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Buried among early Boonville settlers, Santa Fe traders, outlaws and complete strangers at Sunset Hills Cemetery, are four black soldiers from the Civil War.
Unmarked graves and moss-covered headstones don't give away the history of violence and prejudice against black people who joined the army from the region.
The presence of the four graves in the town is a "slight bit unusual" and is "an important bit of history for the African American community" in the region, said local historian Judy Shields. She is the secretary of the City Cemetery Board and has researched the Sunset Hills Cemetery for more than 21 years as the former director of nonprofit organization Friends of Historic Boonville.
As part of a Civil War re-enactment next June, Shields is digitizing the names and records of the veterans from Boonville. While the presence of one soldier came to light around five years ago from his tombstone, it wasn't known until this spring that three more black soldiers were buried in Sunset Hills Cemetery.
"There has never been a complete listing of the graves here," said Shields, who discovered the graves while searching the state archives for her research. The digital version will contain names, birth and death records, and any historical information, such as war records and "who they were and what they did."
Lee Harris, Cyrus Wilson, Charles Collins and James Shipley served in the national and state colored infantry brigades.
Remains of the four men point to an important, though dark chapter in Boonville and Missouri's history that locates the town in the slave-holding region of the state during the Civil War. Slavery was made illegal in 1862 in the Union states but in the border state of Missouri, it survived until the end of the war.
Want to read more? Grab a copy of the Boonville Daily News e-edition after 3 p.m. today.
Buried among early Boonville settlers, Santa Fe traders, outlaws and complete strangers at Sunset Hills Cemetery, are four black soldiers from the Civil War.
Unmarked graves and moss-covered headstones don't give away the history of violence and prejudice against black people who joined the army from the region.
The presence of the four graves in the town is a "slight bit unusual" and is "an important bit of history for the African American community" in the region, said local historian Judy Shields. She is the secretary of the City Cemetery Board and has researched the Sunset Hills Cemetery for more than 21 years as the former director of nonprofit organization Friends of Historic Boonville.
As part of a Civil War re-enactment next June, Shields is digitizing the names and records of the veterans from Boonville. While the presence of one soldier came to light around five years ago from his tombstone, it wasn't known until this spring that three more black soldiers were buried in Sunset Hills Cemetery.
"There has never been a complete listing of the graves here," said Shields, who discovered the graves while searching the state archives for her research. The digital version will contain names, birth and death records, and any historical information, such as war records and "who they were and what they did."
Lee Harris, Cyrus Wilson, Charles Collins and James Shipley served in the national and state colored infantry brigades.
Remains of the four men point to an important, though dark chapter in Boonville and Missouri's history that locates the town in the slave-holding region of the state during the Civil War. Slavery was made illegal in 1862 in the Union states but in the border state of Missouri, it survived until the end of the war.
Want to read more? Grab a copy of the Boonville Daily News e-edition after 3 p.m. today.
