Late November 2021 Update

 Below is a short group of photos showing a few of the gravestones that were recently restored. 

The marble gravestone for Frederich W. Hirt who died on 14 August 1874 at age 25 years, 5 months, and 24 days was severely leaning. His stone was moved, the lower marble base was also removed and releveled upon a crusher run and stone dust aggregate foundation. The gravestone was reset upon the lower base.

The marble gravestone for children, Martha Maria Loeper, born 09 April 1869 and died 10 March 1872; and Friedrich Sarl, born 07 August 1873 and died 30 January 1875 was severely leaning. Her stone and base were both removed from the earth and reset upon a level crusher run and stone dust aggregate base. 

Civil War veteran Christopher Marcy had a newer government issued gravemarker delivered. But, somehow it broke. The lower piece become lost and the gravestone was never set into the ground. A slotted base was fabricated so that the gravestone segment could be set upright.

The modern granite Lang monument toppled over in 2020 and was reset level upon a crusher run and stone dust aggregate foundation. The monument shall be cleaned in Spring 2022.

The marble gravestone for Anna, daughter of Charles and Margaretha Strohmaier who died on 14 August 1877 at age 19 years, 6 months, and 8 days was severely broken due to iron pinning. After the lower base was releveled. The broken gravestone was cut flush so that it could be repinned with fiberglass rebar pins. Natural Hydaulic Lime (NHL) 3.5 was also used to attach the gravestone to its base.

November 2021 Update

 Well, nothing has been posted on this blog all Spring, Summer, and Fall. But us volunteers have been working at the cemetery all along. The big project for this season was keeping the lawn mowed. One of our volunteers has mowed the lawn numerous times with a self-propelled walk-behind lawn mower. That takes eleven hours to complete. I timed the weed whacking process and that takes me a full eight full hours to complete and I move quick. Obviously, these tasks are not finished in one day. 

In 2022, to make work easier on us, we plan to get a riding lawn mower. This will make the work so much easier. Please contact us if you know of a good riding lawn mower that someone is looking to part with.

Two days ago, we finished the final lawn mowing and weed whacking sessions for the year. April and May will be here soon enough and the process will begin again. The flags for our veterans that were not looking decent have been replaced. Presently the cemetery grounds are looking fantastic. Over the next week we will be removing the spring and summer artificial flowers from the gravesites. Winter and Christmas flowers are very much welcome! 

With the lawn maintenance tasks and other family duties only a handful of gravestones were uprighted this year including a military gravestone for Christopher Marcy. His stone was broken and the stone was uprighted by placing his stone in a newly fabricated base to hold it upright.

Now that the grass will not be growing until Spring, it is too bad that the weather is too cold for gravestone repair. To be continued...