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Mount Hope vets cemetery gets new life
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Minister Robert Reynolds of Bethel Church of God in Christ, Youngstown, discusses his plan for Mount Hope Veterans Memorial Park.
YOUNGSTOWN
The vision of a local minister has given area youths a chance to earn much-needed income and breathed new life into a historic cemetery that had fallen into ruin and neglect.
The historic Mount Hope Veterans Memorial Park Cemetery has been a fixture at the intersection of Wardle Avenue and Liberty Road on the East Side for decades.
A walk through the cemetery today might be educational and relaxing — affording one the opportunity to read grave markers from near the turn of the century.
The multitude of servicemen buried in the cemetery is evident by the small flags that remain their grave sites.
Visiting the same cemetery only a few months ago would have been an entirely different experience. The cemetery had fallen into ruin with grass that had grown as high as 3 feet, covering many of the smaller headstones.
The neglect at the cemetery is evident in the bumpy road that runs through the cemetery in a semi-circle beginning at the rusted gates at the entrance and the several headstones that have become displaced and laid to the side because it is too difficult to determine exactly where they belong.
In comes Minister Robert Reynolds, a member of Bethel Church of God in Christ of Youngstown, and the teen boys he mentors who are looking for regular work to earn money and stay off the streets.
Reynolds had been trying to find part-time jobs for an initial group of eight boys in his “Kidz Werkz” program.
He took a look at the condition of the cemetery, got permission to go onto the grounds and got to work paying the boys $100 a month each to make the property presentable and maintain the grounds.
“This was a godsend. With eight boys and only four residential jobs, how much money could these boys make. They get paid $100 per month. That may not seem like a lot to us, but it is a blessing to them,” he said.
“We ruined at least three lawn mowers, hitting headstones because they were covered by tall grass. It was not good, but the kids came in and they whacked it down,” the minister added.
Reynolds said he was disappointed in the horrible condition of the cemetery and felt he and his group could make a difference.
“Not many people were visiting then, but as they drove by and saw us cutting the grass, more people started coming to visit, and that’s good,” he said. “This is a Youngstown historical site, and it should be protected as such.”
Nathan Queener, a Youngstown native, completed a thesis on the property several years ago. According to Queener’s research, the property changed hands several times before becoming the exclusive property of no one and falling into neglect.
The oldest grave marker in the cemetery is that of a man named Major Williams, a U.S. serviceman who died in 1911.
According to Queener’s research, Williams’ marker sits in Section A of the cemetery, a section where most of the older grave sites are located. Not many records can be found about the lives of many of those buried there.
For a period, members of Donald Lockett VFW Post 6488 and its auxiliary tried to maintain the cemetery.
Among its owners was the late Rev. William Duke Jr., who died in 1985. The VFW members said veterans of the Civil War, Spanish- American War, World Wars I and II, the Korean and Vietnam wars are buried there.
The records that do still exist are in the care of Reed’s Chapel AME Church on Jacobs Road and Pastor Gwendolyn Johnson.
Pastor Johnson said those who were in charge of the cemetery years ago had meetings at the church, leaving those records as they passed on.
Reynolds wants to maintain the final resting place of those located in the cemetery, but said he needs the funds to continue doing so.
He plans to ask for $5 donations from the families of those buried in the cemetery to offset costs, but still needs donations from the community.
Reynolds said keeping the program going will not only keep the cemetery in good condition, but will also keep the teens looking for work off the streets and out of trouble.
“We cannot afford to bury any more of our young people. They want to work. We are not all going to be millionaires, but we can teach them those old-school values and work ethic,” he said.
Those who want to donate to the program can do so in the name of “Mount Hope Cemetery Fund Kidz Werkz” at the PNC Bank branch in Campbell.