31 May 2009

Dear Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery,

Friday was delightfully cool at the cemetery, perfect for the strenuous work set for the day. Nine of us gathered. Our main focus was work on the southern section of the cemetery. Other activities involved digging up and leveling a few of the headstone base pads in preparation for resetting them, and light cleaning of a couple of headstones (using just water and an extremely soft brush, we will do a couple each session until we have done them all). In the course of our work we discovered DPV Ogan's footstone, another piece of a foot stone without writing, a mysterious cement fragment, and a very old message in a bottle. All in all, a fun and productive day.

Before Friday's session, we had avoided work in the heavily ivy infested southern part of the cemetery. Last year we weed-whacked the area, which kept the ivy from expanding into the heart of the cemetery. But that couldn't get underneath the dense tangle of ivy vines. Friday we began the task of pulling up the vines (see the first attached picture). Although an arduous task, in pulling up the vines we discovered, among other things, various bits of finished wood, some interesting cement pieces (second picture) which may or may not relate to a burial, and a rock tied to a bit of fishing line. Removing the vines will allow us to explore this part for graves and give us better access for metal detecting. We made a good start, and will continue at the next workday.

Currently, Candy Donnelly and Patsy Marcussen are drafting a document specifying policies to protect the historic nature of Spring Hill (including such crucial issues as only hand dug graves to minimize disturbance of possible remains, identifying individuals eligible for future burial in the cemetery, specifying placement of new graves so as not to impact existing graves, use of only licensed firms for burials, all costs to be born by family of the deceased, etc). This document will be used in further discussions between the "Friends" and the county, and will hopefully evolve into the set of policies under which future burials would be permitted.

Our most exciting finds came while digging up a couple of the headstone bases in preparation for leveling their pads and resetting them. We plan to do a few each workday until they are all leveled, and then will reset the bases. The first base attempted was that for Mary A Titus. Immediately to the west of her headstone base and about 6-8 inches below the surface was an intact glass jar with a rusted metal screw top lid - inside was a folded up and rolled piece of paper (third and forth attached pictures). From the look of the rusted jar lid and the look of the very brittle paper inside, it is very old. Mary Asenath Crawford Titus' headstone dates from 1908. On the Spring Hill website there is a picture of Mary smoking her corn cob pipe at http://www.wendtroot.com/cockrill/d0011/d0011notes/SpringHillCemIndex7.html#pgfId-1123140 We did not open the jar, as we were afraid that the paper would disintegrate when exposed to air. Jerry Lites, whose wife Arden is a Titus descendant, took the jar for safekeeping until we can find more information on how we should go about opening it. Does anyone have any expertise in this area, or know of a contact who could help?

The second base dug up for leveling also yielded a new find. In digging up DPV Ogan's headstone's base, Larry and Rick found DPV's foot stone - the fifth picture attached. Also nearby a piece from another foot stone was uncovered. Given that we only worked on three headstone bases and two of them yielded fascinating finds, I am looking forward to seeing just what we discover in doing the rest of the bases.

I want to thank Patsy and Candy for working on the Spring Hill Burial Plan. Their plan is nearly finished, and will be forwarded to Evelyn (WSCHS) and Jeremy for comment before sending it onto Regional Parks.

Thanks to all of you who came out on Friday to work with us! Our next workdays are scheduled for June 19, July 17, Aug 21, Sep 18, Oct 16 and Nov 20. Please mark your calendars, and come join us when you can.

Update on the "message in a bottle" (email from Jerry Lites, 1 June 2009):

Dear Sue,

Thanks for forwarding the message. This morning Arden and I decided to open the jar. The lid wouldn't come off, so I tapped on the top edge of the lid all around the top, and then it came off without any trouble. I slid the paper out, and it didn't fall apart. However, much of it had deteriorated from being there so long. It was one sheet of paper, possibly the kind that kids do art work on in school, a little larger than a regular sheet of paper. It had nothing to do with the cemetery, but was actually from the school kids from the old school. It was a list of kids in the 6-8th grades, and is possibly from about 1955. On the left side of the paper are the signatures of 18 kids. One of them is Art Schaeffer. His brother is married to Caroline Murphy's sister. I have a call in to Art and I'm waiting for a call back from him. Most of the outer edges of the paper is visible, but the center is missing. When I talk with Art, I can find out more about it. It would be good to find someone who could remember putting the jar there. I'll keep you updated. I'm attaching a photo that I took for you to see what I'm talking about.

Take care, and thanks for all your hard work. .

Jerry