STARKVILLE — When retired librarian Ellen Mauldin first agreed to start preserving the history of the Mayhew Cemetery, she didn’t realize it would become the work of more than half of a century.

“This is just my little effort to keep the cemetery alive and to keep people knowing about it and contributing to it,” Mauldin said, after receiving the national Historic Preservation Recognition Award at the meeting of the HIC-ASHA-BA-HA chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution on Thursday afternoon.

Lucy Senter, Chapter Regent, presented the award to Mauldin at the chapter meeting. She also gave a presentation on the history of the cemetery, along with Mauldin’s project. She called Mauldin a “cornerstone” of the chapter.

“It’s very satisfying to see someone who has worked so long without any expectation of recognition or accolades,” Senter said. “She did it because it was the right thing to do and she wanted to do it, and she worked with her friends and colleagues from Mayhew and they just kept doing it. And no one knew.”

The cemetery, which was founded in 1881, was not associated with a church, school, or any other organization, and has only ever been maintained by Mayhew residents, Senter said. Mauldin started working in the cemetery in 1968, when she was asked to make a record of the graves by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

But once Mauldin was done with the initial project, she kept going without MDAH support. Mauldin kept working on the project with the help of her co-compiler and cemetery caretaker Bess Yelverton Swedenburg, who helped her to set up interviews with family, friends and other Mayhew residents to confirm family connections in the cemetery.

These efforts resulted in the creation of a booklet titled the “Mayhew Cemetery Record,” which was initially published in 1968. It has since undergone seven revisions, including the most recent revision in 2022.

“You do a list of people who died, and then a couple years later, you’ve got more that aren’t on there,” Mauldin said. “So I just wanted to add them and include them. And after so many years … I decided to make a separate listing of the veterans that were there by wars.”

Mauldin said she would revise the record once every few years, to make sure it was updated with the newer graves that were being added. The cemetery now contains 223 graves, she said. A current copy of the “Mayhew Cemetery Record” is maintained at the Starkville Public Library.

As Mauldin worked, the cemetery itself also changed in other ways. Mayhew residents raised money to install a gate, a flagpole and a plaque honoring veterans who are buried in the cemetery. Other Mayhew residents honored for their efforts by the award include Swedenburg, Henry Pilkinton III, Charles Pilkinton, Joe Askew, Jr., Melvin Ellis, Jr., and William Pilkinton.

Mauldin said she never set out to win an award. She just kept going because it was too important to stop.

“I’m going to be buried there one of these days,” Mauldin said. “My parents, my grandparents and my great grandparents are buried there. As she said in her report, it’s not associated with any church or government official of any kind. It’s up to us to take care of it.”