Preserving the past for the future

To truly understand the importance of preserving the past for the future, take a walk through a historic cemetery with an historian whose heart is embedded deep into a community.

I had the privilege of such a tour through the historic City Cemetery on Main Street with Enterprise native and historian Ricky Adams.

Adams is a longtime friend, fellow scribe and former co-worker. He is also passionate about keeping the history of Enterprise alive, especially the piece of hallowed ground beyond wrought iron fencing that is the eternal resting place of the city’s founding fathers and mothers.

First and foremost, know that the City Cemetery does not belong to the city of Enterprise. It is not the city’s responsibility to maintain the grounds. I feel certain that the District 2 Councilman would appreciate me repeating that. So here goes: The City Cemetery, despite its moniker, does not belong to the city.

City Cemetery is owned, in essence, by the families of those buried there. Therein lies part of the current situation. Many of those families have moved off. Many do not realize that the responsibility to maintain the family gravesites is theirs. Many do not realize that the funds generously donated to the City Cemetery Association for general maintenance in the early 1980s have dwindled.

That is not to say that the Enterprise citizens and neighboring communities have not pitched to help maintain what truly is a window into the history of this community that was incorporated in 1896 with a population of 250.

The wrought iron fence and brick entrance were erected during the city’s centennial celebration. The community rallied to clear the carnage created by the tornado that tore through City Cemetery on its devastating path through Enterprise in 2007. Boy Scout Troop 150 Eagle Scout Eric Seanard catalogued each of the City Cemetery’s 2,000 gravesites and donated the time-intensive project to the Pea River Historical and Genealogical Society last year.

In this digital world, we focus on the virtual reality of the present as we speed into the future. We sometimes forget those who paved the way before us.

As Adams is quick to point out, you may not have liked some of the founding fathers or always agreed with what they did, but the reality is that their lives, hopes and dreams all helped make the City of Progress what it is today.

Knowing who they were, what they accomplished and how they overcame the trials and tribulations of settling in this sandy soil leads our children and grandchildren to greater appreciation of the debt of remembrance we owe them.

The cemetery association has Enterprise Post Office Box 310075 to mail donations for cemetery upkeep to. Realizing that the days of lick-a-stamp communications are dwindling, cemetery association members are working towards enabling donations to be received online and digitally. More to come on that.

“Every time I come up here to City Cemetery–which is very, very often—I think of a story of those people who are buried here,” Adams said as he guided me through some of the crumbling grave markers. “I think of a story they told me and I can hear their voices telling the story.

“And that’s what history is,” Adams told me. “And I worry about future generations because they don’t know those stories.”

They say dead men tell no tales. That’s not exactly true.

Their tombstones can tell volumes about their lives—and the condition that we let those gateways to history deteriorate to can tell volumes about us.

Michelle Mann is a staff writer for The Southeast Sun and Daleville Sun-Courier. The opinions of this writer are her own and not the opinion of the paper. She can be reached at (334) 393-2969 or by email at [email protected].