Cemetery Preservation, Restoration, and Clean-Up
As our ancestors began moving around the
Over time, churches, cities / towns, and groups began
to develop formal cemeteries. These formal cemeteries were designated as
cemeteries on area maps and noted within town and county records. Official
maps were created with individual burial plots neatly laid out. Over
time, many of the earlier burials, lone burials, and 'home' burials were moved
from their original locations and re-interned in the ‘new
cemetery.’
Cemetery rules began to emerge, i.e. who could be buried in the cemetery (church or group membership, etc.), where they could be buried, and how they could be buried. Burial location in some cemeteries was based upon a person’s date of death or order of death. For example, some cemeteries did not leave a burial space for a spouse to be buried next to the deceased – depending on when the spouse died, they could be buried in a whole different part of the cemetery.
Unfortunately, issues still existed even after formal cemeteries were established. Burial plots may have varied in size from one section of the cemetery to another, the graves might not have been dug in the correct place, or not dug at the correct angle.
Early record keeping can also be problematic. The record keeper may have simply forgotten to write down a burial or no one informed the record keeper about the burial in the first place. In other instances the records may have been kept, but for a variety of reasons may not have survived until today, i.e. destroyed during fires or floods. In other instances, the records may have survived, but were considered the property of the record keeper’s estate and instead of being passed on to the subsequent cemetery records keeper they were kept by the family of the deceased record keeper. And yet still other sets of cemetery records were just been thrown away.
Another potential problem area can be the burial monument material itself. This group of problems includes stone monuments with veins of differing rock materials, and monuments carved in sandstone. The differing rock materials can disintegrate at different rates and create weak points in the burial monument, which in turn may cause the monument to separate and break apart easily. Sandstone has it own set of problems. While sandstone may have been used because it was easy to carve, or because it offered soft light brown colors, the sandstone may not hold up well over time. Sandstone monuments often show evidence of erosion of the monuments lettering. I have actually seen a couple of sandstone monuments that have eroded to the point of becoming a pile of mushy looking sand.
On a better note, some of the sturdiest old burial monuments were made by companies titled '... Iron Works'. These monuments were crafted with use of a set of iron plates that were bolted together to form the burial monument. These have held up exceptionally well with solid legible letters and no rusty spots.
Cemetery Do’s and Don’ts
Having transcribed burial monument information in over one hundred and twenty cemeteries, I have seen some beautiful well cared for cemeteries and some not so well cared for cemeteries. I have visited a few cemetery sites that no longer have any visible signs of a cemetery. That is not to say there is no longer a cemetery there, there are just no visible signs.
I believe one of the hardest parts of caring for a cemetery is finding ways to continually maintain the cemetery both physically and financially. This problem increases as the cemetery gets closer to capacity, because, well, once a cemetery reaches capacity they no longer receive money from the sale of burial plots. This has been and can be a critical point for many cemeteries. How will they continue to maintain the cemetery? Some continue to be maintained by some sort of volunteer or ‘friends’ of the cemetery group. Others ask the city where the cemetery is located to take over the cemetery. I have had a couple of e-mails over the past decade telling me of plans to transfer a given cemetery to a city for ongoing care.
Burial Monuments
This burial monument appears to have been damaged by some sort of chemical. I do not advocate the use of any type of chemicals, cleaning agents, or the like on burial monuments. While various chemicals may work in the short term, they can also get down into the monument material and prematurely wear down the burial monument, which in turn ruins the monuments appearance for the next descendant who visits the burial site. This particular cemetery had several burial monuments that looked much like this burial monument.
If you are having trouble getting a good reading of a
particular burial monument, try shadowing the burial monument with use of a
notebook or clip board. If you are not familiar with this, take a
clipboard and hold it near the area you want to read. Then use the
clipboard to deflect sunlight in different directions. While doing so,
watch for shadows being created where the letters were carved into the burial
monument. It can also be helpful to visit the cemetery during shadowing
parts of the day, like early morning or evening.
Many cemeteries post signs requesting visitors not plant permanent plants. These pictures are great examples of why. The picture on the left has a very overgrown and half dead grape vine near the burial monument. The picture on the right has a variety of permanent plants placed near the burial monument. The growth of these plants has clearly begun to cover up the information on the burial monument, which in turn makes it difficult for others to find the burial.
This picture shows overgrown lilacs. It is clear that these lilacs have continued spread over many, many, many years. They have actually spread to the point of surrounding and covering up several burial monuments. There is, however, one plus to the lilac overgrowth, and that is, the burial monuments that were surrounded by the lilacs tended to be in better shape because the lilacs sheltered the burial monuments from the elements.
These pictures are examples of sinking burial monuments. Stone burial monuments are heavy and will begin to sink if not properly supported or placed on a good foundation. Over time the grass and weed growth will die and decompose, which in turn becomes food for the next group of seeds. As this cycle continues, the monuments can become completely covered. This particular style of burial monument is best supported by having the monument cemented like the picture to the right. I have also been told that the addition of a bed of sand or crushed rock, specifically limestone, under the monument will slow the sinking.
A very common problem for many old cemeteries is: what to do with loose or damaged burial monuments. Often the loose burial monuments are laid flat at ground level or the loose burial monuments may be collected together and leaning up against a tree or building.
Abandoned / Poorly Maintained Cemeteries
Both of the above pictures were taken in the same cemetery. The picture to the right is a close-up of the upper central area in the picture to the left. The two red flags and the tree stump are in both photographs. As you can easily see, this cemetery has not had any care for a very long time. At the time I took these photographs, I was told many of the trees were being removed by a neighbor to get more sunshine in his own back yard. The red flags were placed by another group that was marking the burials in anticipation of upcoming development in the area. The history of this cemetery states... 'In July, 1868, one acre of land was given by Samuel Osborn to the trustees of the Presbyterian church for a cemetery. The grounds are pleasantly located on a hill-side in the south-east quarter of section 25, ... The body of Miss Ada Bacon was laid here first in 1859, before the land was formerly devoted to its present use. The officers of the Presbyterian Church act as officers of the cemetery.' I have been told that this cemetery has been cleaned up in recent years.
The photograph on the left was taken at a cemetery
that had been ‘moved’ a number of years ago. During our
visit, there were no visible sings of the cemetery from the road. When I walked
up into the area, I saw a couple of burial monuments. Judging by the size
of the trees, the area has not been used as a cemetery for many, many
years. The photograph on the right was taken at an abandoned cemetery
that clearly suffered some damage during a windstorm.
Indian Burial Grounds
Indian burial grounds are very much like any other cemetery. This Indian burial mound is within a public park near a river. The mound area has been sectioned off for a number of years.
Minnesota Section of the Indian Burials and Sacred Grounds Watch Site
State Archaeologist’s Procedures for Implementing Minnesota’s Private Cemeteries Act (MS 307.08)
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
If you have any ideas, especially the cost saving or low cost ideas, I am always open to suggestions. If you are or have been a member of a cemetery 'friends' group and have suggestions of what worked for your group (or what did not work?) I would love to hear from you.
Some other suggestions:
** If the cemetery is completely public and not connected to any religious group, the local 'sentence to serve' or 'community service' organizations may be able to offer some assistance with mowing and clean-up. Even if they are not completely public you can always check into this option as the rules may be different where you live.
**If you are with some sort of service group and are thinking about what might be helpful for your local cemetery, you might contact your local cemetery sexton and offer some help in removing grass that is growing up, around, and over some of the sinking burial monuments. This is particularly a problem with the newer style flat burial monuments. If your group members feel a little stronger, you might want to check into trying to relevel some of the sinking burial monuments. I would, however, recommend you get some sort of permission before doing anything with burial monuments.
** If you are the sexton of some local cemetery records, or know who is, please leave or ask them to leave current contact information with nearby town offices, as well as the local historical and genealogical societies.
**In the age of 'pre-paid' burials, there may be some money that was set aside by the deceased for their burial in a specific cemetery. If you know of someone who is buried in one cemetery and may also have had burial plots in another cemetery please contact the cemetery. In pre-paid situations cemeteries have to hold pre-paid burial money for a certain period of time unless they are informed by the decedent’s next of kin. If you are the next of kin you may be entitled to the pre-paid money and the proceeds from the sale of the burial plot.
This page was last modified March 6, 2010.
This web page is maintained by Debbie Boe debbieboe@pressenter.com
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