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Cemetery
Rescue - April 2004
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| Cemetery Name: |
Welsh (a.k.a. Old Hartford or Cunningham) |
| County: | Mason |
| USGS Quad: | New Haven |
| Coordinates: | 38.9989ºN -81.9880ºW |
| In
April 2004, staff members of the Mason Co. Development Authority and
Chamber of Commerce,
including Celesty Fielder and Hilda Austin, in cooperation with an
AmeriCorps team of volunteers, cleared much of this cemetery that had
become very overgrown with trees and underbrush. We were honored to be
invited to participate in the clean-up efforts of this cemetery, and help
with photo documentation and sharing of our knowledge/ expertise in
cemetery rescue and recording with the great AmeriCorps team members and
the other volunteers. We were able to spend the morning working with
the project, then again visit the cemetery in June 2004 to see how the
clearing efforts had held up through the Spring growing season and heavy
rain that those months had seen. While nature had again taken a strong
foothold in trying to overgrow the hillside again in those few short
months, our hopes are that the local Hartford community will be able to
maintain this cemetery over the coming years and keep it from being
neglected and lost under the trees and brush.
The following are photos from the clean-up day in April 2004 - click on the images to see the full-sized photos. |
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Views of the cemetery from the road. The photo on the far right is taken from the path walking in, and shows the concrete enclosure where the Jones' tombstones lie >>> |
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A closer view of the Jones plot in the photo on the left, then the view farther in (north) and up the hill from just below the Jones' plot >>> |
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Looking back towards the road over the area where the Fields' markers lie (among others), then in the photo on the right, up the hill to the highest section of the cemetery >>> |
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The sad, overgrown state we found the cemetery in when we arrived - can you see the tombstones in these photos? They're there! >>> |
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More of what we found... >>> |
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More of what we found... note the wooden cross on the grave in the photo on the right. >>> |
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Tools of the trade... Volunteers taking a breather and coordinating their plans... One of the huge trees found in the heart of this cemetery. >>> |
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Hard at work... >>> |
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The brush seemed to grow before our very eyes! Hilda cooking up the fuel to keep the crew going! Two of the AmeriCorps folks enjoying a well-deserved lunch break >>> |
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While it
looks pretty overgrown again, notice how much more light is coming in
after much of the taller brush and trees had been removed in April |
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Edward Soulsby's Civil War Veteran marker on the left, unidentified markers on the right. >>> |
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The Jones' plot on the left, several unidentifiable markers in a plot on the right >>> |
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Updated: 07 September 2012