Ten Rewarded Volunteers...and One Happy Cemetery

by Larry Kershner, for the Press-News

The ten tired volunteers were feeling pretty good about the hours they spent sprucing up Beaver Creek Cemetery, located near the former town site of Brownville.

A call went out recently for volunteers to help knock down weeds, straighten headstones and re-level and reset markers. The result restored dignity to a cemetery where settlers of east Mitchell County were laid to rest.

"It was rewarding," said Monte Kloberdanz of rural Osage. After watching how the headstones were reset, he said, "that looks almost like an art."

Kloberdanz heard about cemetery restorations in the past and wanted to see how it all worked.

"This is an excellent vehicle for help to preserve a part of our history," he said. "It's almost irreverent not to do it."

Kloberdanz was on the cemetery fringe, cutting weeds, when he discovered he had been standing on a headstone which had long since fallen over.

Work coordinator Jo Ann Squier, who serves as cemetery caretaker along with husband Gene, said a total of 12 stones were straightened or reset.

Volunteer Cheryl Jahnel, a Mitchell County supervisor, showed up to lend a hand.

"I knew nothing about the cemetery," she said, "except that I used to walk beans and pick up rocks in my grandmother's fields around it.

"I'm impressed at how it looks now. It was satisfying to see the headstones set up again."

Neal DuShane, who directs activities of the Mitchell County Pioneer Cemetery Restoration Program, said the work was designed "to keep the honor of those buried there in the lime light."

Although Beaver Creek did not qualify as a true pioneer cemetery (less than six burials in the past 50 years) it is close, DuShane said. The group was happy to lend its expertise for the Beaver Creek project.

Beaver Creek Cemetery is the final resting place of many who lived in Brownville and were the first to till the prairie soil in Burr Oak and Douglas townships. In fact, David McLaughlin, for whom the former county town site of David was named, is buried there.

Others who assisted the Squiers included Tom and Kathy Pike, Jessi Erwin, Cheryl Jahnel, Lonnie Thurnau, Bud Counsell, Loren Meyer and Vivian DuShane, who provided lunch for the workers.

Jo Ann said the 10-person crew accomplished more than she had expected. A second work day may be held later this year.