Classes – Gravestone Guardians of Ohio

Some of those who have attended our workshops & classes where we taught TOTAL cemetery preservation & restoration. We’ve held workshops in Ohio, Michigan, New York, & Virginia.

Guernsey County Ohio class 2013

Hadley Cemetery, Hadley Michigan.

We started off with an hour of some introduction, talk of preservation, & questions & answers. Then we went right to work & began going over the different types of cemetery preservation we were going to work at that day.

Peter Dowd was an ancestor of one of the class participants, making his day special by giving back some dignity to this Civil War Veteran.

These gentlemen were very proud to raise & level this tombstone.

An uncovered treasure at the end of the day that the newly trained volunteers were coming back to fix the following weekend.

This was our tri-pod training for the day. I like these styles best for training. They are usually around 5 ft., 600 lbs. or less, 3 – 4 pieces, & the ones from this era have stylized nubs toward the top. This makes it even easier for the straps to get a good grip.

Packing The Silver Bullet & heading back to Ohio. This was my 2^nd annual Michigan class for The Lapeer County Genealogical Society. Our 3^rd annual class is scheduled for May 16^th 2015. I am very much looking forward to seeing my friends from Michigan once again.

Southern Cemetery, Barnesville Ohio.

A group of local high school students came to Southern Cemetery on a mission to clean all the Civil War Veteran gravestones.

This was our follow up class in spring of 2014 after a similar class in fall of 2013.

This was a class in proper tombstone cleaning & cemetery awareness. We used D/2 Biological Solution in our cleaning process & discussed basic cemetery care & appreciation.

After we located & checked the condition of these stones, the students paired off to clean.

This tombstone & base were discovered during the cleaning class in the fall of 2013. We made plans to repair & reset it during the spring 2014 class.

Pulling up this 600 – 800 lb. base became the big task of this class. This was certainly the highlight of the day & had all the students’ attention. We were very happy to show them the nitty gritty of what it is to be a cemetery conservator. Sometimes it’s a couple of hours of un-glorified digging to accomplish the end result.

Accept for the immense amount of digging, this was an easy straight forward repair. We look forward to coming back in the spring to check on the condition of this stone & to take new pics. We are planning another class for the next group of students in the upcoming 2015 season. We hope to carry the classes & awareness to Northern Cemetery.

North Kirtland Cemetery across from the old Mormon Tabernacle in Kirtland Ohio.

A tombstone cleaning & cemetery awareness class was held this past summer where 84 youth volunteers traveled on buses from Virginia to Ohio. The Mormon youth group makes regular pilgrimages to Kirtland every 3 years to perform 4 days of committee service in the area.

The Temple in Kirtland dates back to 1833.

A carefully researched & constructed list & cemetery plot map.

We arrived well ahead of this large group so we could check the condition of the tombstones to be cleaned. We then flagged them after careful examination to make sure they were in good & stable condition for safety & cleaning.

This was a very mature group of young people ages 15 to 18. My hat is off to the adults who came along to supervise & help.

North Kirtland’s only military stone.

A big thanks to Alice Quann leader of the youth group & to Cemetery Superintendent Larry Spence. Mr. Spence has quite an affection for this cemetery & has taken care of it for a number of years. He traveled to New England for some specialized cemetery conservatorship training & plans on caring for the cemetery well into retirement. That is true dedication for preserving history. We wish there were more like him.

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One row in the Greene family plot. This was the 2nd of 4 generations buried in the “Greene’s Corner Cemetery” that bears their name.

This pioneer cemetery dates back to between 1800 & 1810 & holds some of the Rochester areas first inhabitants.

My beautiful picture — Standing once again

This is where all your hard work will pay off & you will feel the pride & satisfaction of a job well done. & that ghostly thank you from a soul remembered once again.

A BIG thanks to Scott Banker for inviting me up to New York & involving me in this project. Scott tells me he is working on another for the fall of this year & a definite project again next spring, making this an annual restoration in Western New York. Scott photo documents cemeteries in his area & has a facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/TheCemeteriesOfWesternNewYorkProject Please check out the countless photos he has taken. He is truly preserving history through his photography.

& also a very BIG thank you to Bridgett & her brother Charlie for driving the 5 plus hours to take part in this class. Hope to see you both again this fall.

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