Summer 2008
by Hines Vaughan
Welcome to the first Oakland Cemetery Preservation Society (OCPS) newsletter in years and this President’s Letter. We intend to publish this newsletter quarterly, and I hope this section of the newsletter will give you an inside look at our organization. I am also hopeful that you will come to view the cemetery as a treasure of Northwest Louisiana and want to join our cause.
One of the first things that I am asked about The Oakland Cemetery Preservation Society (OCPS) is how I got involved in the effort. My immediate ancestors – parents/ grandparents - are buried in Greenwood Cemetery; however I always suspected that earlier generations were buried in Oakland. Interestingly, I never visited Oakland as a child as I did Greenwood with my mother.
Last year, I finally decided to take action and printed out a list, from my genealogy program, of all those family members who might be buried in Oakland. With that list in hand, I made a visit to the City’s SPAR Department, which is responsible for maintenance of Greenwood and Oakland cemeteries. With their help, I was able to find the lots and sections where those ancestors were buried.
At the time, the City was in the process of converting the graves data from index cards to the computer. Now, you may obtain that information via a list or ask them to look up the data. Soon, you will be able to sign onto OCPS’s Web site and look up ancestors buried in Oakland and find their locations.
Back to the search. With the burial data in hand, my first cousin (who had just arrived for a visit) and I set out to find the grave sites. I obtained an old map of the cemetery from SPAR, and soon we found the graves in three different sites.
Two of the sites were in generally good repair, but the third had a huge dead tree lying across the lot. It had severely damaged the fence and the headstones. We were naturally appalled at the condition of the lot. After vowing to restore it to an acceptable condition, we could not help but notice the general condition of the entire cemetery. At that moment, I knew that someone needed to pick up the restoration responsibility, and decided that I would volunteer for the project.That was last August, and the revived OCPS organization has already made great strides towards the preservation and restoration of the cemetery. In our next newsletter, I will delineate those positive steps and what effect they are having on your cemetery.
In the meantime, If you would like to contact me, my e-mail address is hvaughan1@comcast.net, and our mailing address is on the mailing side of this newsletter. I look forward to hearing from you.
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