From the Louisville Courier-Journal Monday, May 15, 2006 http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060515/NEWS02/605150381 Volunteers' work is a grave matter Group restoring cemeteries to keep their connection to the past By Christopher Hall Special to The Courier-Journal A small group of volunteers gathered over the weekend to pay their respects to the dead in a most practical manner. The all-volunteer Harrison County Cemetery Restoration Team worked most of the day Saturday to clean and refurbish the Kaylor Cemetery in Morgan Township, just outside New Salisbury. The event was a cemetery-restoration workshop and was open to the public, but the five members of the not-for-profit organization were the only ones there when work started about 9 a.m. The team put on the workshop in conjunction with the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana's Jeffersonville office. The agencies have two more workshops planned, Saturday at the Pitman Cemetery in Spencer Township and May 27 at the Old Mount Zion Cemetery near Mauckport. Before yesterday, the group's members already had cleared out and mapped Kaylor Cemetery and made a list of its dozen graves. The oldest grave marker is dated 1846; the newest, 1935. With a portable generator, special soft-bristled brushes, garden sprayers and a little muscle, the three men and two women cleaned and polished markers and made broken gravestones ready to mend with strong epoxy cement. One taller grave marker, with an obelisk-like structure on top about ready to fall over, was to be taken down and cleaned and eventually reset and steadied on its base. The team set up a hoist with a large tripod fashioned from metal tubing and chains to lift the stones. At one point in the morning, group historian Kevin Conrad used wire rods to dowse, or "witch," for any hidden stone markers, much as traditional dowsers use green twigs to search for underground water. Conrad acknowledged the method is hardly scientific but said it seems to work. The Cemetery Restoration Team got started in October after splitting off from the Harrison County Historical Society, and finished work on the first cemetery in November. The team now is in various stages of work on several others and has plans to work on almost 20 -- including Kaylor -- over the summer, said group President Karl Schettler. The group receives funding from Harrison County township trustees and individuals, he said. The team germinated in 2001 when Schettler retired and relocated, along with his wife, to Lanesville from Torrance, Calif., near Los Angeles. He found a cemetery on his property, and in researching its history, learned the very locations of many cemeteries in Harrison County were unknown. Schettler started working with the historical society to track down the lost cemeteries, which led to him meeting the rest of the restoration team's members, all of whom have had a long fascination with cemeteries. The group's vice president, Kenny Neukam, has mowed a local cemetery for a quarter of a century. It's an enjoyable hobby, Schettler said, and the group hopes other people will want to spend Saturdays working with them outdoors. "That's what we do. We're preserving and restoring cemeteries," said Schettler. "We look at this as a betterment of our community." Kevin Conrad and his wife, Angie, drive down most weekends from their home in Indianapolis to work with the team. Conrad got involved when he was researching his family's Harrison County connections. He said cemeteries are invaluable historic records, especially for people tracing their ancestry, but age, construction and lack of concern are taking their toll "We're losing these cemeteries," he said. "Once they're gone, they're gone." Chris Fisher, the group's secretary, said the team's work helps maintain a connection to the past. Fisher, who lives in Ramsey on a farm that has been in her family for more than a century, said her mother used to drag her to local cemeteries when she was "itty-bitty" and show her where her ancestors were buried. "This is who we are," she said. "These people, whether they're my ancestors or not, are who made Harrison County what it is. . If we don't remember them, no one else will."

Helen, I am sorry to inforrm you that Scott passed away on Friday from comlications from his condition. Penny Bush (Mother) Scott Bush was a contributer on the list, and cared very deeply about the cemeteries in Morgan Co. He lived in Beech Grove. Helen