Dear Richard,

Your readers might be interested to know that small family cemetery restoration is not terribly expensive or difficult to organize, if they know how to go about it, and most importantly, if they can find a good gravestone restorer.

A few days after my father died in 1999, I went to Hopkinsville, KY (his hometown) to arrange for his burial. I also drove out to the northern part of the county to try to find two early Meacham family cemeteries. I was shocked by their condition—most of the gravestones had fallen down, many were broken in half, and everything was covered in a thick tangle of vegetation. I was especially moved when I brushed away the soil and vines that were covering the beautifully carved but broken gravestone of my four^th great-grandmother. It was an emotional moment, and I vowed then and there to restore the two cemeteries. In the words of a civil war veteran who put up a monument to his unknown comrades buried in Hopkinsville: "There are hours in everyone's life when the spirit of the past rises from its tomb, and will not depart until it is appeased with sacrifice."

A long series of inquiries led me finally to John Walters of Connersville, Indiana, and highly recommended but six hours away by car. Eventually I arranged for him and his wife to come down to Hopkinsville, met them there, put them up for three nights in a motel, and we finished both cemeteries in fourteen hours of field work. Total cost, including some preparation and tree-cutting before he arrived, was about $600 per cemetery.

The process and the results can be seen in the relevant article on my Web site: "Early Virginia and Kentucky Meachams" freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wmeacham/

There might be a lot of people out there who feel more daunted than I was, as an archaeologist, at the prospect of organizing cemetery restoration work. But anyone willing to spend a little time and money to do it right can accomplish wonderful things. The reaction of the cemetery specialist at the Kentucky Historical Society to the photos up on my Web site was simply "Wow!"

If you don't want to plug John Walters directly, please feel free to mention the article on my Web site and invite anyone who is interested in doing something similar to contact me.

Sincerely,

William Meacham

You may contact William Meacham at: wmeacham@hkusua.hku.hk

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