(This article first appeared in the November print edition of the Hendersonian.)
Some local Masons didn’t fully understand the breadth of the task they took on when they decided to begin cleaning headstones in Henderson County.
Now, however, a dedicated local group is determined to continuing its work, though it would probably take years to clean all the headstones that need a good cleaning in the county.
It’s more than just cleaning headstones, though. The group is also picking up fallen tombstones and placing them back on their bases, a tough job considering some of the fallen monuments can weigh hundreds of pounds and require a pulley system and wraps to get them lifted out of the indented hole in the ground into which they’ve settled.
They also level bases on which leaning monuments are resting upon or from which others have fallen.
In a morning’s work, they may get 20 monuments cleaned and/or leveled.
It’s slow, but necessary work, those who’ve taken it on say.
“You can spend a lifetime in a cemetery and not get it all done,” says Steve White, a member of the local Jerusalem Masonic Lodge #9 and a member of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky Veterans Affairs Committee.
White got involved last year when he’d read there was a push to clean all the veterans’ headstones in the nation before Jan. 1. That turned out to be too big of a project to complete by the deadline, but it got White interested.
When he starts work at a cemetery, he typically first searches out the veterans’ gravesites and then marks them with an American flag placed in the ground beside them.
A typical cleaning routine involves numerous steps:
1. Wet down the headstone
2. Using a soft plastic putty knife, scrape off the dirt and moss and any other things on the surface
3. Spray with cleaning solution D2
4. Wait 15 minutes
5. Using a soft bristle brush, scrub the headstone. White says you will be able to see the dirt and moss just fall off. Smaller and more intricate areas may require a toothbrush, he says.
6. Rinse it off.
“For me, it gives me a warm feeling to be cleaning another vet’s headstone,” says White, who is a Navy veteran.
Meanwhile, James Roll, another Jerusalem Masonic Lodge #9 member, says he got involved in January after learning that the gravesite of his great uncle and great aunt, Eleanor and Thomas Roll, was in bad shape.
He says before he was made aware of the headstone, he’d never thought about it. But “when I saw how it looked, I said ‘I can’t allow this to happen.’”
The group has worked at Moss Cemetery in Niagara, Baskett Cemetery and most recently Mt. Zion Cemetery, a Black cemetery that borders South Green Street and actually has markers that lean over the roadway.
In early October, a group of five worked at Ridgewood Cemetery in Spottsville, where White says he’s spotted veterans markers from those who participated in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.
Roll has been contacting local media to try to get more word out about what he and the group are doing. He wants to create some energy around it and perhaps cause others to get out some supplies and clean their own ancestors’ headstones.
Roll said that during their session in early October, the group cleaned 20 to 25 while also repairing and leveling three more.
Though it’s tedious work that takes time, Roll said, “We’re making a difference.”
This article has been corrected. James Roll first learned that the gravesite of great aunt and great uncle, Eleanor and Thomas Roll, was in bad shape, not his great-great-grandparents as had been previously written.
