Newcastle man starts project at cemetery
Mary Ann and Jim Williamson stand by the gravestone that spurred Jim’s interest in getting markers at the cemetery in Newcastle that had fallen over straightened back up. Pictured with them is Trista Wilson, whose father Eric volunteered to help with the project.
NEWCASTLE – Jim Williamson had no connection to the tombstone for a 2-year-old child that died in 1886, but he just couldn’t ignore that it needed fixed.
“It’s in the back of the cemetery and is a little stone with a lamb carved on top of it,” he said. “My wife and I are in and out of here a lot placing and removing flowers and wreaths and it was like it was yelling at me.”
Before he knew it, Jim was out at the cemetery in Newcastle where his wife’s side of the family the Dalieres have relatives buried, fixing the tombstone that he couldn’t get out of his mind. He had his wife Mary Ann with him to keep him company and pea gravel with him that was donated by Walhonding Valley Sand and Gravel. Soon they found more tombstones to fix and the Newcastle Township Trustees pitched in and provided Jim with three to four tons of gravel. Then he decided the project was much bigger than him and he asked for help from his fellow Warsaw Lions Club members.
A project that started with one small tombstone in October 2015 is still going strong today. Many of the small older stones have been straightened back up, but there is still plenty of work to do including making sure some of the veterans there have their graves properly marked. Jim also is working on getting some of the broken headstones glued backed together.
“A lot of these stones date back to the mid 1700s up to the Civil War,” Jim said. “Most of these people don’t have family around here anymore and some of them are names you don’t hear anymore.”
Some of the stones took anywhere from four to six hours to get straightened and Jim estimates his group has put in a total of 300 hours of work at the cemetery.
“We’ve done a heck of a lot of work, but hopefully they will stay up,” he said.
Helping him with the project are fellow Lions Club members Gary Kilpatrick, Bob Buxton, Leon Locke, Lynn Wells and community member Eric Wilson who volunteered his services.
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