I’ve discovered some of my family’s membership in the Modern
Woodmen of the World. Many of my ancestors are buried at the Owsley Union
Cemetery, located south of Longview, Missouri, and north of Powell on 76 Highway
in McDonald County. One day while there, I noticed a unique headstone for
Walter E. Utter, a brother to my great-grandfather. Walter died two days before
Christmas in 1908.
Walter’s
headstone is a rectangular smooth piece of gray stone that sets on a large
base. It measures five feet tall. His date
of birth and date of death is on the front of the stone. An inscription reads,
“left a wife and five children.” At the top of the rectangle on both sides, are
engraved upside-down lilies. Four large, engraved stone logs are stacked on top
of the headstone. Beneath the lilies
and logs is a large square emblem marked with a shield, an ax, and an aul, with
the letters M, W, and A.
I had no
idea what Walter’s headstone represented, but I noticed other ornate headstones
in the cemetery that resembled Walter’s stone. They mark the graves of Jerry H.
Clapper and Lee R. Owsley. Owsley’s stone resembles a tree trunk with the same
emblem, but his states “Erected by the Woodmen of the World.” From that, I had the information I needed to
do research.
Joseph
Cullen Root started the Modern Woodmen of the World around 1883 to honor the
pioneer woodsmen who cleared the land for developing our roads, and communities,
and building homes. Woodmen of the World, later changed to Modern Woodmen of
America, began as a fraternal benefit society that protected families and their
financial futures by offering insurance protection. In the early days,
certificates provided a death and a monument benefit to its members, furnishing
free gravestones when they died. Eventually, the elaborate gravestones became
obsolete due to the cost of materials and cemetery regulations.
Originally,
all of the Woodmen gravestones were to be identical in size and design, but the
result varied across the nation as local stonecutters used a wide variety of
designs. What evolved are beautiful, elaborate, and precious works of art marking
woodmen’s graves. There is the answer to the question of why all of the
headstones are different, except for the Society’s emblem.
Woodmen’s
gravestones are scattered across the nation and is a fascination for many
people who want to document the elaborate stones found in cemeteries. The
USGenWeb Archive Project does have some photos of gravestones in our area, but
not of the Owsley
Union Cemetery.
You can access the website at USGenWeb Project to see the photos.
Cynthia Ann
Utter, my great, great-grandfather’s sister, married Lewis Fulweiler Houser.
They lived in the Rocky Comfort area all their married lives. Lewis Houser is
distinguished as being a charter member of the local Modern Woodmen of America
in Rocky Comfort. I have a picture of the Rocky Comfort Citizen’s Bank building,
provided by L. Bennett, of Rocky. Banking occurred on the lower level, while
the Modern Woodmen met on the upper level of the building.
After
finding the wonderful Woodmen's headstones in cemeteries, now I search in other
cemeteries to find more. As of this writing, I have seen many Woodmen stones
dispersed throughout our Missouri
counties. All are ornate and display some type of woodsy details.
I am proud
to have Modern Woodmen of America in my family. That information gives me more interesting
stories to add to my family history.
