Current
Status of the
Patterson
Cemetery
Restoration
Project
UPDATE
2/23/05: The fence has been erected.
Plans
are being made for a clean-up in March 2005.
BACKGROUND:
In
May 2003, the first meeting of the Paint Lick
Family
Cemetery Preservation group was held at the
Friends
of Paint Lick in Paint Lick, KY. From that beginning,
the
five-member group has raised thousands of dollars
to
begin the restoration of the Patterson Cemetery,
located
about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile off Frog Branch Road
(a
few miles from downtown Paint Lick, off Highway 21).
On
Feb. 16, the Danville Advocate-Messenger
carried
a front-page story about this effort.
From
the photos they ran, it was clear how
much
damage has been done in recent years.
But,
the Paint Lick Family Cemetery
preservationists
are not daunted!
During a Feb.
22 visit to let the Paint Lick United Methodist
Youth Fellowship
take a look at the challenge before them
(the group
has has agreed to provide maintenance for
the cemetery
during the grass-growing season),
youth co-leader
Roger Hatfield (right) and
John Todd,
who has relatives buried in the cemetery,
righted Mary
Eliza Elam's stone. (See photo below.)
She was b.
10 Aug. 1868 and d. 3 Aug. 1902,
just a few
days short of her 34th birthday.
John Todd and Roger Hatfield survey
their
spur-of-the-moment restoration work:
The youth group members were surprised
at the number
of babies, children, and young people
buried there.
John Todd explained how hard times
were back then
and that children did not have the
benefit of immunizations
and healthcare that we take for
granted today.
(In photo below, Todd explains why
this particular style of gravesite
was used--an effort to protect the
deceased from scavenging animals.
L to r, Kaitlyn Dale, Shannon Dale,
and John Todd.)
Leaders of the youth group, Roger Hatfield and Doug West,
hope that the experience will give the teens a life-long
appreciation for doing community service and for helping to
preserve the burial places of those who have come before,
no matter what community they live in as adults.
More photos of headstones as of February
2004.