The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1915-05-06
IN MEMORY OF THE DEAD.
DECORATION OF SALEM CHURCH CEMETERY
BY LOVING HANDS.

Bossier Parish, La, May l, 1888.
At a meeting of the friends and rela-
YES at old Salem Church Cemetery,
/. A. Boggs was called to the chair, and
Y. B. Boggs and J. B. Crawford were
to act as secretaries. The
hair stated that the object of the gath
ring was to decorate the graves. Some
vo hundred relatives and friends from
II parts of the country having assem-
led, the attention of the crowd was
allied to the reading of a piece by Mr..
. G. Allen from the Royal Path of Life
:" Sorrowing for the Dead - after
hitch the following poem, composed by
Ir. Rufus H. Allen, was read by Mr..
ohm J. Swindle, to-wit:
Parted friends, we gladly come
And gather rounn your silent tombs
In memory of the loved ones gone
To their immortal homes.
Fadeless verdue deck each mound,
Above the dust the death urn keep,
Years, like snowfiakes, fall without sound,
Wherein the loved ones sweetly sleep.
They are waiting for us, we know,
Upon Heavens golden strand,
Those VIC lost so long ago,
To welcome US to land.
Forms we loved are lying here,
And strangers sleep side by side,
While friends away may wander where
Their long lost loved ones died.
But in the sweet spring time above,
Safe from decay and pain,
Clothed in eternal youth and love,
Our dead may live again.
AS fleeting time rolls swiftly on
Its footprints stamp the dying year,
Each returning May wen come
And scatter the sweetest flowers here.
And every strangers grave we pass
Well leave flower and tear,
For the truth we know full well, alas!
Some mothers child is steering there
Now sleep the righteous and the pure,
And perhaps some who are depraved;
The wise, the foolish. the rich, the poor,
Are eqnal now within the grave.
Their follies, we forgive them now;
The debt is paid We all do owe.
We've learned from them lesson, how
Little worth wealth or folly is below.
Oft the infant from the breast
Is taken, from the mothers care,
Convened to Heaven with the blest,
And hade to blossom there.
Oh, Death, unsparing monster thou,
The old, the young, the wise, the fair,
All at thy command must bow
AHO give tIicA htco Wy thCiC.
When the Death Angel unfolds his wings
And descends to US below,
An awful message he surely brings
That some one must go.
Clouds of sorrow will often come
And leave some heart in sad despair,
And keen distress in some bright home
Will lodge poison arrow there.
But to Heavens bright and golden gate
We look with tender love,
For loved ones there will sweetly wait
To welcome us above.
A happy day, when we shall know
Our sins are all forgiven
The "Angel Death may bid Us go
To meet our friends in Heaven"
RUFUS H. ALLEN.
Red Land, La, May !, 1883.
The ladies having previously prepared
many beautiful wreaths of flowers, the
decoration began. After spending two
or three hours around the graves, the
crowd assembled at the church, AMI
began spreading the dinner, the gentle.
men making fires and bringing water
and the ladies making coffee and arrang'
ing the dinner table, and when dime
was announced it seemed that the GROVE
had increased to at least three hundred
But Notwithstanding the immense crowd
there was plenty left. After the ladie
had cleared off the table, the crowd wa
called to order and a resolution passes
requesting another meeting at the grave
ward on the third Saturday in August
The matter of the Incorporation OF tn
cemetery having been mentioned, tn
following men: S. A. Boggs, John J
Swindle, ]. G. Allen, A. J. Spuriin
j. B. Bixler, F. M. Barnett, J. n. Bryan
j. B. Mading and ]. 2. Crawford, wer
selected by the meeting to incorporat
themselves into an incorporate body t
take charge of the cemetery and receiv
titles to the land.
A resolution was then passed, request
ing the Bossier Banner and Shrevepol
papers each to publish the proceeding
in full, it being the first meeting OF tn
kind ever held here.
The meeting then adjourned.
S. A. BodGs, Chairman.
w. B. BoGGs,
j. B. CRAWFORD, Secretaries. VA.