historical quest.
Eleven Murray High School students discovered portions of the Mormon Trail this summer. In the process, they may have discovered just as much about themselves.
Since June 4, the students have spent 17 days in field research through a $4700 grant from the Iowa Department of Education.
Led by Bill Carper, Murray high school principal, and Kay Risser, elementary teacher, the group’s journey has been marked by suspense, mystery, hard work and rewards.
The first family of Mormons moved across the Mississippi River in 1846, beginning a migration that carved their legacy into the rolling hills of southern Iowa.
Trail is found in sections
Using old maps, the Murray students began looking for signs of the Mormon Trail in Franklin Township on the Lucas-Clarke counties line at what’s known as the Last Chance Church.
“We talked to people who knew about the trail,” said Kevin Callison. If you look from a distance, you can see the depression, a dip in the ground.”
John Jackson said the students asked property owners for permission to search their land for signs of the trail.
“We found it mostly in timber and pasture areas,” said Jackson.
The largest section of trail discovered was 1600 feet on the Harl Landphair property. “We found 333 feet the first day,” Carper said. “Nobody got lost.”
Finding a total of 1½ miles of the old Mormon Trail was exciting, but the students made another find, an unexpected one leading to five days of backbreaking work and a sense of accomplishment.
Discovery leads to more research
In a timber area located in Section 15 of Franklin Township, Clarke County, they found a cemetery.
Rachel Flaherty said only about five headstones were standing, but when the students used electric fence posts as probes, 31 markers were found.
“Some were covered with moss,” said Flaherty, “so we used steel wool brushes to clean them.”
That’s when the group’s genealogy enthusiast, Caleb Shields, got excited.
“There were sayings and messages on the stones,” he said. “One of the stones had three sayings on all three sides.”
The stones were easily located with the probes, said Carper, so nothing else was disturbed by the student’s investigation.
Before they could do much searching though, the area had to be cleared of heavy vegetation.
“We didn’t use any power tools,” said Carper. “Since power tools weren’t used to bury these people, we thought it only right that we use hand-powered tools.”
Respect, mystery at old cemetery
Once they got started, Carper said the students had a desire to complete the job.
Perhaps the mysteries of some stones provided motivation.
Shields and Flaherty think one headstone reflects a belief in reincarnation.
The burial site of one John Gates includes these words carved in stone, “If a man die, shall he live again, all the day of my appointed time will I wait my change come.”
The oldest date found on a headstone was that of J. and M.A. Brooks Bell, Jan. 16, 1858.
There was some fun during the expeditions, too. Sophomore Nathan Brammer found a large hole, although he wasn’t looking for one. “I fell into it up to my chest,” he said.
Jeremy Shell grabbed an electric fence and he fell in a creek.
But on Thursday afternoon, the final day of the project, the students’ daily journals were filled with plenty of history, some they found and some they made. Creston News Advisor