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Washington Evening Journal
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Washington, IA 52353
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Volunteers to help residents find headstones at Evergreen Cemetery
FAIRFIELD – Volunteers will be manning a booth at Evergreen Cemetery in Fairfield Wednesday through Saturday to assist residents who need help finding a gravestone.
Judith Cox, a member of the cemetery’s board, said volunteers will be at the cemetery from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. She said the volunteers want to help residents lay flowers or find a headstone of a loved one if they don’t know where it is.
“It’s a caring gesture for people who are thinking of their loved ones,” Cox said.
Wednesday morning also saw a new sign go up on the south lawn of the cemetery, a giant thermometer showing how far the cemetery board has progressed toward its goal of raising $2 million. The board announced last fall that it wants to put that amount of money into an endowment, so that interest on the fund could go toward paying the cemetery’s ongoing expenses and fund new projects such as the creation of a road on the cemetery’s east edge.
Cox said she appreciates the kindness of the people who have already given to the fundraiser, and wants to remind others that their donations are going to a good cause. Evergreen Cemetery is privately run and is not paid for through taxes. She said that, if the cemetery cannot pay its bills, the city would have to assume the responsibility and thus the bills would fall on the taxpayers.
Evergreen Cemetery was founded in 1870 by a man named Capt. Clement Jordan, who sought to create a proper and larger cemetery in the wake of his wife’s death in 1865, because he did not feel that the existing city cemetery or “Old Cemetery” offered a suitable burial plot. In the years since, Evergreen Cemetery became Fairfield’s preeminent cemetery, and now stretches over 40 acres and contains the remains of more than 11,000 residents (including the Old Cemetery ).
The cemetery earns money through the sale of lots, burial services, donations, grants and a stipend from the City of Fairfield to maintain the Old Cemetery on the western edge of the acreage. However, this income is not enough to cover rising costs of maintenance. Also, revenue is down because fewer people are choosing to bury their deceased loved ones and instead are opting for cremation.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
