Memories From Steven Aldridge
Well, I don't know a whole lot but here goes.Dawson cemetery was just three houses down (east) and across the street from my parents house when I lived there from 1967-1986, my parents moved off W. 50th street in 1994 but had lived there since 1965. Between the next two houses down, going east, is a natural spring that I believe to be have once been on land owned by George Geyer, thus giving Geyer Springs Rd and area it's name. I found some of that information on the website for Geyer Springs Elementary School, where I attended 1-6th grade. The school was in two former locations, the first of which was built in 1899 on the road that is now Geyer Spings Rd and probably was named that then to honor George Geyer. The land was donated by Harve Boyd. Two of my teachers had actually started their teaching in the second school building built across the street from this one in the early 1920's.
All of the land across the street from my parents house is owned by the Boyd'sand they still own it. The main house is near the barn on the east side of the land. Some children also lived in a house on the corner of Maureen Dr and Geyer Springs Rd. I'm assuming Mr. Geyer owned the land the spring is on and it flows still today as it did maybe then onto the Boyd's land. I also remember my mom saying the Boyd's owned the land when they started building houses on it so maybe the Boyd's bought or assumed the land when the Geyer's died or moved. I never thought as a child that this was a natural spring because the city or construction company that built the houses built a concrete structure surrounding the spring opening and lining the banks of it's path with concrete and rock for about 50 yards. It runs under W. 50th Street and through the Boyd's land and eventually into Fourche Creek. We just always knew the water was always there even when it became drought-like in the summer. "The woods", as we called it, across the street from my house were once completely grown up and covered in huge oak and gum trees and a few maples....quite a few right next to the cemetery. I was sad when they cut it all down and straightened out the spring, it used to pool rather deep in a couple of spots and we would swim in it.
The house directly next to the cemetery gate entrance was lived in by a family with the last name of Brown and he was the caretaker of the cemetery for many years. The Boyd's also took care of the cemetery for quite awhile but then got other people to do it. I remember a mausoleum in the cemetery which scared us quite a bit and a couple civil war veteran headstones. My sister and I once started trying to improve the headstones here or there so we could read them better or would try to clear the dirt and grass away so they could all be seen. Someone broke into the mausoleum one time and we tried to fix it back. We thought maybe the spirits of whom lived there thought we did it and haunted us for awhile because we used to see faces in our bedroom window during the night. The problem with that was our window was more than ten feet off the ground...probably just our imagination. I buried many a pet on the outside of the fence of the cemetery near the entrance gate kind of next to a tall oak or gum tree, I don't know if that tree is still there or not but it was real close to the fence on the east side. One time there was a fire in the woods and it came awfully close to the cemetery and all of us kids were out there with buckets of water from the spring keeping it away until the fire dept got there. In the winter I used to go in and take pictures because it looked so beautiful covered in snow.
I'm sorry this isn't much about the cemetery itself other than the Boyd's and Geyer's informationand is more about my memories, but that cemetery is a BIG part of my memories even though I didn't know anyone who was buried there. I saw only two funerals during the time I lived near there but remember that cemetery very clearly as I walked through it hundreds of times. I don't remember anything about an article I found one time when I was reading all about the New Madrid fault and the earthquake of 1811-1812 but I swear I found info where it was mention that a man lived on this land because of the spring and baptised people in itand his daughter died in the winter and he buried her "not far across the spring". I wish I could find that. I bet she is in the cemetery and that's how it got started and maybe their name was Dawson.
The article I found on the cemetery was, actually it was a few links on different first hand accounts of the earthquakeand this one guy had his story about feeling the earthquake all the way down here. He went on to tell his whole story of when they came here and settled by the spring about 10 miles southwest of "the rock" and the difficulties they had, the winters, Indians, daughter's death and now an earthquake. I wish i could find it again, I will try. I know not many people lived here at all in 1811-1812 so I was complexed also how he ended up on this side when most people settled near "the rock" on the river, that's why it interested me so and why I remember reading it. I could have some facts confused but I remember the connection. I don't know, I could be wrong, it's been a while since I read that. I like your article on the earthquake...that even has always intrigued me.
Steven Aldridge, 2 Feb 2010