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Cemetery research comes to life |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Tuesday, 04 October 2005 |
MUSCATINE, Iowa - Lauri Gartner has been spending a lot of time lately learning about complete strangers - a mission that one person says is "a passion that most people couldn't comprehend."
"I have to do this," Gartner said. "I love doing this. It's like being in heaven when I'm working here."
And the people who are bringing a little bit of heaven to earth could be bringing it first-hand.
You see, Gartner's new friends are dead n and have been for decades now.
She is restoring the Essex Cemetery located 3 miles east of Muscatine, just south of Illinois Highway 92.
Gartner's great-great-great-grandfather, Isaac Bowen Essex, who died in 1877 after being gored by a bull, is buried at the graveyard, which is located on land Essex purchased in 1835.
Gartner, 54, converts her motel room in Muscatine into an office, covering the second double bed with papers and file boxes filled with information about the people buried at Essex. More files are lined along the walls. She brings her own copy machine and computer.
"I'm drowning in data," Gartner said. But with that data, she has become well acquainted with the gravestones and the lives they represent, many of whom were early pioneers of Drury Township. The first known burial was in 1841. There probably haven't been any burials there for more than 50 years.
It was 1998 when this Traverse City, Mich., resident discovered the cemetery existed.
"I found a three-ring binder in one of the Quad-City libraries," Gartner said. "It only had a few pages in it, but I was ecstatic. Before I found the book, I didn't know the cemetery existed."
The property deed says the cemetery measures 200 feet by 500 feet. However, nearly half of the graves were plowed under in the 1950s, so only about 200 feet by 280 feet remain visible.
Project unfolds
It became a passion for Gartner to locate all the graves, restore and map the cemetery, and learn about those buried there.
Her passion has caught the attention of others.
Neighbor Keith Irwin says the cemetery was a "real mess" when Gartner first began her project.
"It's wonderful that she's doing it," Irwin said. "She has put a lot of time and money into the project. She is doing a real humanitarian job that most people wouldn't do."
Gartner has made seven return trips to the burial ground, staying weeks at a time. She began her project by cutting down 6-foot-tall horse weeds and cleaning gravestones.
"To clean them, I use water, a scrub brush and lots of elbow grease," Gartner said. "My philosophy is ‘do no harm.'"
Her work at the cemetery includes locating and digging up stones that have become buried under the Illinois topsoil through the years. She works until dark almost daily and returns to her motel room exhausted.
With help, Gartner discovered that there are more than 100 graves at the Essex Cemetery, including nine Civil War Veterans, two murder victims and the man who killed one of them. The exact number of graves and many of the names are unknown because the sexton's map of burial plots has not been located. Gartner hopes that someone with knowledge about the map will contact her.
Others join search
In 2004, Gartner met Jean Wistedt, a genealogical researcher from Drury Township, who introduced her to Dave Moeller, a metal detecting enthusiast and the Illinois City Postmaster.
Moeller used his metal detector to locate five Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Civil War markers. Moeller also witched for graves using divining rods similar to those used for water witching. The belief is that they will react when they are used over land that has been disturbed, such as by a grave. He has found many unmarked graves, including many that had been plowed under. He marked those graves with orange spray paint.
Moeller also started the Friends of Essex Cemetery, which has drawn more information about the people buried there.
Wistedt and others are researching old newspapers and courthouse records to find the names and stories of people buried in Essex Cemetery and to clarify the ownership of the property and the right-of-way to it. A group called the Essex Cemetery Association bought the property decades ago, but the group disbanded. Gartner hopes to re-establish the organization.
"Lauri has a love and passion for the Essex Cemetery that most people couldn't comprehend. Here's a woman that spends her own money trying to revive a cemetery that an entire community forgot about 50 years ago," Moeller said. "She has taken an overgrown patch of land and turned it back into a respectable place to be buried."
Neighbor Gene Gorham said there have been attempts through the years to restore the cemetery, "but no one had Lauri's dedication."
"I think it's wonderful," Gorham said. "It's about time someone took an interest in the cemetery."
Contact Connie Street at: 319-527-8164 or
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Contact
Contact Gartner at Friends of Essex, Cemetery P.O. Box 32, Illinois City, IL 61259-0032 or Lauri Gartner, 6262 E. Shore Road, Traverse City, MI 49686.
Details
Known Civil War soldiers buried at Essex Cemetery
Jake Burkett, Jack Harms, J.L. Ohaver, Dick Potter, Joseph Stanley, Adam Steckman, Joseph Stickrod, Andrew Walker, James Walker
Online
Purington Brickyards http://www.historicalbricks.com/brick_history.html
http://www.muscatinejournal.com/articles/2005/10/03/news/doc434147a4ee34e508793957.txt |
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