Who owns the 60-by-32-foot lot inside Woodland Cemetery where only governors and other state officials are buried?
Jefferson City's municipal government has been maintaining the area along with the surrounding Old City and Woodland cemeteries since the 1980s. But the city's Cemetery Resources Board has been looking into the matter.
In state legislative journals, Chairman Nancy Thompson was able to find records of the state reimbursing the Woodland Cemetery Association as early as 1874. And they appointed a cemetery sexton for the state burial lot, too.
Thompson said she found state reimbursement records through 1973, from the conservation budget until 1969 and then from the state parks budget. The state appropriated about $150 per year, except the final year when it reimbursed the association for $1,250, she said.
"If they gave the lot back, there should have been some document or agreement somewhere," Thompson said.
What has not been found is a deed to the state lot. Thompson suggested it may have been lost in either the early Capitol or courthouse fires with many other official documents.
"I would assume it is still the state's lot," said 5th Ward Councilman Mark Schreiber.
Over time, different leaders in state government have come and gone, and the state cemetery has been filled for some time by people who died a long time ago, he noted.
It is likely it simply was forgotten, Thompson agreed.
The city took over ownership and maintenance of Woodland and the state cemeteries in 2000, Grellner said. A maintenance fund of about $60,000 was transferred at that time, he said. Before then, the city actually reimbursed the Woodland association for care of the property, he said.
Now, the city board has two avenues to pursue.
"The state owes us one way or another," Thompson said.
Either the state should have been annually reimbursing the city for the separate lot's maintenance, or the state should be maintaining the historic site.
By statute, the state is required to perform maintenance of governors' burial sites in Missouri in cemeteries that do not have perpetual care. Gov. John Marmaduke and Gov. Thomas Reynolds both are buried there.
City legal staff have said Woodland Cemetery qualifies, as it is not in perpetual care.
City liaison Dave Grellner said, three years ago, he approached state offices about the obligation but received no interest.
What the state lot needs is a sodlift, that is, the large horizontal tablets are sinking. Thompson said removing the top 3 inches would go a long way to restoring that section.
"If they owe us, they owe us," Thompson said. "We need to find financial help wherever we can get it."