PERPETUAL CARE CEMETRY
The two lots that the church was to be built on would also include burial lots on either side of the church and between the church and Harris Alley. A fence was to be installed around the cemetery with a gaited entrance to the church. Unfortunately due to financial constraints only a small amount of the fence was built. The iron fence that exists today is that fence. In addition to the first cemetery layout five additional sections of the cemetery were created in 1987 on the fourth lot next to Front and E. Pine Streets. Cemetery records were poorly kept. The first thing that had to be done was break the lots up into sections with lot numbers. Father Stokes in the beginning of his retirement began putting names to the lot numbers for each section. In addition to his efforts, Douglas Myers, the son of Danny and Ruth Myers of Boy Scout Troop 99 approached the vestry in 2012 requesting permission to clean the memorial stones. He was interested in using this as part of his Eagle Scout designation.
After receiving the Vestry’s approval Douglas and some of his friends gathered at the cemetery to begin the project.
They were not as fortunate as we are today with regard to what they had to clean the memorials.
They had plenty of water, good brushes and plenty of “elbow grease.” They did a marvelous job for the memory of our departed and St. Paul’s will be forever grateful for their effort in brightening the cemetery of the departed and the ability of identifying the interred.
After the cleaning Douglas gave the church a large loose leaf book containing all the interred alphabetically, by section, lot number and pictures of all the memorials.
Without the work done by Rev. Stokes and Douglas we would not now have the records that have been given to the church staff to place in our computer system by section, lot number, the name, date of birth, and date of death of each interment. For family plots we can now know of lots still available and all lots still owned by St. Paul’s in non-family plots. Befoer all this there was a master plot of the sections of the cemetery with the names of the deceased or owner on each sold lot in the newer sections only.
In the spring of 2021 and nearing the end of COVID projects concerning the cemetery started to fall in place. The first thing was to establish a filing system and one file drawer was granted for that purpose. All information about the cemetery was in a box and had to be sorted and filed. The next step was to get the grounds of the cemetery in order. Dick Bennett who for many years had his two sons help with cutting the grass did a fine job.
Dick came through again with getting the husband of the church housekeeper to consent to cut the lawn and he is still doing a fine job. For the last half of 2021 the job included cleaning up the grounds on the west side of the church and locating plot markers in the old and new sections of the cemetery. This is the first week pickup and the second week pick up got erased but was very similar to the first week. In 2022 the columbarium was in bad shape and in need of polishing. There were numerous experiments to find the best formula. Once that was accomplished the side facing west was done first. In addition the identification plate was standardized and the plates already on the niches of deceased ashes were replaced.
The next task was to clean the memorials in the new section of the cemetery. I was told about a new cleaner for memorials that is used on the memorials at Arlington Cemetery. I ordered a small quantity and tried it on a memorial that is very much like those at the military cemetery. Needless to say I ordered a supply and got to work on the memorials. Due to spiritual and physical health during the years of 2023 and 2024 the memorial cleaning had to be put on the shelf for the original section of the cemetery. There is an interesting story concerning the finished product by Douglas Myers. One thing not noted about the pictures that Douglas took is the date taken. After their job was complete the vestry retained a new company to cut the grass who after a while was damaging the memorials. With a copy of the 2012 picture and a picture of the damage done by the company the insurance company agreed to pay the cost of damages to be repaired by Wm V Sipple and Son of Milford, DE.
The picture of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church circa 1900 shows the memorials to be in very good condition. This picture taken in circa 1900 is what the church looked like in 1880-1881 with the exception of the Sacristy being made larger before 1940 when the parish house was added. One thing that is puzzling is the trees being planted so close to the grave lots. Their root systems could present a problem in the future. They later were removed.
In the spring of 2025 William V. Sipples and son of Milford, DE was retained to clean the memorials in the old section of the cemetery. Hopefully they will be done by the spring of 2026.
The reason for the new sections to the cemetery was caused by the vaults being too big for the old section lots. Those lots are 2 ½’ x 8’ and the new lots are 3 ½’ x 9’. For the lots owned by the church and private owners in the old section they would have to have 1 and ½ lots to accommodate a new vault. The single lots can be used for cremated interments, for example, husband and wife ashes on the same lot with one memorial.