When I found this, I thought, “The More things change…”
The Ouachita Standard
Friday, April 5, 1839
Page 2, Column 1
OUR CEMETERY.
We would call the attention of our inhabitants to the wretched state of our cemetery were it not for the fact that it has been so often adverted to that the subject is almost stale. Even the savage considers the grave of his ancestors as the spot hallowed to memory, and when the pale face foe has compelled him to seek a home in a spot more sequestered, he has carried their bones to the land of his new home. What a reproach is this upon the inhabitants of a civilized country, that, while the grave of the untutored savage is sacred, the other is left open for the tread of the beast. Reader has thou a relative- a father or a mother, a brother or a sister, or some dear friend – interred upon this spot? We would not wound thy gentle feelings, or harrow up thy soul with the murmurings of sad recollections; but if their memory calls, from the depths of thine heart, one silent tear,suffer no longer their last resting place to be thus desecrated.
Ouachita Parish History Tidbits 