Civil War soldier James A. Woods passed away on September 16, 1868, not quite a month past his 29th birthday, and only a few short years after completing his service to his country with Company I, 8th Pennsylvania Volunteers. See Update - Tombstone Photo
	Mary “Pop” Allison died in her early 80s on April 13, 1891. Though never married and without descendants to tell her story, Mary’s personality is preserved in the 1857 journal of her relative Leroy Cleavenger. In his frequent conversations with “Pop” she proved herself to be quite a character, amusing him with her gossip and annoying him with her superstitions. Leroy credited Mary as a hard worker who finished her projects. See Update - Tombstone Photo Once lifted and able to be read, cemetery volunteers discovered that this stone was actually placed for Mary's brother Samuel. Mary is therefore in an unmarked grave.
	Nancy Ann (Schroy) Temple, beloved wife and mother of four, lost her life to a lengthy illness on August 29, 1875 at just 41 years of age. The notice of her death never provided her name, yet still implied with eloquence the severe loss of the woman she had been, “Mr. Temple has had a sore time of it for the past four weeks -- watching by the bedside of his sick wife, day and night, and then called to bid her adieu and follow her remains to their last resting place." See Update - Tombstone Photo

Each of these lives were memorialized with tombstones, designed and purchased by the bereaved family. Today, all three of these stones lie face down unable to be read. The fact that these are even the memorials for these three people can only be determined by initials on footstones and entries in burial records.

All of these stones are located in Green Mount Cemetery, just above the Waynesburg College campus, and though they are the three highlighted here, they are far from the only damaged, fallen, broken or missing stones in the roughly 16-acre cemetery.

Green Mount was officially chartered in 1853, though this historic burial ground actually contains much older graves moved in from the various family, church and Waynesburg Commons cemeteries that were dissolved over the years for modern development.

Green Mount is only one example of the hundreds of cemeteries in Greene County in need of repair and attention. The dilemma is that these old cemeteries often have very little, if any, land left to sell. Consequently, there is very little income to cover the expenses of general maintenance, let alone restoration and preservation.

The Green Mount Cemetery board is trying to reach families, descendants and other individuals interested in seeing progress, through its first newsletter highlighting the cemetery’s history, residents and the need for volunteers and donations. The newsletter and regularly updated research featuring all persons buried in Green Mount is available online at www.greeneconnections.com or by contacting Candice at 724-627-4632. The board is looking for volunteers to help on location and with historical research. Donations to help fund maintenance and restoration projects are needed and welcome to be sent to: Green Mount Cemetery, c/o Mary Hopkins, 2248 Smith Creek Road, Waynesburg, PA 15370.

The recent vandalism at Fairview Cemetery in Dunkard Township has left that cemetery in need of the same services Green Mount is seeking. Many Greene County cemeteries are completely without boards or other protectors. Family cemeteries whose families have long gone; church cemeteries where there are no longer churches or congregations – these are numerous in our county. Consider what you might do to help the cemetery that is the most meaningful to you – there are plenty to choose from.

This Memorial Day as you visit graves of loved ones and friends to pay tribute to the lives that they lived and remember the impact that those lives have had on yours, take just a moment to have a look around you. Stones that are today down or broken or missing altogether, once marked the graves that someone like you came to visit on a previous Memorial Day to pay tribute to those lives lived and remember the impact that those lives had on their own. Whether it was one month or one century ago, every stone represents the way a grieving family chose to remember and honor their loved one and bring solace and closure to a life lived…