Vets, volunteers clean up Union Cemetery

Darrell A. Cox served his country as a member of the U.S. Army in Korea in the 1950s. He’s one of the local military veterans buried in a special section of Union Cemetery. About 20 people spent part of a brisk Saturday morning cleaning up around Cox’s headstone and the rest of that section.

With Memorial Day two weeks away, the four elements of Newton’s American Legion placed new, small American flags on each of the grave markers Saturday in Union’s veterans section, located in the northwest corner of the cemetery.

Wally Schermerhorn, who helped organize the four elements of the Legion who participated in Saturday’s flag placement and landscaping work, said many of those who helped out have relatives or personal connections to Union Cemetery. Members of Legion Post 111 and the Newton chapters of the Legion Auxiliary, Legion Riders and Sons of the American Legion all participated in the cleanup, which took a couple of hours.

“People just wanted to make it a little more respectable and show some pride in where our veterans are buried,” Schermerhorn said. “It’s a community effort.”

Schermerhorn said the City of Newton has about three employees assigned to mow and do other basic maintenance and upkeep at Union Cemetery. These employees also now care for Memorial Gardens cemetery, and Schermerhorn said Legion volunteers have no bitter feelings about doing work that helps show what’s important to local residents.

“This is mostly about the family members who come out here, especially around Memorial Day,” Schermerhorn said. “The city does a great job mowing, which isn’t easy, so we’re just getting the smaller, more delicate work around the gravestones, and then adding flags.”

The Legion Riders have plans to do a similar cleanup and flag placement for veterans at Memorial Gardens within the next week, while the Legion Auxiliary will head to Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery.

Schermerhorn said Legion members have placed flags on graves at Union Cemetery for about the past eight years, in the weeks leading up to Memorial Day, but this was the first year of using string trimmers and other tools for minor landscape maintenance.

The flag stands are supplied by the Veterans Administration by way of the Jasper County Department of Veterans Affairs.

Schermerhorn said it’s easy to see why farmers or others stumble across abandoned graveyards on land that hasn’t been developed or used. Even graves in Union Cemetery, despite the best efforts of mowing and routine maintenance, can be obscured or difficult to find after only a few years of not receiving thorough attention.

“This cemetery was started in 1854, and some of the veterans’ graves go back to the Civil War,” Schermerhorn said. “And some might not have been touched for 100 years or so before we started putting the flags out.”

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com