Charles Ross Bailey

A STORY BY KEN BAILEY
"In the 1950's and 1960's, Charles R. Bailey was caretaker of the
cemetery. He was responsible for receiving donations for the
cemetery and burial plots, measuring and marking new burial
plots, and mowing grass and filling low spots as the new graves
settled. He also sold monuments for Cotner Monuments in Fort
Smith and would oversee their installation. In the mid 60's my
dad, Charles Bailey, hired Danny Pinkerton and me, Kenny
Bailey, to mow and fill graves. He needed the job done and we
needed the work. My dad had used some of the cemetery money
to buy a metal storage building from Montgomery Ward
Company. My dad and I installed the building and then the single
push mower owned by the cemetery could be stored there."When working at the cemetery, Danny and I would alternate
from mowing to clipping grass around the headstones. This was
before the time of motorized weed-eaters. We clipped grass whileon our knees using hand clippers. These had to be sharpened
often with a flat file in order to clip with any speed. This all was a
slow process and we were each paid 50 cents per hour. We used a
wheel barrow to haul dirt from the northeast corner where excess
dirt was stored for filling graves when they would sink. My dad
made sure we were working and not sitting under the shade trees.
"Decoration Day has always been in May. Before starting the
mowing for the season, we would remove the old plastic flowers
so families could decorate with new flowers. I remember one time
Danny got permission from his dad, Joe Pinkerton, to drive their
new riding mower to the cemetery from their home about three
miles south of Dutch Mills. That made the job go much faster, but
there's more to the story. After we finished mowing, Danny
headed home on a very slow-moving riding mower. When he
passed the church he shifted the mower out of gear at the top of
the hill. When he got to the bottom of the hill he was breaking the
Dutch Mills speed limit by a lot. I think he rolled it as he tried to
make the curve at the bottom of the hill. He never got to bring the
rider back again."