Letter: Cemetery cleanups are an excellent way to commemorate Memorial Day

The Wheeler Historical Society did a cleanup of the Pioneer portion of the town cemetery last weekend. Last October, when we were setting up our Haunted Hay Ride, we were disgusted at the state of it - brush overgrowing at least two headstones, fungus and lichen on all the stones so they couldn't be read.

We decided that before Memorial Day, we would do a community clean up. We had about 15 people, hauled away three truckloads of brush, liberated a total of five headstones that no one knew were there, including Albertus Larrowe from the Cohocton buckwheat family, whose stone was flat on the ground and nearly covered with three inches of dirt and weeds.

We scrubbed and used Wet and Forget (almost three gallons) on three rows of headstones. It was starting to sprinkle as we finished, and it poured for much of the afternoon, helping that Wet and Forget to finish the cleaning job.

We are lucky to have YOUNG people in our Society, with another couple, Gil and I, being in our 80s. The President is in her 40s, the Treasurer is 39. Best thing is that a couple of the farmers who helped us are going to bring a tractor and haul some tilting monuments back to being straight and re-set a couple stones that have fallen. Otto Marshall and his entire family are looking good!

Everyone said "you should tell the cemetery lady what we did." -- Linda Ferris.

DONE!

(The Cemetery Lady’s hat is off to the Wheeler Historical Society for the job described above! What a wonderful way to commemorate Memorial Day! Wouldn’t it be great if other historical societies, church groups, and/or cemetery neighbors followed this example!

Helen K. Brink

The Cemetery Lady

Steuben County Historical Society

This article originally appeared on The Leader: Letter: Don't forget about our historic cemeteries this Memorial Day