Hill Crest cleanup nearly finished

Historic Hill Crest Cemetery, established in 1837, is being returned to its former luster prior to the destruction of over five large cedars and inability to keep up with mowing and trimming due to weather and other circumstances.

Earnest Harris, owner of Harris Industries in Marshall County, has completed removal of tree tops and limbs that two consecutive storms took down and toppled old trees in the North Mississippi area as well.

Power lines were also stripped down and utility poles snapped by the storms.

Harris was asked to come to the aid of the cemetery and Holly Springs recently. His local business does cleanup after disasters, dirt work, demolition – all types of cleanup.

His reach is far, having helped in disaster relief work in Kentucky, Millington, Tenn., Little Rock, Ark., New Orleans, Louisiana, Alabama, and some parts of Texas. “We don’t mind traveling,” he said. “We are just now getting to this.” Harris was on another job when he was called to help open the cemetery roads blocked by uprooted and snapped cedars and cotton wood limbs.

The cleanup and upkeep of Hill Crest was not top priority following the two storms that wreaked havoc in the area knocking out power lines and downing utility poles, nor should it have been, he said.

Restoring lights was priority and had to be gotten back on first. Cleanup was secondary, he said.

“When there’s a mile of trees in the way you have to get that done to get the lights back on,” Harris said. “You take it one power pole at a time.

“Imagine if you were in Texas under five feet of water. You move the water out. Only nature can do that. We’ll get it cleaned up, but we have got to get ready for the next one. Because there is always a next one.”

Harris is taking up the limbs and tree trunks of cedar trees he estimates are at a minimum of 100 years old. He said he does not know if the city will take down the standing and wounded trees. He was hired to get the trees and limbs up off the ground. That includes five large cedars at a minimum and the tops and limbs that fell on stones and across fences.

Bill Shaw, whose wife of 57 years, is buried at Hill Crest as well as numerous other relatives, is proud of the recovery work being done at the cemetery.

“I’m impressed,” he said. “In early spring it was raining and the grass didn’t get cut. Then the storms came. It was an overwhelming amount of work to be done. They are making great progress. I thank Mr. (Terry) Byars.”

Byars has started his third trip over portions of the cemetery with his lawn mower. Other city employees came a couple of weeks ago and got the trimming done around the monuments and fences.

“I think this is a beautiful cemetery,” Shaw said. “I’m glad it is being kept up. Bless her heart, Ms. Gipson has so many problems (to solve).”

Shaw keeps his wife’s plot cleaned and is still waiting on Uncle Sam to deliver a stone. He applied for head stones when he was in the United States Marine Corp many years ago. So far, red tape has not been cut to get his headstone delivered.

He met his wife, Patti, in 1963 in Washington, D.C., when he was in service and she was a nurse.

“I’m proud of the history of the cemetery and I have numerous relatives buried here including the Shaws and the Rheas,” he said.