All Queen Cousins This is a wonderful lady. I wanted to share her effort in the hard work to restore the badly damaged and soon to be lost forever Queen Cemetery. Linda Menikos wrote: > Hi Cousins, Children etal, > > I decided to work two and a half days for the price (time and gas) of one > trip. I cut and pulled more briers (will they ever end?) and removed the > old rotted & rusty fence that enclosed the graves of mother & child Brown. > We still need to get the posts out and the pipe that the fencing was > attached to. I was able to get some of it out but not all. There are still > several posts that the barbed wire was attached to surrounding the graves of > Elias, Martha and several of their children. The top of the stone for Elias > & Martha needs to be put back up. That may be the hardest as far as brute > strength required. > > We now have a sign outside the gate reading: Queen Cemetery. The County > Bridges & Road man met me there at the cemetery; I gave him the sign and he > came back after noon and put it up! I was very pleased with that. > > I found baby John's tombstone, broken, but I found all the pieces. I pieced > together four stones, although there is a missing piece here and there. One > stone, the one for Lewis Wimberly is just incredibly confusing. Maybe > someone else can help me figure it out. I know I need to find the rest of > it anyway, and then it may go together. Soon I need to do the scary part of > gluing the stones back together. > > Several stones need to be leveled, and of course, all need to be cleaned. > Because there is no water available, we may only be able to do only a couple > at a time since we will need to bring jugs of water for the washing. > > I want you all to know that Mr Doering, the owner, is such a nice man. I > had intended to sleep in the car, and he insisted that he and his wife > wanted me to stay at a place he owns that is only about 8 miles away. It is > a beautiful area with hugh trees. He has a mare and filly named Maple and > Syrup (his granddau name the filly) several goats, (two nannies with new > twins), and a couple of donkeys. There is a restaurant which he leases to a > couple (who are also very nice) and there is a building like a community > center, used for catering parties, weddings etc, and he lets youth groups > come out and stay without charge. There is a one-room appartment attached > to the community hall, and that is where I spent the night Friday and > Saturday. > > Mr Wolbrueck, who leases the land where the cemetery is located, and grazes > his cattle there, came out and visited with me a little while and told me he > had lived in the area all his life. He said there had been a stone for a > baby that said: " Budded on Earth to bloom in Heaven". He wanted to show it > to friends one day, and it was not to be found. I think it may have been > for the Magee baby. I hope it is just buried, but fear it was stolen. I > intend to dig around the area and try to find it. > > I came home very tired, but content at the amount accomplised. It may be > several weeks before I get back down there. > > Love to all, > Linda