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Restoration of the Flinn-Casey Cemetery began
about four years ago, and has been a work in
progress. We will consider it complete when we
have it properly fenced. Originally, there was a
wrought iron fence around it, but it was broken up
and taken. On two of the corner posts, there are
original patterns of pieces found. Motorized
equipment could not be used to work on this site
for fear of damaging the head and footstones, and
also because of the large tree stumps, some of
which are fifty two inches in diameter. All
restoration was done with hand tools, ground sifted
for any artifacts, and none of value were found. All
work has been documented by photographs, and
literally measuring every direction of work. Nothing
was moved, except to put stones back in their
proper places. The ground was excavated only six
to ten inches, simply to locate all the graves, by
headstones and footstones. The graves were not
entered. Nancy Rule's grave had been completely
dug up and it's bricks and stone were piled on the
grave of Mary Rule. The resulting hole was
approximately seven feet long, five feet wide, and
seven feet deep. We assumed that the base to her
tombstone was in the bottom of the hole, which had
about four feet of water in it. It was pumped dry and
excavated another twelve inches, but nothing but a
few bricks. There was no trace of a casket or
remains, it appeared that the whole grave had been
moved. Cuba Flinn's tombstone, leaning at about
forty-five degrees, was the only one standing in the
Flinn section of the cemetery, and was used as the
guide for aligning all the others. What is interesting
is that the faces of the tombstones in the Flinn
section face west, and in the Casey section they
face east. Some of the tombstones were found as
far away as seventy five fee, some broken, and
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under six to twelve inches underground. There are
six provable, unmarked graves in the Casey
section, and we made blank tombstones from
concrete. George Morris's tombstone was
broken in half and the lost half was not located
for two years. The obelisk on the Casey girls,
and Addie Morris's headstone was close to the
base, and was under about two inches of dirt.
All the broken headstones and footstones were
repaired with a mastic and that is used in acid proof
construction. This material is difficult to work
with, but it worked very well. The brick
columns that mark all the corners of both
cemeteries were constructed from bricks
remaining after all the graves were back in
place. The birdbath base, the statue base, the
planter, and the cannon base were made from
excess brick also. The walkway entrance to the
Flinn Cemetery was added as was the benches,
their bases, and the flag poles. Seven headstone
bases could not be located and concrete bases
were made, so the headstones could be located
and anchored properly. A metal detector was of
no use, because there was pieces of the original
fence scattered throughout. All of the stones
have been cleaned about three times in the past
four years, with a mild solution of bleach and
water, or swimming pool cleaner. It seems to
have a caustic effect on the stone, and we are
currently looking for another method of
cleaning. Some of the stains of the stone
appear to be permanent. We have enjoyed our
project and continue to "fuss" with and trying
to keep in mind that "history ignored is history
lost forever".
We feel that maybe our unknowns are probably
members of the Morris family. We welcome
any information that any have.
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