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With determination totally disguised by her fresh, freckle-faced look, she's continued to pursue the subject in a way that's making her a local legend. Her goal is to locate and research every abandoned graveyard in Moultrie County—and thus far she's at "about 50" and counting. "When she first got started," said Karin Fleming, her mother, "she went to the county clerk's office to get a handle on this. They gave her a list of 33 ceme teries they knew of, but it didn't take her long to fine a lot more. She's still looking for at least one more she thinks is out there to be found." Anyone trying to keep up with Melissa, as she tears up and down country roads in her '93 Ford Bronco truck, dust and gravel flying, quickly learns of her tenacity. Even the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers steps out of her way. Almost like an archaeologist with a divining rod, Melissa's object is to first locate where the graveyards might be through reading old newspapers, see what she can do about maintenance (she returns to many with her mower to keep them trimmed), and then chart and research the people interred. Her efforts are turned over to the Moultrie County Historical Society, which helps visitors find long-forgotten plots. The Fleming home has numerous letters of thanks from people Melissa, and sometimes her Mom, have helped find burial sites. Thousands of graveyards According to the Illinois State Comptroller's office, which issues private cemetery licenses, then are thousands of graveyards in the state abandoned by families, churches, or trusts that no longer exist or cemeteries that became unable to maintain for other reasons. Most are in rural counties, like Moultrie, and typically they can be found in fields, forests, and dense thickets. In some cases, a little digging is necessary because the absence of tombstones, or markers that are covered by years of inattention. In this east central Illinois area, the situation is trickier with thousands of acres taken up by man-made Lake Shelbyville controlled by federal and state agencies. It is next to this lake, near a tiny town called Allenville, where Fleming got started following that simple classroom assignment four years ago. "Well, my Dad (Lanny) told me about this old cemetery he remembered when he was a kid and he thought it might be a good subject,' said Melissa, who'll be a junior this fall at little Okaw Valley High School. "So, we drove around and around the county until we finally found it. "It was really in bad shape. The tombstones were all knocked over and there were graves with Illinois Heritage 7 out anything at all. The weeds were taller than me. Tree branches had blown around. You hardly knew the cemetery was there unless you looked real close. "I really liked the place, though. After I did my report, I went back. It's got this nice view of the lake and, I don't know, the graves and the names and dates were really interesting to me, too. That got me started."
Also, it led her straight to the door of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This particular cemetery is on land the federal agency took when 11,000-acre Lake Shelbyville was formed in 1970 by damming the Kaskaskia River. Technically, she was a trespasser. "I'm quite aware of Melissa," said local corps of engineers' supervisor Mike Skinner. "She's an interesting girl." Persistent, too. Though only in junior high at the time she located this first abandoned cemetery, Melissa began bombarding Skinner's office with telephone calls asking the agency to maintain the graveyard. It's not the corps' responsibility, he pointed out, and furthermore there are 36 cemeteries on federal property in the Shelbyville district. "There are still some that get cared for by families, but that's not been the case with the one Melissa was interested in," he said. Fleming tracked down descendants of the pioneer family (the name is Purvis) that first turned the site near Allenville into a cemetery, but learned they had long ago lost interest in its condition.
She did, however, eventually get a key from the corps of engineers to the gate leading to the graves. After first clearing the site, she's now turned it into something resembling an archaeological project. Small flags mark graves without visible markers and fresh piles of dirt, where she's been digging to find headstones covered by years of neglect, are scattered across the area. Not long ago, she and her mother convinced a local monument dealer, Adams Monuments in Charleston, to volunteer heavy-lifting equipment to right the tombstones too heavy for the Flemings—Karin, Lanny younger sister Debbie—to lift back into place. Serious business By poring through local, now-extinct newspapers on microfilm at archives kept by the Moultrie County Historical Society, where she's been a member since age 12, Melissa does impressive research on those buried in her cemeteries. Many were farmers and others lived in a small settlement near Allenville that's disappeared, but once had a sawmill as its focal point. 8 Illinois Heritage Thus far, she's located five Civil War veterans in the Purvis grave yard and on Memorial Day she makes sure American flags are flyin" above them. The oldest grave belongs to a Purvis who died in 1810. "The other day I found a marker in the dirt from 1813 that was perfectly preserved,' she said. "I got so excited I started jumping around." She's most taken by tombstones or markers that indicate death at an early age. In one case, she learned through reading old newspapers about a young man wlinsr grave she located dying in a brawl over a girl. Then there's the grave for Mattie Purvis, a two-year-old child who died in the mid- 1800s. "I haven't found either ill Matties parents, which seems kind of strange to me," she said. Undoubtedly, this mystery will get solved. "I like the history and the challenge of discovering things," said Melissa, asked about motivation. "I also think when a person dies, you'd like to think your grave would get taken care of. I would." Both the Illinois State Comptroller's office and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) have cited Fleming for her work, but maybe the real payoff will come in another year when she begins the college admission process. Melissa's parents have given her a free hand to pursue the passion, telling her not to think about a summer job until she's 18. "You face enough reahty in life soon enough, so we just like her to enjoy things before then," said her mother. 
While Melissa's passion hasn't noticeably rubbed off on any friends, it hasn't kept her from other activities. This summer she attended a week-long volleyball summer camp with her Okaw Valley High School team in nearby Decatur. As a sophomore last year, she won a varsity letter. She's also on the track team, running in relays and throwing the discus. "Probably the best way to describe Melissa is that she's determined," said Brett Robinson, athletic director at the school. "A lot of us know about her interest in cemeteries, but it's mostly adults. She's just a typical teenager in every other way, though she's an excellent student." Scholastic Bowl team The other activity is Okaw Valley's Scholastic Bowl team, which she describes as "sort of like 'Jeopardy' for kids." She's the go-to member for history questions, but the club lost a lot of seniors and she's a little nervous about its prospects for next year. Melissa has her sights set on top schools—like Duke to further pursue history—and, at the very least, it would be fun to be there when counselors read the essay portion by the girl from a tiny, rural school. She plans to write about cemeteries. "She's definitely scholarship material," said Gayle Banning, the junior high history teacher who made the original assignment four years ago. "It's really amazing what she's doing." Mike Conklin is a staff reporter for the Chicago Tribune, where this article first appeared. Copyright 2002, Chicago Tribune. Used by permission.
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