Published Saturday, December 30, 2006
Work on trail did overlap cemetery, city says; Relatives of Charles Curtis buried at site
By Steve Fry
The Capital-Journal

A Topeka city spokesman acknowledged Friday that the caretaker for a historic cemetery was right
earlier this week when she said a city hiking, jogging and cycling trail had lapsed onto cemetery land.
Spokesman David Bevens said the Soldier Trail cut the northwest corner of the Curtis Family Cemetery
in North Topeka. The cemetery, which was owned by Charles Curtis, the only American Indian ever
elected vice president, is on the west side of the 1400 block of N.W. Topeka Boulevard on the south
side of Soldier Creek.
The city earlier said records showed Soldier Trail wasn't on the cemetery property.
Ann Andrews, caretaker for the Curtis Family Cemetery since 1994, said Friday she was "disappointed"
in the city because she has told city officials where the cemetery boundaries were and where the dead were
buried.

Herrman's Excavating Inc. is handling work on a trail near Soldier Creek in North Topeka that the city
recently learned has infringed upon the Curtis Family Cemetery. The city earlier this week had said records
showed Soldier Trail wasn't on the cemetery property.

Andrews said earlier this week that workers on Wednesday drove their equipment onto an unfenced
portion of the cemetery that contained unmarked graves and damaged a fence that enclosed a portion of
the cemetery containing marked graves. Andrews said there are 15 marked graves and 20 to 50 unmarked
graves at the cemetery.
Assistant city engineer Jeff Hunt said, "Preliminary results indicate we are on the cemetery property with the
proposed trail."
Andrews said Hunt asked her on Friday to talk to Curtis' descendants to see whether they would agree to
give the city an easement for the trail where the construction is on the corner of the cemetery.
Andrews said she will call the 15 descendants and hopes to hear answers from them by this weekend.
"I don't think the family will agree to leave the trail where it's at," Andrews said.
"Whether we are on top of unmarked graves, we don't have a clue," Bevens said.
Equipment used in the construction of the trail crossed onto cemetery property because a consultant to the
city "mismarked" the west property line of the cemetery, Bevens said.
The west line of the cemetery is 15 feet to the west of where the consultant first said it was, Bevens said.
Construction equipment building the trail cut a triangle-shaped portion of the cemetery measuring 40 feet long
and 10 feet deep at its widest into the cemetery, Bevens said.
"All we've done is scrape the dirt (8 to 10 inches deep)," Bevens said. "We haven't poured cement, we haven't
dug down."
Construction of that portion of Soldier Trail has been stopped until the city gets an easement to build that part
of the trail, Bevens said. To the west of the trail and cemetery is a storage lot.
"We're certainly apologetic that it happened," Bevens said.
The error was discovered Thursday when the consultant checked the property line and determined that the city
was too far east by 15 feet, Bevens said.
Joe Singer, the city's chief surveyor, will check the cemetery's west boundary when he returns to work Tuesday,
Bevens said.
The mistake occurred because property line pins were removed from the area when the old Soldier Creek
was rechanneled after the 1951 flood, Bevens said.
The walking, jogging and cycling trail, which will be 10 feet wide, will extend from Garfield Park on N. Kansas
Avenue to the Kuehne-Thomas Branch of the YMCA, 1936 N.W. Tyler.
The cemetery, which Andrews said was originally known as Curtis Memorial Gardens, is the resting spot of
relatives of Curtis, the Topeka native and U.S. Senator who was vice president during the Herbert Hoover
administration from 1929 to 1933.
Curtis' grandfather founded the cemetery in the 1860s, and among those buried there are Oren Arms Curtis
and Ellen Pappan, also known as Helen Papen, the parents of the vice president.
The floods of 1903 and 1951 damaged the small cemetery, according to newspaper reports.
Charles Curtis is buried in Topeka Cemetery at S.E. 10th and California.

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Published Thursday, December 28, 2006
Work on trail disturbs unmarked graves, caretaker says
By Fredrick J. Johnson
The Capital-Journal

A cemetery caretaker said Wednesday that work on a section of the Soldier Trail in north Topeka had
encroached upon unmarked graves at the Curtis Family Cemetery. The city is constructing the walking, jogging and cycling trail between Garfield Park on North Kansas
Avenue and the Kuehne-Thomas Branch of the YMCA at 1936 N.W. Tyler.
Ann Andrews, caretaker for the Curtis Family Cemetery since 1994, said workers on Wednesday drove
their equipment onto an unfenced portion of the cemetery that contained unmarked graves and damaged a
fence that enclosed a portion of the cemetery containing marked graves.
She said a truck and other equipment had driven over unmarked graves. Andrews said there are 20 to 50
graves at the cemetery and only about 12 of them are marked.
The cemetery is the resting spot of relatives of Charles Curtis, an American Indian, Topeka native and U.S.
Senator who was vice president during the Herbert Hoover administration. He is the only American Indian
ever elected vice president. Curtis himself is buried in Topeka Cemetery at S.E. 10th and California.
City spokesman Dave Bevens said Wednesday afternoon that the city engineer had been unaware there were
unmarked graves in the area.
Bevens confirmed that the construction crew had removed a section of the fence enclosing the marked graves
while taking out another fence and that equipment had crossed over some ground where unmarked graves are
located.
The damage will be repaired, he said, and care will be taken to avoid gravesites.
The city's records show the trail itself isn't on the cemetery property, Bevens said.
Dave Herrman, of Herrman's Excavating Inc., said he didn't think the construction crew had been aware of any
unmarked graves before the work started. Herrman's Excavating is the subcontractor for the work being done
near the cemetery on the south bank of Soldier Creek, just north of where N.W. Harrison ends.
Herrman said crews would be sensitive to Andrews' concerns as the project progressed.