Veterans Benefit from Cemetery Preservation Program

The Bellaire Cemetery Association was host to some fifty participants from five states in a preservation project at historic Greenwood Cemetery on July 24th. Presented by Jonathan Appell, CEO of Atlas Preservation, Greenwood was chosen as the only Ohio location in the Atlas 48 State tour, now in its third year.

According to Joanne Cochran Sullivan, a trustee with the Association, Greenwood was set aside in 1859 as a cemetery.  Overlooking Bellaire and the Ohio River, there are over 13,000 burials with over 600 being veterans, including at least two Civil War generals.

Volunteers had a walking tour, a lecture on historic cemetery practices, protection of various types of stone, and how products are used to clean and restore tombstones. Appell explained that many cemeteries are on hillsides and the natural “ground creep” affects most every gravesite at some point.

 Activities included re-setting leaning or sunken stones and joining cracked or fragmented stone using epoxy, clamps and bracing materials.  Proper rigging was demonstrated to level, lift and reset large monuments and the proper way to align, seal and protect many of the older tombstones.  

One centerpiece of the day was the sunken and toppled tablet marker of Samuel Carter, a veteran of Company E, 7th Ohio Infantry, of the Spanish-American War.  Extensive work was done to raise and repair the foundation; gravel and backfill of the excavation, resetting and anchoring the tombstone, as well as cleaning over 100 years of accumulated dirt and biological growth.

Primary tools used were a product called D2 which is sprayed on and actually permeates the stone.  Various soft bristle brushes and lots of water are used.  The absorbed D2 actually continues to work for months after, as the effects of rain and direct sunlight continue to activate to product.

Atlas Preservation will continue to select one cemetery in each state in its annual program and currently has completed 31 states in 38 days, and there is no charge for the demonstration. The Cemetery Association was assisted by Friends of Wheeling who hosted a similar demonstration in 2022.

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Article provided by Bob Wallace, Belmont County Veterans Service Commission

Photos by Joanne Cochran Sullivan unless noted differently

  

                             

  Tombtone and foundation of Spanish-American War Veteran Samuel Carter is lifted to begin repair to the sunken and toppled stone.     Joanne Cochran Sullivan Photo

                                                     Veteran Samuel Carter tombstone after repairs.  

          Photo by Bob Wallace

                Before and after cleaning of a marble tombstone by Atlas Preservation at Greenwood Cemetery.   Photos Joanne Cochran Sullivan.

 

                                   

  Atlas Preservation CEO Jonathan Appell and a volunteer use block and tackle to hoist the top piece of a tombstone after raising and resetting a foundation and rejoining with epoxy.    Photo by Bob Wallace