FRIENDS OF SPRINGHILL |
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Historic Memorial Garden | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Friends of Springhill
is proud to annouce a benefit concert, featuring: Sunday, September 30, 6:00PM Come Join! The VFW will sell drinks and the WOMEN AUXILIARY GROUP VFW POST will sell burgers again for their benefit. For our benefit, tickets will be $10; half price children 6-12, under 6 free |
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Why
Save Springhill as an Historic Memorial Garden?
As the population of Desoto county is growing rapidly, and is expected to continue to grow, there is an ever-increasing need for public green space. It would be much better to preserve this historic site as parkland near the center of Hernando now than to have to buy land for parks later. Springhill lies along a proposed pedestrian and bike route. There are young woods, grass and a few old trees on the lot now, and kudzu control has begun. The cemetery about 90% nineteenth century markers, with very few after 1900. As such, it is probably eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and for designation as a Mississippi Landmark. |
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Springhill Cemetery lies on a high, wooded, ridge two blocks southwest of the Hernando courthouse. The town of Hernando lies on a topographic high in the Coldwater River basin of northwestern Mississippi, on the dividing ridge between Hurricane Creek to the north, Mussacuna Creek to the south and Short Fork Creek to the east. All are direct tributaries of the Coldwater River. The cemetery is gullied and surrounded by cutbanks and ravines. While the location is eroded and gullied loess, but on the ridgetop there is dark rich soil like once covered the North Central Hills of Mississippi. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Springhill Cemetery was established as a donation, as shown on the plat of the original grid of Hernando (in the Chancery Clerk's office), from 1836, when the new town, then called Jefferson, was platted. Hernando is the first and only seat as of Desoto County, created shortly after the Chickasaw Cession at the 1832 Treaty of Pontotoc. The family groups of graves, two or three to eight or ten in rows aligned north-south and facing east. Provision of a public burial ground at the outskirts of towns was a major movement in Victorian urban planning; and still provided a burial site alternative after church, plantation and isolated family cemeteries came into building. Besides grazing for town cows, a nineteenth century town's graveyard was also an open space for strolling and contemplation. Springhill was used primarily in the antebellum period, with some later 19th and 20th century interments. After the yellow fever epidemic of 1878 almost destroyed the town, few families still used it. The core of the cemetery contains numerous examples of high-quality but often damaged stonework; however, the cemetery also is highly likely to contain hundreds of unmarked nineteenth century graves. Many cemeteries had annual days for visiting and cleaning graves, and in the late nineteenth century community contributions kept it fenced. But as families died out or moved on, the cemetery was largely abandoned by 1900, and it fell into neglect and eventually was used as a cattle pasture and woodlot. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FRIENDS OF SPRINGHILL |
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Springhill Cemetery is located along the south boundary of Section 13, Township 2 South, Range 8 West of the Chickasaw Principal Meridian, in the southwest quarter of said Section 13, or at latitude N 34 degrees, 48 minutes, 57 seconds, longitude W 90 degrees, 00 minutes, 03 seconds. The elevation is about 360’ above sea level while the surrounding creek valleys lie at about 240’ amsl. The site is steeply sloping loess surrounding a partly grassy and partly hardwood-covered ridgetop, with an unusual light, soft, dark brown loam. There are sunny, sloping south and east cutbanks; a flat, street-side parking/sports area; a north slope deep gully, and several wooded flats and hillsides besides the main, grassy ridge top where the historic gravestones are. Evergreens, particularly cedar, holly and magnolia, are traditional features of old Southern cemeteries. We have begun replacing cedar stumps with cedar seedlings. We plan to focus our gardening efforts on such native trees and shrubs. While the location is mostly high and well-drained land that is dominated by hickories and small undergrowth, it once supported a wider range of oaks as well. The soil is very unusual for the loess hills, with a dark loamy topsoil like that the first farmers found in the Chickasaw cession. There is a steep, deep, north-facing ravine and a wet seep and drainage area, and cover ranges from south-facing, full-sun slopes to heavy shade. While we plan to focus on planting native species, we would also like to set aside particular areas for African and Asian gardens, to demonstrate the introduction of many Old World plants during the 19th century. Tree replacement should also emphasize those that provide sources of food for birds and other wildlife, especially native nut and berry-bearing trees and bushes, and flowering species attractive to bees and other beneficial insects. |
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Historic Memorial Garden |
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