On a trip from Illinois to Nova Scotia, Jim Runyon stopped by the Monkton Ridge Cemetery to find the headstones of his third great grandparents Diah and Lucretia Peck. Despite his experience with cemetery searches for other relatives Jim was unable to locate Diah even though Findagrave.com confirmed he had been buried in this cemetery. So began a series of fortunate events.
Jim checked in at the Russell Memorial Library, which happened to be open. Lisa Boeckman, head librarian, was unable to find a map of headstones, but knew MMHS members had been offering field trips and workshops on proper care of stones. She contacted us. With the aid of a cemetery map located at the town clerk’s office, Cindy Walcott and Lauren Parren found the headstone three days later. We contacted Jim and he was very pleased to see the stone. We asked if we could ‘adopt’ the stone and clean it safely. He readily agreed.
It is crucial that proper techniques are used so that stones are not damaged. Using only water, soft bushes and plastic scrapers of different sizes, most stones can be vastly improved with just a little elbow grease. Diah’s stone was a bit tougher, so we used a safe product called D/2, approved by our cemetery commission. (You can shop here: https://www.gravestonecleaner.com/) We knew better than to use metal brushes/scrapers or solvents such as bleach, which would only hasten the demise of the stone. After just one cleaning it looked better.
With two more cleanings it looks good! We look forward to sharing the stories of Diah and his wife Lucretia (buried a few rows away), which we will reconstruct using Vermont records on ancestry.com and newspapers.com, both free to Vermont residents through their vermont.gov account.
Jim and his wife were so pleased they decided to circle back through Monkton on their return trip, taking a photo to share with relatives:
MMHS will hold a planning meeting for next year’s events next Sat, Nov. 2 at 10:00 at the Town Hall. Would you like to see a workshop on the care of headstones and/or some tours of Monkton’s cemeteries? Perhaps a workshop on using the free ancestry.com or newspapers.com? Would you be willing to participate in a cemetery work day? Join us and let us know what you might like to attend in 2025.