County of cemetery: Randolph County
Location of cemetery: E. Rollins St. (MO EE), Moberly
Number of graves: 10,817
Phone: (660) 998-0132
Fax: (660) 263-9398
Hours: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm (Office hours)
Monday – Friday: (closed Noon - 1:00pm for lunch)
"Editor’s note: Officials will rededicate three recently restored Civil War monuments in Moberly’s Oakland Cemetery this Saturday, Oct. 29, at 2 p.m. The monuments include a Union soldier, a Confederate soldier and a Lincoln monument. The event is free and open to the public and will feature posting of the colors, fired shots and various speakers, followed by historic films and refreshments at the 4th Street Theatre.
"Local historian D. Craig Asbury wrote for the Monitor-Index the following history of the monuments to be rededicated this weekend as part of his Forgotten History Around Moberly series.
"The statues of Oakland Cemetery
"This weekend, a rededication ceremony of the military monuments at Oakland Cemetery will be held. A quick overview of their history is in order.
"The Confederate monument was donated by the Daughters of the Confederacy. Several events were held to raise the money to purchase the statue. It was unveiled on Oct. 3, 1901, and purposefully faces toward the south.
"The cemetery was much smaller than it is now. Benjamin Hall, sexton of the cemetery at the time, later recalled, “I remember when we chose the site for the Confederate monument. It was down in a hole way off to itself then, but the cemetery has grown around it now.”
"In 1902, the James F. How Post 567 and The Woman’s Relief Corp 50 of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R., organizations created by former Union troops of the Civil War) began raising funds for a Union memorial. The exact day of the unveiling of this statue has not been found, but a date of 1902 is on the pedestal.
"In 1912, the A. Lincoln Post 5 and the Woman’s Relief Corp 49 (both G.A.R.), started fundraising for a monument to Abraham Lincoln. It was sculpted in Italy and all was set to have a dedication of the life-size statue on Memorial Day, 1914.
"The pedestal was set in place and the date was engraved. Unfortunately, World War I was beginning in Europe, and the statue was delayed. Finally, in 1915 (one year after the inscription date), Lincoln’s statue was unveiled.
"Readers are encouraged to take the photos accompanying this article with them to the cemetery this weekend and see how much the background has changed in 50 years around the statues Of Oakland Cemetery." ~ Moberly Monitor-Index, By D. Craig Asbury, Oct. 27, 2016