Commissioners voice disapproval of Confederate monument

A member of the Eureka Springs Cemetery Commission wants to make sure the commission’s continued opposition to a 15-foot tall obelisk on cemetery grounds — currently honoring Confederate soldiers — is on the record in meeting minutes.

The topic was brought up by commissioner David Danvers at the commission’s monthly meeting Wednesday, Dec. 13. Commissioners said plot owner Koltin Massie, who had the monument built, has been mum on the issue in recent months.

“I would just like to make it known, as united commissioners, we are just not in approval of the monument as it stands out there with nothing having been done,” Danvers told his fellow commissioners. “My fear is is just going to let it ride and let it ride and we’re going to be off this commission and it isn’t going to matter and they’re just going to leave it going because they’ve gotten what they wanted out there.”

Commission chair LB Wilson asked Danvers to prepare a statement in the form of the motion to be read into the record at the next monthly meeting, scheduled for Jan. 10.

“We would make note in our minutes that this is the stance of the commission at this time,” Wilson said. “It would be in our minutes so future people who come in realize that by consensus this was the position of the commission. Would that take care of it?”

“That’s what I wanted,” Danvers said.

Wilson said he had communications with Massie in approximately August or September about the obelisk.

“The last discussion we had about this, was invited to attend our next meeting and he did not do so,” Wilson said. “The request was to put a plaque of all the Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War from Carroll County.”

At one point Massie said the monument would be a Civil War monument, Wilson said, so he instructed that names from both sides of the war needed to be added, not just Confederate soldiers.

“He had to do a lot of research to get these names [of Confederate soldiers,” Wilson said. “ at the same time put a plaque of Union soldiers who passed away from Carroll County. We really haven’t heard anything back about that. … It’s kind of a loose end and that’s where it is. We won’t allow anything to be put on the monument. There are two emblems on there for the Confederacy. Now, there needs to be two emblems for the Union. We want both sides treated the same. … He can put them on if it’s a Civil War monument.

“Maybe he’s dong research now in order to accommodate us.”

The discussion on the Confederate monument came just minutes after the commission voted to add to its rules what was first labeled on the meeting agenda as a “social activism policy.”

The commission opted in the end not to use those words but voted unanimously to add to its policies a stipulation that a burial plot must contain the legal name and birthdate on a permanent fixture.

“We have a Confederate monument out here and that’s the way it was presented,” Wilson said. “Now, it’s a Civil War monument and no telling what it will be in the future. I want to try to discourage social activism of any kind in the cemetery.”

Massie has indicated that he, or someone, will be buried on the plot where the obelisk sits, Wilson said, adding that the new policy can’t be enforced retroactively.

“The issue is that he has backed himself into a corner when he came out and said ‘I will be buried there,’ and since we’ve adopted all these new rules and regulations,” Danvers said. “This is just one more … now that we’re able to enforce what goes on these inscriptions he knows he’s got to get his name on there. … He knows he’s got to fulfill what he said. This is a monument to the Civil War so he’s got to have that plaque. He’s got to have his burial name as he said he was going to do. …” Until Massie makes the changes he told commissioners he would make, the monument is in violation of cemetery policy, Danvers said.

“I would just like it known … we as a body of commissioners are not happy with the current state of Mr. Massie’s monument on his plot,” Danvers said. “It is in complete violation of our current rules and regulations and as well as the initial 1978, which established the cemetery. It’s a complete violation as recorded and confirmed by the city attorney in writing to us.

“My point was, at the end of 2023 … we believe this is an unresolved issue with this ongoing Confederate monument and further action needs to be taken for compliance for said property owner.”

The obelisk came to light last spring after it was erected on Massie’s plot and even led to city council member Harry Meyer calling for all cemetery commissioners to resign.

Meyer told a regional radio program that he would like to see commission members step down after the discovery of the obelisk.

“All I can say is I would love to have our cemetery commission just resign over this,” Meyer said on Ozarks at Large, a weekday program and podcast on Fayetteville-based NPR station KUAF. The report added that Meyer said the commission “should have blocked installation of what he describes as a monument to white supremacy in their town burial ground.”

In late June, former commissioners Bruce Wright and Robert Tollett submitted letters of resignation, citing family and personal reasons.