Rediscovered historic cemetery preserved in Joplin's MOmentum Bike Park

(From the City of Joplin)

A rediscovered historical family gravesite will be honored this weekend in Joplin – and its specific location within the City’s new MOmentum Bike Park means it will be preserved indefinitely as a piece of Joplin’s history.

Lemon Cemetery, the burial location of Kenyon and Sarah Lemons (a Joplin miner and homemaker who died in 1889 and 1891, respectively) will be recognized with a ceremony at 10 a.m. this Saturday, June 20. The ceremony, which follows decades of search efforts by the Lemmons family (the spelling of the name evolved over the years) as well as local historians, is being conducted by the Jasper County Cemetery Preservation Society. 

Rikki Smith, president of JCCPS, has been at the heart of this interesting tale of preservation and will officiate Saturday’s ceremony. Smith has been involved in local cemetery preservation for years and shared the story of the lost Lemon Cemetery at a Peace Church Cemetery meeting in 2022. From that conversation, Smith was connected to City of Joplin officials who knew more about the location. Those details, as well as clues from limited historical records of the site, ultimately led Smith to connect with the Lemmons family, who had also conducted their own efforts to find the lost gravesites of their ancestors.

“From a genealogy perspective, a family history perspective, and cemetery preservation perspective, this story is absolute gold,” said Smith, who is also a schoolteacher in the area. “The stars aligned. To piece together a story like this just takes the right information being shared in the right settings.”

The story of Kenyon and Sarah Lemons – a married couple with five children who were both buried on the property upon their deaths – may not have been rare in the late 1800s. But when their young children went into the custody of other families and moved away, it left no one to oversee the Lemons’ gravesites. As the decades passed, the homestead dissipated and the land was engulfed by foliage.

As various parties searched for the gravesites over the years, the City’s work to develop the future bike park was also underway. And in fortunate timing, as MOmentum was being developed, the Lemons’ gravesites were finally found. The City installed a split-rail fence around the old property and cut back the foliage. The site can be found along the Missouri Loves Company trail in the northeast corner of the park. 

“It is a really fascinating story of how historical preservation is such an important component to our city facilities,” said City of Joplin Parks and Recreation Director Paul Bloomberg. “We learned so much along the way as the JCCPS worked to locate and protect this piece of history for the family and the City.”

Bloomberg says the Parks Department intends to partner with JCCPS to add signage marking the Lemon Family Homestead at the site within the park.

Smith, who has developed a close relationship with the Lemmons family through this experience, is also thrilled at the outcome.

“There’s nothing more rewarding than providing service to our community,” she said. “This work is all about relationships. It just takes passion for a project to get it going.”

For more information about the Lemon Cemetery project, contact Smith at 417-629-4914.