows everybody in the area, and loves to talk, make jokes, and become the center of attention. Also, he and I know each other pretty well and are passing friends without being bosom buddies and we love to play off each other's jokes. It makes for a fun time and one or two others who attend can also hold their own in a room with Lonnie B. and me. Candice and I also went there as we have done on other occasions. The food was awesome and we all enjoyed it a great deal since Shirley and several members of her extended family are wonderful cooks. There was ham, turkey, fried chicken strips, and chicken and dumplings along with green beans, baked beans, rolls, cole slaw, corn, and quite a few desserts such as a great fruit salad, chocolate pie, and a few other temptations for the sweet tooth. We stayed until about 4pm before we left for home and enjoyed the entire experience a great deal. This really is a throwback to old cemetery memorial meetings extending all the way back to the time which James Still wrote about in "River of Earth". This meeting is always held on the last Sunday in September and anyone is welcome whether or not you have ever been there, whether or not you are related to one of the dead, or whether or not you are even an Appalachian. If you are a student of Appalachian Culture, religion, or genealogy and have not seen a cemetery memorial service or just haven't seen one in a long while, just show up next year at about 10am on the last Sunday of September and you will have time to make friends before the service starts. I am also willing to bet that you will also be invited to the dinner afterward.
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