I came across an article today on www.cjonline.com that I found to be quite interesting about a local cemetery in Topeka working to preserve different records on how different people died. 

The article begins talking about three individuals and their stories.  Gareford Lee Jr. was killed by Topeka’s 1966 Tornado on June 8.  A former slave Sylvia Harris was reported to be 115 at the time of her death in 1928 and David Marshall who “came to his death by poison Dministered by Mary Troy.”  All three are buried in Topeka’s Mount Auburn Cemetery, 916 S.E. California Ave.

Executive Director of Keep America Beautiful, Philicia McKee’s organization is the one who is taking on the task of preserving its records.

I think it is awesome what McKee and her team is doing.  I find local history to be fascinating and knowing how some of these people lived and died and what they experienced can teach us a lot about what certain periods of time were like.

Preserving records of history is of course important because once they’re gone and those that know about those certain things are gone then history takes a risk of being lost forever.