THOSE WONDERFUL OLD CEMETERIES: WHAT DO WE DO WITH THEM? PART I

By Melanie D. Pratt, Collections Department, Ohio Historical Society

Local History Notebook, March / April 1997

Introduction

As genealogists, historians, and/or family members, we may have spent some time haunting the small, scattered cemeteries throughout the state. We may have discovered where our progenitors are buried, or perhaps the founder of the town, and we sometimes are appalled at the conditions we find the tombstones. When this happens, we may stand around and wring our hands at the conditions we find, but we should also consider what can be done. If you decide that you want to be active and do something for a neglected cemetery, then get started now.

Getting Started

Before starting anything in that cemetery, head to the nearest bookstore where you can buy a notebook/blank book to use as a diary. Why? Because the pages will not fall out and a blank book is usually smaller than a full size notebook and can be easily stuffed into your purse or glove compartment or jacket pocket. The information you keep in a long-term project diary is worth much more than its weight in gold because you can always refer back to the project's history.

Next, read! Contact the Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS) in Massachusetts and ask for copies of their approved reading material. One of the first items on that list will be A Graveyard Preservation Primer written by Lynette Strangstad. A part of the American Association for State and Local History Primer Series, it was published with the aid of the AGS. It is a simple, easy-to-read manual on the do's and don'ts of cemetery conservation/preservation. Keep notes on some of the more important issues raised in the book in your diary. One of the reasons the Primer was written was in response to the many projects that were being done in cemeteries in the late 1970s and early 1980s-not all to the benefit of the stones. As quoted from the Foreward of the book:

We at AGS felt an obligation to answer the groundswell of inquiries by offering a book that would describe recommended procedures, but in view of the state of the art, we were hesitant. While we hesitated, action was being taken, not all of it good. Gravestone restoration projects, some large and well funded, others involving a few unpaid volunteers, sprang up and proceeded with expert guidance on the theory that it is better to do something than nothing. As a result much time was wasted and money poorly spent. Worse, the overall life of many treated stones was diminished rather than lengthened. A distressing follow-up to the misguided projects has been the appearance of a spate of hastily prepared how-to publications, most of which advocate some questionable or inappropriate procedures. Dissemination to the public of this material enlarges and prolongs the problem.

Reading the Cemetery

If after reading Primer and other sources, you are still convinced that the cemetery is worth conserving (what cemetery isn't?), what do you do now? Read! Not another book, but the cemetery itself. Plan to spend a lot of time documenting the cemetery before you or the experts you brought in start to work. When reading a cemetery, the object is to copy exactly what is written on the tombstone spelling errors and all. Be as accurate as possible. Photograph the stones (AGS has a nice little pamphlet on good procedures for photographing tombstones). Include all of the information on the tombstone, epitaph, etc. Also, look at the base of the stone. Was it signed by the carver? A lot of early stone carvers in Ohio were very proud of their work and signed the stone so future generations could praise their artistry. One stone carver in Ohio went a bit farther:

The stone with this inscription is located in the West Rushville Cemetery, Rushville in Fairfield County, Ohio. John Strickler was a master carver and his sons, John and Joseph, followed in his footsteps. He also had at least one apprentice--Harrison Johnston, whose carvings can be found in cemeteries along the Hocking/Vinton County border. Also, an early tombstone can reflect quite a bit about the individual buried in that plot of land by the type of decorative carvings on the stone. Learn to look beyond the words. A brief list of carvings and their meanings is located in part two.

On page 102, Appendix B of Primer there is a sample form for an inventory of gravestones. To be consistent in your reading of the cemetery (or even if you are reading only one or two grave markers) use this form as a template in addition to keeping your diary. It is very comprehensive.

Do not correct spelling in your written documentary of the cemetery. Sometimes, you will find that a stone is too badly damaged to be able to conserve. Some people prefer to put up a new stone with the corrected spelling of words. However, you are trying to conserve and preserve this cemetery--the spelling errors add to the charm of the stone. Some are not so much spelling errors as misplacement of letters where the carver has run out of space. I have seen small letters carved in above the line, and in one or two cases, the word continued around on the side of the stone! So, if you want to put up a new stone for that individual, do you want the spelling correct and/or the stone to look "perfect" (by twentieth-century standards) or do you want that stone to look as authentic as possible to the cemetery--as my grandmother would say, "warts and all?" Me, I opt for "warts and all."

Additional Documentation

Before you start to read the cemetery, take a good walk through it and note any anomalies. Is there a ravine next to the cemetery? How thick is the underbrush? Are there still fragments of a walkway around or through the cemetery? Are there family plots? Are there the remains of posts that might indicate the former presence of a wall or fence surrounding the cemetery? Note all of this in your cemetery diary.

Also, look at the plants. What type of shrubbery dots the graveyard landscape? Are there any "special needs" plants? In the case of Congress Green Cemetery in North Bend near Cincinnati, there is a plant called Running Buffalo Clover (Trifolium stoloniferum) that is on the federal endangered species list. Special care has been taken during conservation of this cemetery to ensure that the plant was not injured--including roping off the area it grows in during its May blooming season--to make sure that the lawn mowers do not run over it. If you know anyone who is knowledgeable about trees, shang-hai them into walking through the cemetery with you. Have them take a good look at the trees looking for broken branches, dead limbs, and dead trees that need to be removed. A heavy storm could very easily knock down a weak tree and destroy all your conservation efforts.

You might be lucky enough to discover that all the cemetery needs is a general clean-up and maybe a fence repaired or replaced. Find out if there is a scout troop and/or Eagle Scout in the area looking for a good service project. In some places the scouts have taken over the general lawn cutting and branch trimming from the local township trustees who already have too much to do. Scouts can be utilized to hunt down the sides of hills and ravines for tombstones that may have toppled or been tossed down the hillside, weed-whack the underbrush, and so forth. In some areas of Ohio, the scouts also have built bluebird boxes and placed them on posts around the cemeteries in a fairly successful attempt to bring some bird wildlife back to the area.

Also, take photographs of each stone, both before and after conservation work has occurred. Document the look of the entire cemetery before cleanup. Use black-and-white film and save yourself some money by only having contact sheets developed. A contact sheet will allow you to see whether or not the photographs are worth developing fully. Send photographs of the stones to be conserved, along with copies of your cemetery inventory sheets, to the prospective conservators. It is a wise idea to let them "see" the cemetery before they visit. As you photograph each stone, keep a data record. Again, your cemetery diary can come in handy. Start a page in the back of the book to keep track of the photographs. If the cemetery is a good-sized one, you will find that you are using multiple rolls of film. Keep track of each roll as well as the photo number, the subject-noting any particular problems, the cemetery and the date of the photograph. When finished with the project, go back and re-photograph everything--it is a wonderful way to document your accomplishments. If you are using a tombstone inventory form in addition to your diary, a black-and-white photograph of the stone taken before conservation and one taken after the work has been done is testament to your efforts.

Some people like to take rubbings of the stones in the cemetery. However, there is a word of caution. Look at that stone before you set paper to it. Is this procedure, harmless though it might be, going to cause more damage to a stone already exfoliating or covered with lichen and moss or in danger of toppling if a slight breeze rustled past it? If the answer is yes to any of these, put away your paper and rubbing wedges and pull out your Kodak (this is the reason I have 1500+ slides, several contact sheets and less than 100 rubbings!). In some of the New England states, you cannot do a rubbing of a tombstone unless you can prove to the local constabulary that you are descended from the individual of whose stone you want a rubbing. Why? Acid rain, extreme age of the carved stones as well as overzealous stone rubbers who think one more rubbing will not hurt. But it can. Some of the older sandstone and limestone markers are very fragile due to age, freeze-thaw cycles, erosion, and vandalism.

Researching Cemeteries

In your search for the truth about the cemetery, turn to the local people, especially if you are not a resident of the area. Local historians are a marvelous source of information. Usually aligned with the local historical society and/or the local genealogical society, they may know of earlier readings of the cemetery as well as where this information can be found. Libraries are also a good source, not only for earlier compilations and maps, but also for information about the early inhabitants of the area. While working on Congress Green, I was lucky enough to discover a marvelous local historian who was invaluable to me--she had compiled a 1967 reading of Congress Green and knew about a 1906 reading. The Cincinnati Historical Society library was my next stop. Not only did I find the 1906 reading, but also genealogical information concerning some of the people buried in the cemetery. This information is useful when trying to read old weathered tombstones. Researching a cemetery sometimes can be as detailed as a family genealogy. By discovering who was married to whom and how many wives/husbands/children a person had, you can make fairly educated guesses about the wording on some of the stones. Be sure to consult census records and newspapers. But be careful not to get sidetracked by the lurid writing styles of some of the early journalists. And do not become discouraged if you are not entirely successful in your research efforts. Also remember that there will be some people buried in that cemetery who have no headstones. The reasons are varied--fallen stones, vandalized stones, no money, no time, infant death, and so forth.

Language is another problem you may have to overcome. Not everything is going to be in English. German is quite prevalent, but you will also find small, rural cemeteries in Ohio with all of the data in French, Welsh, Hungarian or even Russian! Again, copy everything exactly. Find out if a local university has a foreign language department and if they would be willing to translate your information. They love to help. The translators have been amazed that their language has shown up in such an unusual place! Send them a copy of the inventory form and a good black-and-white photograph, along with any information you may have gleaned from your local historians about why one of their countrymen has shown up in your little cemetery. Also, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope for return mail.

Your next search is going to be for competent people to do the actual work in the cemetery-whether it is a large, long-term project, or just stabilizing and repairing one or two stones. Some of the peripheral work, as stated earlier, can be done by scouts or volunteers. But, the actual work on the tombstones should be directed and done by people who are actual stone conservators. You become "Grunt Labor."

What do you need to look for in a stone conservator? Again the AGS and Primer can be of help. On page fifty-nine of Primer, the following recommendations are noted:

When the Ohio Historical Society began hunting for stone conservators to do the work at Congress Green Cemetery--the net was flung widely. Early on in the project, when still in the "recording the cemetery" stage, several people were contacted concerning the project. Unfortunately, none of them was available. However, contact was finally made with the Fannin-Lehner Company from Concord, Massachusetts. They were involved in the conservation of the Old Colony Burying Ground in Granville, Ohio. The setting for the cemetery is lovely and the stones have some wonderful carvings on them--some of them quite whimsical!

The Local History Notebook is edited and published by the Ohio Historical Society's Local History Office in order to bring useful information to people working in the local history field. The selection of subjects and authors is based on the OAHSM Editorial Board's and the Local History Office's determination of issues which are timely in nature and lasting in scope. The reprints are copyrighted C 1997 by the Ohio Historical Society. Reprints are available individually or as complete sets. For further information, contact:

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