Crosman Cemetery: An accidental visit.

Well, actually there are quite a few of these on my roads traveled. I have, quite possibly, the worst sense of direction, but that lack of gift (or maybe it is the gift!) takes me to many unexpected and wonderful surprises.

While trying to get to one Meech Cemetery, I ended up on a beautiful, quiet rural road lined by huge maples and on this road sat one of those surprises I mentioned. Nestled next to a house and otherwise surrounded by miles of rolling farmland sat peaceful, quiet, little Crosman Cemetery - old and surprisingly well-kept. I was to find out why soon enough.

As my mini-me and I snapped photos, a man wandered from the house next door hollering "You gonna take all of them?" I laughed and replied "I'm going to try!" I explained to him what I do and he immediately relaxed and began talking.

 As my crafty mini-me surreptitiously took his photo, he told me stories. How when he moved here 40 years ago, he crawled hands and knees digging in the plot of weeds and high grasses next to his house, finding stones. How he and his sons repaired with cement, propped back up and cared for the them. (I saw cemented stones as the proof.)

He explained why, at the front of the yard, there, in a row of markers are a couple turned facing backwards from the road. A neighbor farmer had dumped the stones he had found somewhere on his own property at the cemetery, instead of preserving their original location. So, our guide, he uprighted them but turned them facing opposite the others because those people were not actually buried there.

He told me a story of a young man of 15 who died in 1933, how his classmates had raised money and had a huge procession for him to the cemetery ...yet there was no stone to be found. He was very interesting and I learned so much about the place from him... this self-appointed caretaker. He is moving in one month. And after 40 years, the place will once again have no one to care for it. He wondered aloud "Who will take care of this place after I go?" I dont know Mr. J. I don't know. But thank you for all the time you did it.