Groups combine efforts to identify headstones, gravesites at historic cemetery in Somerset Township
In Somerset Township, the Old German Lutheran Cemetery is a historic gravesite that dates back to the 18th century, the resting place for four Revolutionary War soldiers and more than 110 others.
Time, however, has taken its toll on the cemetery, which had fallen into disrepair – sheep had roamed the grounds – with dozens of headstones badly eroded or toppled over.
Enter Chip Zelch, a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, and Miles Glotfelty, a U.S. Army veteran who has worked to locate, identify and inter unclaimed remains of American veterans.
For the past couple of years, the two have spearheaded efforts to restore the cemetery, mowing the lawn, re-erecting headstones, and gathering footstones that they plan to match to the proper headstones.
Most recently, Zelch and Glotfelty have teamed up with PennWest University California as part of a project to identify potential gravesites and gravestones.
On Thursday, students from the university’s Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Sciences, led by Dr. Daniel Harris, performed a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey, with the goal of finding what, if anything, lies below the surface.
Joining them was SAR member Brian Cunning, an archaeologist for Michael Baker International who had worked as a supervising archaeologist for National Geographic Channel’s “Diggers,” a television series that searched for historical artifacts.
“As often happens with old, old cemeteries, you know there are people buried here, but the tombstones are gone. Mostly, they fall over and in a matter of years the ground swallows the tombstone,” said Zelch. “They could be there, no more than two or three inches under the soil, and you can’t see it and you don’t know it’s there. When we do the analysis, we’ll be able to determine where people are buried and if there are any stones buried. With a shovel and a little bit of sweat, we can dig those stones up and resurrect the cemetery as it was.”
For Linda Zelch, who also volunteers with the cemetery restoration crew, documenting the names of those buried in the cemetery is a race against time. The last census of the cemetery was conducted in 1974, and over the past half century, 45 of the 112 tombstones have become unreadable.
“That’s why this is so important, because time is your enemy. If we weren’t getting to these now, they would be lost to history. And there are others underground that we don’t know of,” she said.
Harris, who worked with geology students Elias Von Wolffradt and Connor Novotney, noted the noninvasive nature of the ground-penetrating radar survey – which uses a lawn mower-like machine to shoot radar waves into the ground and records echoes that result from subsurface objects – allows them to look for the graves and tombstones without disturbing burial sites.
Glotfelty began cleaning the cemetery – which is now owned by Somerset Township – about two years ago, when he discovered a relative, Michael Clodfelter, a Revolutionary War soldier who died in 1824, was buried there.
At that time, the road leading to the cemetery was impassable. Now, a fence surrounds the cemetery and it is mowed regularly. The work of Glotfelty and the Zelches has led to the discovery of headstones and footstones, and they have re-erected dozens of those headstones.
On Thursday, Glotfelty pointed toward a pile of footstones he had collected.
“Now, where are the headstones? I have to try to match them up,” said Glotfelty.
Zelch noted that all of the headstones face east, which is helpful for preservation.
“Tombstones always faced east, the inscriptions always faced east so that for the deceased, their tombstones would see the rising sun in the morning. With the tombstones facing east and on top of the hill here, prevailing winds come from the west, so the tombstones more often than not fall over face first,” said Zelch. “That’s a good thing because if the carving falls face up, it’s exposed to the elements and they can become unreadable more quickly.”
Harris said he and his students will analyze the data and share their findings.
The earliest tombstone in the cemetery is a flat stone marker dated 1791, but the name of the woman buried there is illegible. Among those buried at the cemetery are Civil War and World War I veterans.
Cunning marveled at the tombstones, especially the sandstone headstones erected in the 1800s.
“What I think is neat about it is you have a lot of these older headstones. My favorite headstones are the old sandstone headstones from the early 19th century, up to the 1840s and ’50s that hold up pretty well. I think they’re some of the most decorative. They don’t usually have a lot of artwork on them, but they have some of the best looks. I just love the carvings in them. They have more of what I think of as an old headstone look to them,” said Cunning. “There is different lettering, and they use different words and phrases, like ‘consort’ instead of ‘wife.’ I just love picking at things like that.”
For Zelch, the burial ground is a reminder of the lives of the people who came before him.
“This place is just really something. We come up here and work and mow and clean up, and at some point you just stop and you sit down and you take this all in,” he said. “There’s so much humanity up here. You think of all of the people, and all of the remembering of lives that occurred up here over centuries, really. And here it is. And we have the honor of trying to preserve it a little further. That’s what we will do.”