A Grave Concern: East Cleveland Township Cemetery tour

This past weekend, we attended the 2nd Annual Halloween Night at the Cemetery at the East Cleveland Township Cemetery. Although the name might not make it completely clear, the event is a torchlit tour of the cemetery with stops for stories of individuals who are buried there. This year, they planned for the high turnout by having two tour groups at each time slot for a total of four tours. We visited 11 sites in the cemetery, with a mix of marked and unmarked graves, and there was only one brief story that was a repeat of the previous year’s tour. We were very lucky to have our tour lead by Nancy West, the author of To Dwell with Fellow Clay, a history of the cemetery and its residents. Before and after the tour, the restored chapel at the gate was open with baked goods, candy, and cider. Nancy stated they would have the tour again next year, and I will be there. I hope that in the future more of my readers will be able to make it out and support the great work the cemetery foundation is doing to take care of this historic cemetery.

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A Grave Concern: Mark your calendars

On October 22, 2011, East Cleveland Township Cemetery is holding their 2nd Annual Halloween Night at the Cemetery. This was a good tour last year, and they promised that they will have new stories so that people can attend multiple years in a row and always hear something they haven’t before. This is a link to their flyer. Hope to see some of you there!

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Today I am thankful…

For the next few days, I’ve been working on some posts about things I am thankful for, in honor of Thanksgiving. I want to preface these by saying that I framed the posts considering what walking through cemeteries make me grateful to have or experience.

And to kick things off, today I am especially thankful for non-profit cemetery foundations. Composed of dedicated, motivated volunteers, these organizations maintain and restore cemeteries because they value them and care about what happens to them. There are of course multiple cemetery foundations in the Cleveland area, but the one that I have had the most reason to appreciate is the East Cleveland Cemetery Township Foundation.

As I’ve written about previously, my great great uncle Ralph rests in East Cleveland Township Cemetery, struck down at age 27 by tuberculosis. Now Uncle Ralph may not have a stone (my research hasn’t been able to determine if he ever did), but thanks to the efforts of this foundation, his final resting place does have a nice new sign, a restored office, and a park outside that makes it more visible. The cemetery is also now maintained (raked in the fall, mowed in the summer). The foundation volunteers have removed dead and diseased trees, righted fallen monuments, and made cemetery records accessible online. In short, they have brought this cemetery back to life.

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