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A small but dedicated number of volunteers plan to do what they can to get the cemetery in good shape for Memorial Day next week. They don’t want weeds to plague people’s visits to loved ones’ graves.

But to keep maintenance up long term, two loyal volunteers are asking the community and families of those buried in the cemetery for assistance.

“We don’t want this to look terrible. We need the community’s help,” said Mark Fisher, a 67-year-old who has helped mow the cemetery since his brother got him involved 25 years ago.

He works closely with Bub Miller, a 59-year-old who started mowing the cemetery with his father when he was 12 years old. Several of Miller’s family members are buried in the cemetery.

The cemetery, marked with a black metal arch that reads “Goss Cemetery 1827,” sits off of Thomas Road, just west of Smithville off Missouri Route KK.

On Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, Miller’s daughter, Erin Miller, will set up a donation table in the cemetery so that those visiting family members’ and friends’ graves can assist the maintenance effort.

The cemetery is a free cemetery that lacks maps showing who’s buried where as well as some type of authority, such as a cemetery board — all issues that are not uncommon for little old country cemeteries.

“Back in the days when Goss started, you just opened up a cemetery and buried people,” said Jack Klein, owner of three area Hixson-Klein funeral homes and a member of some area cemetery boards. “Goss came to be before all the rules and regulations were around.”

Klein, who has attended a few burials at the cemetery, said Dorothy and Leo Hill, local gravediggers, have a strategy for determining where people are buried in the cemetery, as many graves are not marked.

“They witch the ground with two braising rods. If they rods cross, that means the topsoil has been disturbed. And that’s when you know someone is below,” Klein said.

Two individuals who gave significant funding to the cemetery’s maintenance effort now rest inside graves at the cemetery.

Virgil Bainbridge led the maintenance effort for many years. When he died, Krauss Justus took over for about 25 years. Justus died earlier this year. As a result, the about $2,500 needed to maintain the cemetery went away, Fisher said.

Frank Justus, one of Krauss’ sons and the manager and curator of the Smithville Historical Museum, has historical records that show the cemetery’s history.

In 1826, Henry Owens sold a portion of his property to George Goss. In 1827, Goss dedicated the land as a cemetery, giving birth to what remains as Goss Cemetery.

Fisher and Miller hope that with some community support, the appearance of the cemetery will improve.

“We have to get things like that fixed up,” Fisher said, looking at a headstone split in two pieces earlier this month. “We want to fix all this. We just need the money.”

GIVE TO GOSS

Send maintenance donations for Goss Cemetery to P.O. Box 561, Smithville, MO 64089. Write checks to Goss Cemetery. For more information, contact Mark Fisher, 591-0061. Cemetery volunteers will collect donations at the cemetery on Memorial Day.

Smithville Editor Nancy Hull Rigdon can be reached at 532-4444.

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