Legg Cemetery ready for plot reclamation

Published 5:00 am Thursday, July 23, 2020

After months of work to map and prepare, Legg Cemetery’s board of directors are ready to welcome families and individuals who have purchased plots, part of the next phase of the board’s recovery plan.

Anyone who has purchased a plot for a future burial and has not placed a headstone on the plot is encouraged to visit the cemetery and let board members know where their plot is located. This will allow the board cemetery to further map out what is available and determine if anyone has been double-sold a plot by the previous board.

Those with a last name beginning with A, B, C, D, E, F or G is asked to visit between 9 a.m. and noon Saturday, Aug. 1. Those with a last name beginning with H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O or P is asked to visit between 9 a.m. and noon Saturday, Aug. 8, and everyone else is asked to visit between 9 a.m. and noon Saturday, Aug. 15.

Board secretary Carl Davis said anyone who cannot make it but wishes to secure their spot can call him at 256-232-3982 or board treasurer Sam McMeans at 256-777-0685 to arrange a different time to meet.

Due to the lack of record-keeping by the previous board, they are relying heavily on the honor system, Davis said.

“I’m not going to be the one to say, ‘No, you don’t have proof, we’re not giving you the space,'” he said. “If someone says they bought one, then tell us and you’ll have it.”

If multiple people claim to have bought the same spot, Davis said they will work to find alternate solutions, such as offering a different plot in the cemetery. Thanks to a map built by Barry Dunnivant and a donation of additional land, the board learned there were just under 1,800 unoccupied plots in the cemetery.

“How many of those spaces have been pre-purchased, I don’t know,” Davis said. “I know I own five of them, and there’s no headstone there. There are people who have purchased, but I would not say 1,800, unless people just come out of the woodwork.”

Davis stressed that anyone who has placed a headstone on a pre-purchased burial plot does not have to reclaim their plot.

“If there’s a headstone in place, we’ve got it,” he said. “You don’t have to do anything. If you have a headstone in the cemetery, it’s on the map and on the spreadsheet.”

For those that don’t, however, the honor system strategy is only being used until Nov. 1. Anyone who has purchased a plot, does not have a headstone on it already and does not come forward before Nov. 1 to inform the board of their purchase will only be able to do so after Nov. 1 if they have proof of the purchase.

By that point, Davis hopes they will have the map and spreadsheet filled out in such detail that they can post each to the cemetery’s Facebook page and resume sales of remaining unclaimed plots. Davis told The News Courier in May that he wants the process simplified enough that a person can visit the Facebook page or website, choose the plot or plots they wish to purchase and mail a check with the grave number or numbers in the memo line to the posted address.

Board members also plan to have financial records, including deposits, checks written and account balances, ready for anyone interested in making sure their money is going where it’s supposed to. This is part of ongoing efforts to rebuild trust in cemetery leadership after the previous one-person board was arrested and charged with first-degree theft related to $60,000 that went missing from the Legg Cemetery of Limestone County Inc. bank account.

The investigation and arrest led the new board to discover the lack of records. Davis told The News Courier they had a piece of paper with numbered rows and some family names on it, but nothing to show how many burial plots were in the rows, how many plots were used or empty, and who, if anyone, owned which plots.

The board has been working throughout the past year to get the cemetery back on track. Davis said cemetery funding will be OK until at least Decoration Day, which is set for the third Saturday in September. However, the cemetery does operate solely on donations, and anyone wishing to donate can do so by calling Davis or McMeans, or by donating when they visit to reclaim their plot or for Decoration Day.