Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois Bill Oliver 13 April 2003 Vol 2 Issue: #15 ISBN: pending Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, They tell me that it is a sign of age when you repeat yourself. There is some truth to that. We often had to repeat ourselves to our children. <grin> Plus, it could be a sing of aging, still I repeat: "Somewhere I read that a cemetery illustrates the story of the people who lived in a community over a certain period of time." It was pleasant to read so many of your comments about strolls through cemeteries. I especially liked the questions about how to work restoring and cleaning gravestones. Some of you experienced strange feelings, cold or chilly breezes while visiting cemeteries. One mentioned taking pictures and later finding misty or foggy areas in the pictures that were not noticed while visiting the sties. In the spring of 1980, my family was visiting Moscow, Idaho for the graduation of our oldest son. That weekend Mount St Helen's decided to blow her stack. On Sunday the sky turn black, blocking the sun. Cattle came home early all confused, and this family went out searching through graveyards for early pioneers. Flash light batteries wore out and soon matches were all used up. Car lights were did only so much good. Now, that was a fun day. Among all the comments from readers were questions about cleaning gravestones. It really seems to be of interest to enough of you that I reviewed my limited knowledge to see if I knew enough to make some comments and suggestions. The first thing I would suggest is to always [always] check with a monument company about the different types of stone used for grave stones and how best to clean them. From here to there may be a great distance; meaning there may be a great difference between what I say here and what they, as experts, would say. Second, no matter how bad a stone may look, it is not like a glass surface. Wire brushes, metal tools, and/or abrasive pads are not solutions. They may give you instant short term results, but you risk defacing the stone causing more harm than good. Though plenty of water is used to clean stones, powerwashers are not recommended. A garden hose putting out a gentle soaking spray is enough to clean and flush stones. Most household cleansers are acidic cleaners. You don't want to dissolve the stone, just clean it, so do not use them. Stone erode. You do not want to hasten or speed up the process. Granite stones came into use about a century ago. Many of the stones we worry so much about are older. Each stone needs to be looked at, diagnosed individually, for what is good for one may not be good for another. For marble, limestone and sandstone, water and soft bristle brushes should be used. You may not think that this is a good solution, however, with patience this will clean more environmental dirt and soil, as well as, lichens from stones. As you work on such stones, keep them wet or moist. When you are done be sure to flush the stone well. To avoid streaking work from the bottom toward the top. Should a monument "expert" recommend household ammonia, be sure you can stand the odor, but more importantly, be sure you have enough water to thoroughly flush the stone. That means more than twice. [And, for your own protection, wear eye protection.] If scrapping is a must due to lichen, use a wooden scraper, such as a craft stick. Plastic putty scrapers can also work, but use no metal. That scratches and thus hastens eroding. Returning to a subject broached earlier ... strange phenomenon ... is not really strange any longer to a group of us from Nebraska. That is the process commonly referred to as "divining" or "witching" graves. This is the use of two wires bent at a 90 degree angle and held in your hands and walking over grave areas. The wires will flare out from each other or cross each other indicating female or male occupants of the ground below. Claire, our teacher, illustrates this at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~nedodge/video/demo.htm Those close enough to attend the Blackhawk Genealogical Society of Rock Island & Mercer Co IL, meeting on June 24, 2003 the Meeting will be Grave Witching at Lutheran Cem. Rock Island <http://www.familyhistory.com/societyhall/viewmember.asp?societyid=16>. There is some other URLs listed below. Have fun reading. Wado, Bill -=- Other sites worth visiting: http://www.rense.com/general32/cxcol.htm http://www.earthsky.com/BBS/Observers-Notebook/19x18.html http://www.earthsky.com/BBS/Observers-Notebook/19x104.html http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html