Photo submitted by Mike Ryan The Washington County Historical Society hopes to repair or replace dozens of tombstones at Mound Cemetery in Marietta.

Deteriorating tombstones at Mound Cemetery are part of an ongoing project by the Washington County Historical Society.

“The historical society for years has had a fund specifically for the Mound Cemetery,” said treasurer Mike Ryan. “It comes from the sale of a book on Mound Cemetery. It’s been sitting there untouched for a number of years and I decided it was time for us to touch it.”

He said what caught his eye were the tombstones that had “deteriorated to almost nothing left and the others headed in the same direction.”

He said the society couldn’t afford to replace the tombstones with similar looking ones, but they would be able to start putting up new stones on ones where the “graves will be lost to history.”

“We can put up new stones with their name, year of birth and year of death,” Ryan said. “We have enough money to do between 25 and 30 right now.”

He said the society has been in touch with Miller Memorials and Ohio Valley Memorials in Marietta and they are willing to help with the effort.

“They said they would give us every type of discount they can,” Ryan added.

This isn’t the first time tombstones at the cemetery were scrutinized.

Ryan said in the 1970s, the Marietta City Council formed a committee to look into cleaning and upgrading some of the monuments. Over a period of years, the committee found about 1,000 that needed cleaned, repaired or replaced.

During his work, about 125 stones were specifically identified as needing work.

“Some need stood upright and put back in the ground. Some were broken into pieces or weathered,” he said. “Some need put back on their pedestals.”

He said some are 6 to 8 feet tall and it doesn’t take much to knock them off their pedestals.

Ryan recently met with the city council and got approval to start work, all of which so far has been research.

“I’ve been talking with Matt Schaad, who is in charge of maintenance, and he said he will help out any way he can. I’ve also been in touch with the Masons, because a couple of prominent stones have Masonic crests,” Ryan explained.

He’s going to compile a list of everyone in the cemetery who is a Mason and the organization has committed up to $500 to replace or repair those stones.

Ryan noted he is looking to replace more than repair most of the stones, but “hopefully (Matt Schaad) can do some of the standing up and repairing.”

“We have no labor force. (The historical society) is a collection of mostly older people who can’t get in there and do the work,” he added.

Now, he is working from about 150 photos to try and identify the tombstones. Some 100 have been identified, as a lot have fallen over and deteriorated, but are still readable.

“The ones that need it the worst can’t be read,” he noted.

For the ones which are unreadable, Ryan is trying to figure out who is buried near them. He is working on building a new map of the cemetery, but old maps show who owns the plot, not necessarily who is buried there.

He has been taking photos of the burial information and building a database from what he’s found so far.

“Mound Cemetery”, written by Marietta College English professor Owen Hawley and published in 1996, has helped him tremendously with his efforts, he said. It is an examination of historical, genealogical and artistic aspects of the cemetery, according to the historical society.

Ryan said between now and March, he hopes to identify as many of these stones as possible, before picking out which ones they can afford to replace. The memorial companies need a 90-day lead time, so they hope to have the stones to replace in the summer.

The focus now is getting markers placed and cleaning up the cemetery. There are many tombstones buried under trees, so he doesn’t anticipate starting any work before the spring.

There are two Ryan recommends they work on first. One is the first woman to obtain a divorce in the Northwest Territory.

“We found the listing for the earliest African-American buried here,” he said. “There is just enough lettering on the stone to match the record in the book.”

There is a debate on whether or not to take down the old tombstones.

“A lot just plain look terrible,” Ryan said. “For some, there’s not much left. One had a tree grow right up through the middle, shattering it.”

He explained if there is a sizable chunk of stone left, the new marker will be set in front of it.

“With a few that were badly deteriorated in the 1970s, they took pieces of the old ones and buried them six inches deep on top of the graves,” he exclaimed.

At the time, the committee looked exclusively at Revolutionary War soldiers and officers, but this time, the society is looking at the stones that need the most work.

“They purchased 15 new stones in the 1970s,” Ryan remarked. “They restored a few. Some of the stones are in the Campus Martius Museum.”

Glenna Hoff, director of education and programs at the museum, said there are four tombstones that are part of a tour of the museum. The four people are buried in Mound Cemetery.

The first two are larger tombstones of Rufus Putnam and Ichabod Nye, while two smaller ones added to the museum in the 1970s are of Abel Sherman and Sherman Waterman.

“Sherman Waterman was the last known person killed by a native in this area,” Hoff said.

“Abel Sherman was killed when collecting Mayapples,” Hoff said. “He was killed by Silverheels, who bragged about killing him while in a fire ring.”

She said Silverheels said Sherman’s head was so big, he sold two parts of the scalp to the British.

Unfortunately, Sherman’s son was at the fire ring and knew it was his father Silverheels killed.

“Silverheels was never heard from again,” Hoff said.

Ryan said he hopes to get enough interest in the project that it will generate donations to repair or replace more stones.

“I’m thinking this will be a multi-year project,” he said. “There is so much history in Marietta … so many people in Mound Cemetery. If we don’t do something to preserve the information, their stories will be lost in time.”

Michele Newbanks can be reached at mnewbanks@mariettatimes.com.