OPINION: Chris Kelly Opinion: Friends of the Long-forgotten
May 30—Pennsylvania sent 360,000 of its sons to fight in the Civil War. Samantha Telesk stumbled across three of them deep in the weeds of Wyoming County.
"I have family down the road and I drove this way back in March and I noticed it was completely overgrown," the Meshoppen native said of what remains of Old Mowry Cemetery off Rattlesnake Hill Road.
Stained headstones sink in brambles of burdock, chickweed and poison ivy, the chiseled names and dates buried in grime or erased by relentless decay. Abandoned to the siege of time, even cemeteries die.
"It just seemed wrong to me, so I asked the borough for permission to clean it up," Samantha said Thursday morning as she climbed the steep hill on steps she fashioned from flat rocks. "Without what they (veterans) did, we wouldn't be here. We need to remember that."
Across America this Memorial Day weekend, the graves of the nation's war dead and departed veterans are adorned with flags and other markers of sacrifice, service and honor. In dutifully maintained graveyards, grand ceremonies will celebrate the patriotism of devoted citizens who answered the call to arms.
But in long-forgotten private plots shrouded in veils of vegetation and neglect, some who served rest in silent obscurity. It's been widely reported that "dozens" of Civil War soldiers are buried in Old Mowry Cemetery, but I could confirm just three by consulting the National Archives and Northeast Pennsylvania Civil War experts.
Contemporary records are sometimes sketchy, but Hal Myers, president of the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Association of Scranton, is my go-to guy for all things Civil War. Hal confirmed that three G.A.R. veterans are buried at Mowry. They are:
—Pvt. George W. Allen, Company A, 107th New York Infantry. Allen was 35 when he enlisted in Elmira, New York. He fought in several pivotal battles and campaigns, including Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and in Sherman's March to Atlanta, according to Hal.
—Pvt. Goodrich Talada, Company I of the 50th Pennsylvania Infantry. He enlisted at 18 in Towanda. Not much else is known about his war record.
—Pvt. William T. Ives, Company B, 52nd Pennsylvania Infantry. He enlisted at 18 in Nicholson. His war record is also sparse, Hal said.
All survived the war. Talada was 32 when he died in 1875. Ives was 34 when he died in 1881. Allen was 55 when he died in 1882. It bears noting that the official state record of Allen's burial describes Mowry as an "old abandoned cemetery."
That's not surprising. Like many abandoned cemeteries, Mowry began as a family plot. Descendants move away. Life goes on. Time goes to work. The current owners of the property have deep local roots. I tracked them down to an address in western New York and left phone messages. No one called back.
There are an estimated 56 graves in Mowry Cemetery, but it's possible many more are buried there. The best documentation available for 27 of them is provided by Dale Keklock, a semi-retired amateur historian from Archbald. Dale and his son Brent run Historical-Data.com, a genealogy/history website with a database of cemeteries large and small.
Dale travels the country photographing cemeteries and adding them to the database — documenting over 65,000 gravestones, wills, obituaries and photos related to 551 cemeteries. He documented Mowry a few years ago and was glad to hear Samantha volunteered to clean it up when I reached him on Thursday.
"There's a lot of history in cemeteries, a lot of good history," Dale said. "I think it's great that she wants to clean it up. Tell her to keep an eye out for snakes."
An engaged mother of two young children, Samantha is determined to restore as many Mowry graves as she can. She recruited friend Angela Wilson and her son Matt, a sixth-grader at Elk Lake Elementary School, to help clean the stones and clear the grounds. It was Matt who discovered the G.A.R. veterans' markers.
Why does a 25-year-old stay-at-home mom care about the overdue upkeep of a dead graveyard lost deep in the weeds of Wyoming County? Samantha recalled once seeing a crumbling headstone for an infant. The image stuck with her.
"It just broke my heart, and ever since then, I've been volunteering to clean up cemeteries," she said. Samantha started a GoFundMe account called "Save the Cemetery" with a goal of $2,000 to build stairs at Mowry and install a bench memorializing those whose names have been lost to time and decay.
"Everybody deserves to be remembered, especially veterans," Samantha said. "These stones were chiseled by hand. They're art. This place is a part of local history — our history — and it shouldn't be allowed to just crumble away."
To volunteer, email Samantha at: samanthatelesk@gmail.com.
CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, wishes you and yours a happy, safe Memorial Day. Read his award-winning blog at timestribuneblogs.com/kelly.
Contact the writer:
kellysworld@timesshamrock.com;
@cjkink on Twitter; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook.
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