Owensboro City Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved an agreement transferring a portion of property in Potter’s Field, a City-owned pauper’s cemetery, to Daviess County Fiscal Court — for the purpose of housing the Confederate statue after its removal from the courthouse lawn.
The Fiscal Court must still formally approve the memorandum of agreement during their meeting on Sept. 15. The agreement concerns only the 7-foot-tall bronze sculpture of a Confederate soldier, as the granite pedestal was given to the United Daughters of the Confederacy and was moved to the Battle of Panther Creek site on U.S. 431.
Potter’s Field, also called City Cemetery, spans 3.78 acres and is adjacent to the east side of Elmwood Cemetery.
Per the agreement, the City will also grant to the County an easement across the remainder of Potter’s Field, for the purpose of maintaining the statue and the portion of property it sits on. The City will pay no expense related to the maintenance of the portion of property or the statue. The City will still own and be in charge of the upkeep of the rest of Potter’s Field.
“The city has and will have absolutely no ownership or responsibilities related to the statue. Our only involvement in this matter is to transfer a small piece of property to the County on which the statue will be placed,” City Manager Nate Pagan said.
Judge-Executive Al Mattingly said that the decision to relocate the statue to Potter’s Field is a way to honor the Citizens Advisory Committee’s recommendation as closely as possible. That committee was formed following the Fiscal Court’s decision to remove the Confederate monument from the courthouse lawn, and was tasked with finding potential relocation sites for the base and/or statue.
Originally, and based on some feedback from the public, the committee considered recommending moving the statue to Elmwood Cemetery. However, committee members said Elmwood officials would not accept the statue on their grounds. (City officials also had no interest in moving the statue to either of their museums.)
Mattingly said with Elmwood not a viable option, Potter’s Field was the closest they could get.
According to a plaque in Potter’s Field, the burial ground served from 1873-2000 “as the final resting place for gamblers down on their luck, average citizens without money for graves and others who died far from home with no one to claim them.”
According to the plaque, “No one is sure how many men, women and children are buried here. It is believed they number nearly 1,000.”
However, it is documented that there are several Black people buried in the field along with both Union and Confederate soldiers.
“We have heard that there are lots of Black folks buried in Elmwood Cemetery and Potter’s Field, as they are all over most of the cemeteries that have these Confederate statues. But there are lots of Confederate soldiers buried in that field as well,” Mattingly said.
The Owensboro chapter of the NAACP was also consulted for the decision since they were the initial petitioners for the relocation of the monument. When the conversation of moving the statue first came up, the request included moving the monument to a place of historical context.
The new placement of both the sculpture and base fulfills that request, Owensboro NAACP President Rev. Rhondalyn Randolph said.
“By putting this sculpture in an appropriate historical context, this gives the community a chance to work together to form an appropriate narrative,” Randolph said.
