News

S.W. Mo. residents learn to restore gravestones

Written by Angie Anaya Borgedalen
Thursday, 30 July 2009 00:00

Wearing a bright pink blouse, Carolyn Pearl of Kansas City North stood out in the crowd as she knelt in the wet grass to help scrub a tiny headstone during a workshop at Mount Memorial Cemetery on the William Jewell College campus.

“It was nice to be able to clean a stone that belonged to a baby girl,” Pearl said. “It’s such a respectful act.”

The name Simrall can still be made out on the weathered grave maker. The child was born in July 1876 and died in August 1877, when she was perhaps just starting to walk.

Pearl said she and her sister, Marilyn, learned about the workshop from a newspaper article and wanted to learn how to restore and preserve a family cemetery in southeast Missouri.

Tom Capps of Liberty, who was also at the cemetery helping clean headstones July 21, said the Simralls were an old Clay County family.

Jonathan Appell, a gravestone conservator from Connecticut, held the training session that day for about 60 people to teach them how to clean and repair old tombstones.

Ray Brock, who has family buried in the city-owned cemetery, paid $600 for Appell’s services for the day. The Clay County Archives also paid for a day of Appell’s services, and donations were taken for the third day.

Appell recommended using D/2, an environmentally safe cleaner, to remove mold, algae, mildew, lichen and grime from the stones’ surfaces. It is available locally at Carter Water Corp. by calling 741-2570.

Will and Trish Hing of Oconomowoc, Wis., traveled the longest distance to attend the cemetery workshop.

“We found out about it on the Internet,” Trish said. “We were in St. Louis, so we decided to drive over. He’s (Appell) very knowledgeable.”

Appell was summoned to town after vandals cut a swath through the oldest section of another city-owned cemetery, Fairview Cemetery, toppling and breaking gravestones on a destructive spree late June 19 or early June 20. Damage is estimated in the tens of thousands of dollars.

On July 22 and 23, Appell also helped set upright fallen stones in Fairview and taught city workers and volunteers how to make repairs to damaged stones.

On Saturday, July 25, volunteers converged on Fairview to help spruce up the cemetery. The Veterans of Foreign Wars donated a cooling tent and chairs. Price Chopper donated water, and Southerland Lumber, Home Depot and Lowe’s contributed supplies, said Mary Cravens of Liberty, who also attended the workshop at William Jewell.

“Our goal is to get as many of the fallen stones set up as possible,” Cravens said. “It’ll take a long time to get Fairview into shape.”

Cravens said Mayor Greg Canuteson had asked her to serve on a cemetery board that he was in the process of appointing.

Liberty Editor Angie Anaya Borgedalen can be reached at 781-4941 or aborgedalen@npgco.com.

back to News