31
Profile 2013
A native son
Ironton man tells stories of those buried in prison cemetery By Shane Arrington | The Tribune
W
hile running by a graveyard more than a thousand miles away from his hometown of Ironton, Frank Wilson began wondering what circumstances could lead to someone’s life ending in a remote pauper’s graveyard in southeast Texas. An Ironton High School and Ohio University Southern graduate, Wilson was pursuing his Ph.D. in criminal justice at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas when he said a professor there suggested he do some figurative digging. “Dr. Dennis Longmire in the College of Criminal Justice had suggested that I explore who was buried there as a dissertation topic,” Wilson said. “While I chose another topic, the idea never left my mind. Furthermore, my mother and stepfather had visited me in Huntsville, and despite trips to NASA
and others places in the region, the one thing my mother always remembered was the Captain Joe Byrd Prison Cemetery. It imbues one with a lasting impression not unlike that of Arlington Cemetery.” And that lasting impression eventually turned into a fire that caused Wilson to return to his old running ground and seek more information about the cemetery. The 22-acre cemetery has been the final resting place for unclaimed Texas inmates for more than 150 years. Fascinated with the idea of how one becomes a resident of a penal institution, and then to go as far as to be buried with other unclaimed prisoners, Wilson started the project he ignored for his dissertation. He began to write about the people whose names were carved onto the headstones he used to run past. “This book is different in that it will illuminate the common ground we all have with the prisoners buried in the cemetery,” Wilson said. “Those who will be portrayed in it will provide a snapshot of America’s past, present and future. The readers will be able to find the
commonalities, as I have, with those who are buried in the cemetery. In this cemetery you not only find Indian chiefs, circus performers, horse thieves, serial killers, country music singers and rodeo stars, but you also find veterans from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Middle East as well as war heroes including Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipients, children of single parents, people raised in working class communities, former factory workers and so many others.” Wilson’s book has brought him national attention. The New York Times wrote an article on prisoner burials in Texas and quoted Wilson. He said, while most assume those laid to rest in prison cemeteries are bad people, it is more a reflection of one’s socioeconomic status. “Since the Texas prison system started burying inmates on this piece of land around 1850, the majority of those buried in the cemetery are there not because they were unwanted, but because their families could not afford to bring them home,”