I did venture out to one of the small rural cemeteries in Volney the other day on my way home from running an errand. While it was over cast, cold and wet, I was more upset by how run down the cemetery is. This is an old cemetery and the newest stone that I could see was from 1971. The rest are much much older, 1700 & 1800.
I was looking for a certain stone that is a request on the Findagrave.com website. But I unfortunately could not find that stone. I unfortunately could not read many of the stones. I am think about starting a club or organization to help restore cemeteries. Some of which just need someone to clean them up. Some need a little more work than that, while others are going to need a great deal of work.
Here are some examples of what I found.
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| This here is a broken headstone. |
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| Not only is this one broken but it has been lying there so long that it is starting to get buried by grass and dirt. |
As you can also see many of these stones have been there so long that you either can't read them at all or they are barely readable.
I know that this is not the only cemetery in the area like this. I know there are others in much worse shape. It makes me sad because there are people here trying to rest. They are our loved ones, other human beings who did their part to creat this country. This is not how they should be treated. I am sad because information is lost. I am sad because what will happen to my stone a couple hundred years after I am gone. Are we really a nation of not caring??
I think it time to find a group of volunteers who would be willing to go out and start cleaning up these places, fix the stones that can be fixed, save what we can. Maybe we can find records of what stones that are unreadable and place plaques on them so others can see who lies here.
