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David Templeton's Seldom Seen: Cemeteries buried by time resurrected

David Templeton's Seldom Seen: Cemeteries buried by time resurrected

Almost a century ago, a newspaer article under the headline, "Another Plea for Old Graveyard," sought donations to clean up Burgettstown's Old Presbyterian Cemetery.

   
Seldom Seem, David Templeton's whimsical perspective on life and times in and around Washington County, appears weekly in Washington Sunday.
  

In 1910, 75 years after its establishment, the so-called Hillcrest Cemetery had become the victim of neglect, prompting panicked calls for restoration.

As it turns out, that problem persisted 96 years later.

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So the Fort Vance Historical Society in Burgettstown put out another plea last year to restore two forgotten Burgettstown cemeteries, including the Hillcrest Cemetery and the Old United Presbyterian Cemetery atop the hill.

Partying scofflaws wrecked Hillcrest in the 1970s, leaving headstones overturned and majestic obelisks toppled, no longer to point skyward. Then trees, brush and weeds swallowed it whole.

History lay in ruins.

So when Mary Westlake, Fort Vance Historical Society president, asked Eldersville historian Katherine Slasor about the cemeteries, Slasor took her to see them.

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"Katherine took me up there, and we drove past the first one," she said, noting they visited the Old U.P. Cemetery first. Then they returned to Hillcrest. "We peeked through the trees and saw a stone."

For a local historian, spotting a hidden headstone is akin to treasure hunters digging up locked chests. History's treasure. So Westlake took on the formidable task of returning the old cemeteries to their former glory.

When Westlake asked Burgettstown historian Ronald Di Orio about Hillcrest, he told her, "Don't try to visit it without a chain saw.

"She was appalled," he said.

Last year, Westlake mentioned her concerns to then-county Commissioner John Bevec, who referred her to the county's Furlough Into Service program, which recruits county jail inmates to do weekend community service projects.

Westlake's October request for assistance prompted FITS Manager Gregory Thomas to search for the site, and he, like Slasor, accidently drove past it. He returned to find Hillcrest Cemetery buried in green.

"Holy mackerel, this will be a feat," he said.

But FITS provided 15 to 20 people for eight spring days of work, and the 1,000 man-hours of labor produced eye-popping results.

They cut down rogue trees, removed trespassing brush and weeds, did some landscaping and righted 200 headstones, including using pry bars to lift obelisks weighing 1,600 pounds and more. They put branches through a chipper and used the chips to build cemetery paths. They used tree trunks as fence posts, and produced cord wood. They cut weeds at the Old United Presbyterian Cemetery.

Inmates showed keen interest in the project and expressed pride in the results, Thomas said. "They felt so good that when it was time to leave, they wanted to stay and finish what they started."

And Westlake and crew found Burgettstown history carved in stone.

The last burial in the Hillcrest Cemetery was in 1943, almost a century after its creation. Four Civil War veterans and one Mexican War veteran are buried there.

People were interred in the Old U.P. Cemetery from 1802 through 1976, when Hettie Leopold was laid to rest next to her husband. It features the graves of one World War I, five Revolutionary War and three Civil War veterans.

With the project near completion, Westlake and Di Orio have applied to the state Bureau of Historic Preservation and the National Register of Historic Places to have the cemeteries designated historic landmarks. They hope it will help them land grants to pay for regular maintenance.

Stumps still must be removed and more headstones righted in the two football-field-sized cemeteries.

Di Orio said he planned to research their histories, plot the location of each grave and put all the information on compact disks.

He noted that myrtle, or periwinkle, growing throughout the cemeteries reflects the Scotch-Irish custom of throwing sprigs of myrtle on graves. The cemetery is full of Scotch-Irish ancestry.

"You find names of the most prominent and unprominent families here," said Di Orio, noting his great-great grandparents are buried in the Old U.P. Cemetery. "There's certain comfort when you are around where your ancestors are."

In New England, towns, rather than churches, established cemeteries and are more readily maintained, said Gary Collison, editor of MARKERS: Annual Journal of the Association for Gravestone Studies.

Western Pennsylvania has numerous old church cemeteries with the churches no longer standing. As a result, many are overgrown, in dire need of repair and largely forgotten.

The hilltop cemetery was established beside an old church, which preceded the Westminster Presbyterian Church. The Hillcrest Cemetery was established next to a hillside church, which was an offshoot of the Presbyterian Church of Florence.

The church histories are convoluted, including various relocations and mergers. But the Hillcrest and Westminster churches recently merged to become the Burgettstown Presbyterian Church, which now uses the Fairview Cemetery in Burgettstown and the Grandview Cemetery in Hanover Township.

Collison said old cemeteries were havens for history and reflected ethnicity, culture and art.

"For genealogists, cemeteries are irreplaceable sources of information, because complete documents of families don't exist in public records," he said. "They are essential archives for family history."

Before 1850, local artisans made grave markers, which often reflected local traditions and unique artwork. After 1850, national trends took over, resulting in grave markers bearing angels, lambs and Bibles. Obelisks were popular in this era, Collison said.

Twentieth-century grave markers were minimalist, lacking decor or individualism. But in the past 30 to 40 years, new technology and an emphasis on the individual has turned headstones into intimate memorials to the deceased.

The Burgettstown cemeteries reflect earlier trends, from local grave markers to obelisks and curious, odd-shaped Victorian-era headstones. And with fresh access to the cemeteries, Burgettstown can begin reclaiming its heritage.

"She showed real determination," Di Orio said of Westlake. "I give Mary credit for doing what was necessary to get it done."

And Westlake's reaction?

"These people can finally see the sky."

First Published: June 27, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

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