Tombstone Tuesday - August 28, 2012

I got quite a surprise this weekend.  I got an email from Mark Davis with a photo.  Mark Davis is a friend of mine.  He repairs and cleans pioneers cemeteries in the Midwest.  He is a very, very busy guy who is dedicated to cleaning and restoring cemeteries one at a time! This man loves cemetery, as much as I do...OK, so maybe more than I do!  Years ago, Greg and I took a cemetery restoration class from him in Crown Point, Indiana.  I really liked the class and enjoyed spending the day in the cemetery cleaning gravestones but for what ever reason I never followed thru with it.  I have used what he taught me for my own enjoyment but did not really take it to the level I had planned.  There is still time...all is not lost...

Check out his website at:

 http://stonesavercemeteryrestoration.net/

Stonesavers has restore over 14000 grave stones in ten years.  

...and his partners Helen Wildermuth

http://stonehugger.com/

has a restored count of 16341 stones in 10 years.  I know that Helen and Mark work together sometimes but they each have their own separate businesses..  They have done amazing work.  Spend some time on their website and you will be amazed. 

SO back to my blog here...I got on my soap box and got carried away.....I had Mark do some work for me on a tombstone.  The tombstone was for our Smith Family and it is located in the Nine Mile Cemetery.

This is before

I have blogged about this family before but the stone was at that time in many pieces.  Mark has put it all together for me and placed it properly back in the base and I am over joyed!  So today, I am sharing with you the photos that he sent me. 

After - Friday,  August 24, 2012

....and this is now!  In a few weeks, he will return and take off the braces after the cement in the base is fully cured!  Over the course of the weekend he has shared some photos of the process with me!!  I am so happy that it is all put back together in one piece. I hope that the elements will allow it to stay that way. 

  It is one stone which has most of the members of this Smith family which are buried in the Nine Mile Cemetery.  They are;  James Smith, Susannah (Overly) Smith, Charles Smith, Kisiah Smith and Barbary Smith.  There is one other stone in the area which is also for a Smith daughter who had married, Mary Ann (Smith) Kimble and her daughter Susan Kimble.  There is an ongoing debate as to whether Susannah is actually buried in this plot.  The church records do not reflect that she is but her name is on the stone.  So I keep looking for her.

This photo is of Mark and his crew.  They have removed the old base and will properly reinstall it so it is level on a solid rock base.  Then they placed the stone back in the base and cemented it in place.  If you look closely at the right side of this photo, you will see Mary Ann Kimble's stone right next to the tree.  It looks as if it is growing out of the tree trunk.

So really soon, I will be firing up the GPS and heading to Nine Mile, Indiana  to check out  the stone that Mark fixed for us! 

On behalf of all of our Smith Family a huge " Thank you!"  to Mark  Davis and his crew for doing this job for me!

Love,

Jan