Hey all. I want you to see this great website. I met this person through my other passion - auto racing. Turned out that he is a fellow genealogist. This is a great story. His 16 year old son is doing an Eagle scout project. I think it's pretty amazing when the young ones get involved in our "world". This is what he sent me:

Gina,

I checked your site out. Good job! Did I show you what my son's doing for his Eagle project? He was on Channel 11 and 13 about a month ago and numerous newspapers. We're almost done with it - in the process of getting designated as a historic cemetery by the State of Texas. This project was a little above and beyond genealogy but it has been fun.

Here is the story and the link to their website. I am so proud of their accomplishment that I am linking his site on mine.

Teen takes on project to save neglected cemetery

12:55 AM CST on Wednesday, January 16, 2008

By Jason Whitely / 11 News

Crosby Johnson did more than clean up Watkins Cemetery. He even mapped out where all the graves are and made new headstones. “We just found the cemetery when I was playing baseball over here many years back.” The cemetery Eagle Scout Crosby Johnson discovered was a century old.

When he found it, it was overgrown with weeds. “I know that if I didn’t it would just be like this for the next 100 years. Nothing would really happen unless I did something.”

He did.

The 16-year-old took on the Watkins Cemetery as his Eagle Scout project.

Clearing the weeds he only found one tombstone.

But the teenager got a volunteer to use ground penetrating radar and uncovered seven more graves.

So Crosby made a mold for new markers and cast them in concrete.

After clearing the land and making new markers Crosby decided to take this a step further.

He and his dad went through county records to find out who was buried here.

Documents dating back to the 1870s identified a woman named Kissie Warren and her mother buried in the cemetery.

They’re still looking for other names.

“We hope that more scout troops will pick up this. We have a lot of them, a lot of cemeteries for them to work on,” said Bob Crosser with the Fort Bend Historical Commission.

At least 150.

Crosby is asking the state to designate Watkins Cemetery as an historical one.

He’ll only get a Boy Scout badge when the project is complete.

The community though will be able to reconnect with a forgotten piece of its past.
www.watkinscemetery.com

Gina what a fascinating story. I think that Crosby the 16 year old who did this as a Boy Scout's Project should be given much more than a Scout's Badge. If only more of our younger generation would think like this, just lets hope this will give encouragement to other young folk to do something similar.
Thanks for posting this.

Emmy

What an amazing story! Thanks Gina. This young man is an inspiration to all young people and I agree with emmy...he deserves more than just a badge!

I know. He's amazing for a young kid! We need more like him and our very own Mikey!

Gina501 wrote:

I know. He's amazing for a young kid! We need more like him and our very own Mikey!

My thoughts exactly.