Note that is an updated version of this that reflects the lessons learned over the year. Check on the new post.

If you take a walk through one of our many local cemeteries you might notice that time and weather has not been very nice to the headstones and monuments. Lichen, moss, mold, pollution, bird droppings and more have grown on the stones, darkening and staining them so they can be almost impossible to read. And certainly our New York winters have taken a toll by weathering the stones, with rain seeping into cracks and then the freezing tamps causing that water to expand and cause breakage. In addition to this weathering, some stones were simply buried into the earth with no foundation and over the years the stones have leaned and toppled. (Some toppling may have been aided by not so nice humans.)

During the pandemic, some people who had lots of time on their hands began to take notice of these conditions. Now the various social media platforms are filled with headstone cleaning videos that include a voice over telling you about the life of the person who rests below. These have grown very popular with millions of views. One Tik Tok person even got onto NRP to discuss her popular videos.

It has been a goal of Lock 52 to foster more public involvement with our beautiful cemeteries and to help this we have set up a cemetery committee with the blessing of the Town of Mentz. Our goals are to inventory the headstones and monuments so genealogists and family members can find them easier, to clean the stones to help preserve them and make them easier to read, and to make repairs where we can. Toward these goals I have been watching a number of the videos and reading blogs about what to “do and don’t.” Here is a quick overview in case you wish to try this on your own. Here is a longer version from the National Park Service and one from the Cemetery Conservators for United Standards.

First, ask permission. Don’t just turn up with cleaning materials and good intentions. If it is your families stone, then go ahead. If you want to clean the local veteran’s stones, good on you, but try to find the owner and get permission. Second, less is more. Don’t expect your work to produce a shiny new-looking stone. Some of these stones are centuries old and will have the battle scars of years of neglect. Third, if you see signs of loose or flaking stone, cracks, or if the stone is wobbly, leave it be. Don’t make it worst. Fourth, wearing old clothes as you will get dirty! Fifth, be prepared to be moved emotionally.

So what to do? Don’t use any household soap. Some will say that their soap is safe, but don’t use it. Use water only unless you happen to have some gentle Orvus shampoo (Orvus is a very gentle soap used by quilters and by vets for washing animals) around or wish to purchase some D-2 biocide. (D-2 is the one of the few recommended chemicals and it is expensive!)

A clean pump type garden sprayer works great for the first and final wetting. Start by spraying down the stone really well. Then begin at the top and using a plastic or wooden scraper, remove any growth. Then wet again. I find it nice to have a trigger bottle of water and keep a constant spray going. Scrub with a soft bristle brush (no metal!) working top to bottom. Scrub, wet, scrub, wet. Carefully work around the lettering using a variety of brushes. Old toothbrushes work well for this so maybe it is time to make your dentist happy and replace your tooth brushes? When you are done give the stone another good rinse and watch the transformation. It is very satisfying to see the lettering reappear. You will want to do another, I can promise you that. I can also promise you that you will start to have a conversation with the person whose stone you are cleaning. You can not help it.

 

Lock 52 will host a cleaning event on May 7 at 9am at Mt. Pleasant. It is Mother’s Day weekend, so if you want to come clean mom’s stone, we will have the proper tools and materials available. If you want to help clean random stones you are more then welcome to do that also. We will also be doing a inventory and updating the Find-A-Grave website. We will also have probes to help look for missing stones. Hopefully this will the first of many events. Another goal is to eventually do some stone repairs and resetting as needed so if you have a volunteer or service group and think that this might be a worthy cause, please drop us a line. There are over 4000 stones at Mt. Pleasant and the Town has five cemeteries. There is a lot of work to do. And of course, if you don’t want your stone family stones cleaned, let us know that also.