Boy Scouts Uncover Fenton's Founders

Twenty five volunteers from Boy Scout Troop 778 hacked, raked and hauled out truck loads of brush from a forgotten cemetery in Fenton last Saturday. The small family plot is the final resting place for members of the Bowles and Vandover families and hasn’t been used in nearly a hundred years.

The cemetery used to be located between estates belonging to the Bowles and Vandover families. The surrounding property has since been redeveloped and turned into the Greenmar Apartments to the east and smaller private homes to the west. No one claims the cemetery anymore, which now rests on common ground. Vandals have rediscovered the site, as evidenced by knocked over headstones, splattered paint and discarded beer cans. The cemetery has no road leading to it, but can be accessed by an unofficial trail.

The massive undertaking is an Eagle project for Scout Chris Beck, 16. Chris has been organizing the cemetery clean up since May 2010 and he estimates he’s put in more than 30 hours seeking donations and organizing work crews for the project.

Saturday was the second work day for the scouts. A few months ago Chris led a team of Boy Scouts from four different Fenton troops—mostly friends from Rockwood Summit High School—to survey the cemetery and spray Roundup to kill the underbrush.

After the cemetery is cleared Chris will ask a monument expert to take a look at the damaged headstones and hopefully volunteer his services to repair them. The scouts will assist in the repair work where they can in order to reduce labor costs.

Chris has received donations of weed killer, fence paint and grass seed from the Fenton and Arnold Lowe's. stores. St. Louis Composting in Valley Park agreed to take the truck loads brush from the site free of charge.

If anyone would like to make a donation to repair the headstones or replace the cemetery fence, they can contact Patch at Dan.Barger@Patch.com to get in touch with Chris.