Cemetery Event #2

"Our Children"

Today was our second day of cleaning at the cemetery. You can see the work I did on one grave above. I don't know what that orange-brown discoloration is across the lower face of the grave, but I've noticed that a lot of graves have it.

During the clean-up a small group worked on uncovering a cemetery mystery. About fifty years ago, someone used a couple of dozen footstones to make a giant cross across the open lawn of the cemetery where the church used to be. We don't know why this was done, or whether the footstones were actually removed from their proper places in the course of this action or whether they had already been misplaced. But the footstones have now been exposed and are in the process of being matched to their rightful headstones.

 

Cemetery Event

Today we had a special event at the cemetery. The first hour was spent on a tour of the cemetery and the second was spent cleaning. I was very impressed by the organization of the event and by the turnout. There was a group of the usual suspects, along with students from the local schools, and then a bunch of local residents who were just learning about the cemetery. One woman who was cleaning a gravestone told me that she had just been walking by the cemetery that morning and saw the sign, so she decided to help. She made a big difference in some of the Brundage stones.

During the clean-up a number of fallen or leaning stones were put back in an upright position. I was especially happy to see this child's grave restored:

Underneath it, we found the bottom of a bottle that I had spotted a few weeks ago. It has a patent date on it of 1870. The grave itself is from 1884.

Stones that are in need of extensive repair were roped off, including the grave of Charles Haight, a major benefactor of the first church.

I helped scrape some lichen off of some of the stones. Some of it comes off very easily. Look at this stone before and after cleaning: