Confederate statue going to Potters Field

James Mayse, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.
·2 min read
2

Sep. 7—The Confederate statue, which sat atop the Confederate monument for more than a century downtown, could be moved to a spot near Elmwood Cemetery.

Tuesday evening, the Owensboro City Commission approved a municipal order to transfer a portion of Potters Field, a city-owned cemetery purchased in 1873 for people whose families had no money to bury them, to Daviess Fiscal Court.

If Daviess Fiscal Court approves the transfer at its meeting next week, the statue of a Confederate soldier will be moved there, Daviess County Judge-Executive Al Mattingly said.

"Hopefully, we'll move it in time for the Museum of Science and History to use it in their 'Voices of Elmwood' " event, which honors events and figures in local history," Mattingly said.

The agreement calls for the county to receive a section of Potter's Field for the statue. At Tuesday's commission meeting, City Manager Nate Pagan said the city will have no responsibility for maintaining the statue.

The statue has been in storage since it was removed from the county courthouse lawn June 1 after a lengthy court dispute with the United Daughters of the Confederacy over the statue's ownership.

Fiscal Court won the court case. After the statue was removed, Fiscal Court and the UDC agreed that the Confederate group would receive ownership of the statue's base, so it could be moved to a site the UDC owns, the Panther Creek Battlefield.

Mattingly said the monument was moved last month.

The site for the statue will not be part of Elmwood Cemetery.

"In the end, what we are trying to do is fulfill the recommendation of the citizens committee," Mattingly said.

The Monument Relocation Committee put forward several options, including placing the statue at Elmwood Cemetery.

"They would have liked to have it go to a museum, but that was not possible," Mattingly said.

The Science and History Museum and the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art declined to take the statue.

Jordan Rowe, communications coordinator for Fiscal Court, said county officials have not yet discussed how to prepare the site for the statue.

The location of the statue at Potters Field and near Elmwood Cemetery is appropriate, Mattingly said.

"I guarantee there are lots of Confederates buried at Elmwood," Mattingly said.

James Mayse, 270-691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @JamesMayse