Work Day

Just got home from Howard Cemetery, we were there for the past hour and a half.  Ray excavated while I re GPSed some stones, to make sure the GPS location that we took prior are correct,  so far so good.  I  was able to see some detailed carving on some stones in the late afternoon sun that could not be seen in full sun. I also did some more site survey's.   The inscription on a lot of the lime stone monuments will not be readable in another couple of years.  I worry in general about the condition of the cemetery.   If we had not started this project this year, the stones may never have had a chance.   Rayke is concerned that  with the township governments going away there maybe  no funds for upkeep. He also worries about the parkway which is scheduled to go beside the cemetery. States do not always care about history when progress is the agenda.  I believe in progress and technology, but not at the expense of the past.  I have been asked why did your son pick this cemetery, because people assume that my son must be related to the interned,  except for three Everett children my son is not directly related to anyone else in Howard Cemetery.  The reason he wanted to take this project on and propose it to the club, is that he has been raised to understand and be grateful to the past.  He is a young man of few words, but is willing to put his labor where his convictions are. It is the people that are buried in Howard Cemetery that helped homestead Perry Township, who built the community we now live in.  You don't have to be related to the people in a cemetery to care about what happens to it.