The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-08-25
RUINED BY TREES.
A Graveyard That Was Overrun
by LocustA
The Place Became % Choksd Up b
the Rank Growth That There
Was No Room for Liv.
Ing or Dead.

| IN hOEOr OF OraDgetOWn, Mo-, but TINT
early education of the man who drew
up the petition had becn so badly neg
lected that when he wrote the docu
ment he spelled the word Orrington
and in this manner was a good tow
name born from very poor photography
During the 1os years which have passed
since then the people have made very
| few blunders. They not only know
what they want, but they go it with a
get-there impetuosity which generally
wins success.
In fact, some citizens of Orrington
can he truthfully charged with having
too much zeal. One RESIDENT WON
an, bearing the name of Baker-has
| made herself famous for all time by q
little act of thoughtful Kindness that
would never have been noticed had it
been done in most towns. Mrs. Baker,
though she lived and died years before
Secretary Morton was known. was a
firm believer in Arbor day. She set out
such native trees as she could find grow
ing on the hills, and sent away to
friends and got several varieties that
had lately come over from Europe.
One spring morning in the fourth
decade of the present century, a coaster
came in from Boston, having few trees
on board billed to Mrs. Baker. Among
them Yves a rare species known as the
honey locust. The agent who sold it to
her praised it very highly, saying it
had largo racemes of fragrant white
flowers and beautiful pendulous foliage,
making it a most suitable ornament for
. cemetery. In addition to these quail
tiles, it was thrifty and perfectly hardy,
and could be either grown as hedge
or trimmed to a single trunk.
Following the printed instructions,
which came with every tree, she planted
her honey locust in the family lot in
the old Chaplin cemetery on the road
from Orrington Center to Orrington.
No tree ever kept its contract more per-
fectly than that honey locust. It
waxed big and strong in the dry, gravel
ly soil, and raised up many offspring.
ell Of which grew wonderfully. Fifteen
years later, when Mrs. Baker laid down
the cares of Life, she was put to rest in a
beautiful grove of her own planting.
Around her grave the wild cypress grew
in rank yellow profusion. Above it the
red cinnamon rose bloomed all through
the summer months, and over these the
rare honey locusts swayed their fra
grant blossoms, until every dallying
wind stole away deeply laden with
sweetness. Surely, if there were ever
q place where death was robbed of its
tezrors, this was the spot.
New tenants came to the little four.
acre cemetery as the years went on.
The HarTimans, noted for their
strength; the Chapins, famous in
finance; the Bakers, with their hand
some children. and several other good
people, having finished their work, were
laid away for long, sweet rest among
the flowers.
The people died, but the honey To-
Gusts lived. They not only lived, but
took such joy in living that by 1850
the sexton complained bitterly about
the tough roots of the locust trees
which he was forced to cut off in order
TO dig a new grave. In former years,
viii spade and . pickax, he could dig
a good grave in about four hours. Now
he had to take an ak and a crowbar
along, and when he had dug a grave he
found the whole day was used up. Sew.
eral owners of burial plots that were
Enclosed with expensive fences, as we'll
as those who had erected stones or mon
Iuments, complained about the preva-
2ence OF locust trees, saying the tangled
growth concealed the graves. The lots
were thickets Of brushwood, and even
the cemetery paths grew up so that
men had to swamp new roads whenever
q body was inferred on the further side
of tho Enclosure.
About the time the war closed the
residents woke up to the fact that their
beautiful cemetery had been trans
formed into a wilderness, filled with
brambles and noxious thorns Some
made onslaughts upon the trees, clear
ing individual lots here and there,
which at once grew up to young To-
Gust trees from roots on the unreclaimed
lots. Meetings of lot owners were held,
bu no definite plan of action was adopt
ed. Meanwhile the locusts grew and
entrance 70 the cemetery became more
every year. Shortly after it
was learned that the locusts could not
lie eradicated the survivors began to
take up their dead and move them to
other cemeteries. Some went to Mill
Greek, others TO Orrington village, and
still others TO the hillside yard at Shows
Corner. Before 1870 nearly everybody
was up and away. Then the town voted
to pay for the removal of those whose
friends had all died or moved away,
and the grave diggers went all over the
yard.
The work was done well-much bet.
ter than the average of such jobs. Still
1t is said that some five or six bodies
were never found. The rank trees
grew so rapidly and were such greedy
feeders that the ashes Of the dead were
taken up to form wood and blossoms.
Chapin cemetery hes been abandoned
for more than 20 years The locusts
are 10 feet high and stand as thiclIly as
troops in review. They so thoroughly
occupy the lands that there is no room
tcr the living or the dead.-Lewiston
(Me.) Journal.