A labor of love
Everytime Marian D’Auria steps into the Oak Grove Cemetery in Uniontown, she’s surrounded by loved ones.
“I have my grandparents there, my parents, aunts, uncles, and four more cousins,” D’Auria said, “and of course, my sister. Oh, and then I have ancestors on the hillside on the Route 40 side. They go back to the 1800s, probably.”
It doesn’t take long for D’Auria to lose count, estimating around 30 of her relatives laid to rest in Oak Grove – but the exact number is insignificant. Over the years, she’s grown to care for countless other graves, adopting them as her own, as if the strangers buried beneath were family.
“Near my family’s plot are the baby graves, and it just breaks my heart when there is grass overgrown and there is just stuff knocked over, so I make it a point to tend to their graves also,” she said
D’Auria is not alone in the pursuit to keep local cemeteries honored and cleaned. With over 300 cemeteries in Washington County and nearly 150 in Fayette County, the ability to keep grave sites well kept can be a daunting task. While some cemeteries can afford year-round maintenance, other sites have to rely on the kindness of visitors.
Jennifer Primack, operation manager of the Jewish Cemetery Burial Association which includes nearly 50 cemeteries throughout Western Pennsylvania in places such as Carroll Township and Hopwood, said there’s a word for people who dedicate their time honoring those who have passed on.
“Mitzvah – it means to do a good deed and in Judaism one of the highest Mitzvahs someone can do is doing something good for someone who can’t thank you for it, and so taking care of a Jewish cemetery really falls in that area,” Primack said.
One of the challenges in preserving cemeteries or burial grounds is even knowing if they exist. Sandy Mansmann, board president of the Washington County History and Landmarks Foundation, said there are hundreds of cemeteries in the county, many of which may be lost or unrecorded.
“There are probably too many to count,” Mansmann said.
Mansmann said the foundation works with local communities to make them aware of some of the historical or forgotten cemeteries and burial grounds in the area. The group then works with volunteers from that community to research, explore and locate some of these sites.
The hope is that some of the volunteers will adopt the sites.
Mansmann said taking care of these sites is a way of preserving the county’s history.
“It’s our local history, it’s part of the recorded history,’ she said.
As to what drives her and the other volunteers to keep up with grave sites of strangers, Mansmann said she thinks it has to do with respect.
“I think at one point, we all realize… we’re going to be one of those people in the ground, ” Mansmann said. “I think there’s an honor in taking care of them.”
However, some cemeteries are far from lost, such as Oak Grove Cemetery. The 15-acre cemetery is the final resting place for many historical figures, including Lida Niccolls, the Princess of Thurn and Taxis; Revolutionary War veteran and former Fayette County Treasurer Ephriam Douglass; and Civil War veteran Capt. A.C. Nutt, who shot and killed his daughter’s fiancé in 1882 but was acquitted at trial on the grounds of self-defense.
“There’s a lot of history in that cemetery,” said Dr. Gary Brain, Oak Grove Cemetery president. “We have quite a variety of people there – mayors, outlaws, generals and a lot of vets. There’s a lot of people there who contributed to our community.”
Brain has been the board’s president since the group of volunteers started the organization in 2011 because the site had been neglected for several years.
“The veteran organizations helped, but it was getting to be too much,” Brain said.
Maintenance relies on volunteers and donations, which can be an exhausting task.
Arthur Roll, the newly appointed master sergeant of the cemetery, is in charge of making sure the grounds are clean and presentable, spending up to nearly 40 hours a week on that mission.
“You would not believe the amount of litter and messes people leave behind,” Roll said.
Roll likes the work. He said he enjoys it when people, who now know him on a first name basis, thank him for looking after their loved ones.
As to why he puts in so many hours during the summer, his answer is simple and immediate: “It’s just the right thing to do,” he said.
D’Auria, who joined the board in 2023, said there’s a tranquility in taking care of the dead.
“Even though their souls aren’t there, this is the final resting place of their body and it’s the place to show them love and respect,” she said. “I feel close to them when I go. They’re always in my heart but seeing them where they are, it gives me comfort.”