Group working to preserve cemetery

The cemetery contains the remains of a Revolutionary War veteran.

By VIRGINIA ROSS

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

EAST PALESTINE — Sometimes good comes from bad.

It was vandalism at Pioneer Boatman Memorial Cemetery that sparked formation of a group whose mission is preserving the cemetery.

Day after day Julia Clark had noticed another tombstone overturned, another marker missing at Pioneer Boatman Memorial Cemetery.

Clark, who lives just a block from the South Walnut Street graveyard, saw the increasing damage at the cemetery and, along with Kathryn Bauknecht and David Elwoner, founded the Boatman Cemetery Preservation Association in 1994 with the purpose of restoring, beautifying and maintaining the graveyard.

“We just felt really bad about all of the vandalism,” said Clark, association president. “At the time there had been a lot of vandalism at the cemetery. I walked by there quite often and saw the damage. It was very sad. We just wanted to do what we could to make it better.”

Clark said there are 196 known graves at the cemetery, with between 120 and 130 marked. She explained the association has focused on keeping the graves decorated. The group is now collecting donations to buy silk flowers that can be placed at graves in time for Memorial Day. She noted silk flowers look a lot like real flowers, but they last longer and only cost about $5 a bunch.

The group has worked with the Veterans Administration in Lisbon to replace several veterans markers. Also, the association’s Adopt-A-Grave program allows individuals, groups and organizations to help keep particular graves maintained or decorated, Clark said.

Clark said the cemetery had been abandoned for many years. But in 1990 American Legion Post 31 donated a large stone with the names of all the veterans buried in the cemetery on one side and the names of the 19 wartime veterans buried there on the other side.

In 1998, the city placed a chain-link fence around the yard to discourage would-be vandals.

“There’s a lot of history at the cemetery and we wanted to preserve that and honor the people buried there,” Clark said. “It hasn’t been used in many, many years but it should be respected and maintained.”

The cemetery was used from the late 1700s to 1881 and is believed to be East Palestine’s first cemetery, explained Clark. She said it was deeded to the city by the two Presbyterian churches that founded it.

She said the cemetery was named for Barnerd Boatman, a soldier in the Revolutionary War who is buried there and believed to be a friend of George Washington’s. She said the cemetery also contains graves of veterans of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, The Mexican War and the American Civil War. She said one soldier believed to be buried there, Joseph Davis, received the Medal of Honor for capturing a Confederate flag in an 1864 battle in Tennessee.

Clark said the cemetery will be open to visitors during daylight hours over the Memorial Day weekend.

She said any donation money remaining after the purchase of the flowers likely will be used to renovate some of the tombstones.

Donations to the Boatman Cemetery Preservation Association for the purchase of the silk flowers or for other projects at the cemetery may be made at Huntington Bank on North Market Street in East Palestine.