Status Report - Phase II

I will be doing the work in this phase of the cemetery restoration which does not require the skill or experience Dan Allen brought to Phase I. Come back to this page to follow the work as it progresses.

On 13 November 2013 Dan Allen completed his final report (see "Status Report - Phase I" in the menu above) of the restoration and conservation work he did for the Friends of The Philips' Sylvan Hall Cemetery.

I worked with him every day except the last day he worked, moving brush I had cut to the street for Metro Nashville to pick up. That experience is invaluable as I am now able to make minor repairs and understand the proper materials and methods to use in the maintenance of the cemetery.

Ken Broersma has volunteered to help with the ongoing maintenance of the Sylvan Hall Cemetery.

Ken was born in 1960 on Stilton Drive in Bellshire, about two blocks from the cemetery. He now lives on Bell Grimes Ln in the same neighborhood.

Beginning Spring of 2014 he will be mowing the cemetery monthly to keep the vegetation in check. In addition, he will be keeping an eye on the cemetery.

I will be visiting the cemetery frequently and will apply Roundup to weeds, vines, and tree shoots to keep them under control.

We are fortunate to have Ken taking such a strong interest in the Sylvan Hall Cemetery and thank him for his support of this very old cemetery.

Since April I have made several visits to the cemetery to do minor maintenance and to spray Roundup. Ken has been keeping the cemetery mowed and in good condition.

Because I was called on to assist in a Patent infringement case to keep a factory from being shut down, I was unable to do any significant restoration or preservation work during 2014. I intend to resume this effort in 2015 when the weather improves.

This was the last day I visited the cemetery during 2014. I applied Roundup to all of the small weeds, vines, and tree shoots inside and outside the rock wall and took the picture below. Shortly thereafter the weather turned cold and wet with winter setting in. I don't expect to be back at the cemetery until the first of March.

Today Kirby's Tree Care removed 5 trees from the cemetery and trimmed the remaining trees of all dead limbs and those that endangered the tombstones and monuments below.

I was extremely fortunate to find this excellent tree service. They were well equipped, fast, professional, and very reasonably priced.

While at the cemetery, I sprayed Roundup and brush killer on the weeds, vines, and sprouts from tree trunks. I intend to continue to do so until I get it all under control.

I took a lot of pictures of the tree removal and trimming process which you can see below.

The cemetery is beginning to look really good. If you get a chance, come by and visit the cemetery.

Two weeks ago I took on a consulting job that is keeping me very busy and will last at least until June 1, and possible much longer. Until this work is finished, I will have to postpone additional work on Phase II of the restoration and only concentrate on routine maintenance.

I spent the morning digging up small tree stumps. There must me at least 100. I was at the cemetery primarily to meet the second tree service owner to obtain a quote. This tree service has a bucket truck and is highly rated on Angie's list. I told him that I was on a limited budget funded by donations and needed the best price he could give me.

After reviewing everything that I would like to have done if I could afford it, Kerry Kirby of Kirby's tree service quoted $1,400 for a full days work for which he normally charges $1,800.

Sometime in the next two weeks he will remove 5 trees and trim three of the remaining five trees to remove the limbs that are in danger of falling on the grave monuments and damaging them.

The Friend's of Sylvan Hall Cemetery fund will be down to $100 with this expenditure, so if you've been holding off to make a donation toward the continuing maintenance of the cemetery, you can send me a check at 102 Doral Ln., Hendersonville, TN 37075.

This morning I met an owner of a tree service who gave me a quote to remove the limbs hanging over the cemetery that are in danger of falling and also remove a small tree at the corner outside the cemetery that provides no shade, but will eventually encroach on the side of the wall.

While I was at the cemetery, I moved all of the pieces of stones that Dan and I had found under ground and had placed on the top of the rock wall. Some were pieces of monuments and some were from the wall itself. At this point, all of the usable pieces of the monuments have been used and the rock wall is in reasonably good condition, so I moved all of these pieces to a corner inside the rock wall until I can decide what to keep for repairs and what to haul off.

I sprayed roundup and brush killer on all of the tree stumps that were trying to come up as well as on all of the vines and weeds that were around the rock wall or around any of the monuments.

I also moved quite a bit of dirt to level some of the areas we had to disturb in the restoration of the monuments. A lot more dirt will have to be moved in the coming weeks to even out the ground in the cemetery.

We had an exceptionally cold winter in Tennessee, so all I've been able to do is stop by the cemetery and check to make sure all is well. The cemetery came through the winter in good condition, although some of cracks will have to be re-pointed to keep the water out of the cracks.

Today the weather fared up and my wife Janice and I worked a half day picking up three large contractor bags of leaves, roots, and small limbs that covered the ground. We didn't get it all, but the remainder is mostly in two piles in two corners of the rock wall.

The weather was mild on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I was able to work at the cemetery. The forecast is for severe cold weather and participation for the next couple of weeks, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to get back to the cemetery.

I continued the on-going job of picking up leaves, branches, roots, dead vegetation, etc. I made good progress restoring the missing tops of headstones with only the footstone for the young Joseph Philips remaining to be done.

In all cases, I was able to determine the original design of the top of the tombstones from available evidence at the site. I attempted to duplicate this original design as close as possible. The pictures on the left are the "before" pictures and the ones on the right are the "after" pictures.

In addition, I made some improvements on the tombstones I has worked on the prior week and updated those photographs to show the improvements.

The biggest job was the restoration of Robert Williams headstone pictured just below. There was little left of the headstone (on the left below) and what remained was very eroded. However, I was able to reconstruct a headstone that looks much like the original, using the base and two pieces (on the right below).

In 1930 Mrs. Katherine W. Ewing Philips reported a headstone (only partially there in 2013)with the following inscription: ROBERT Infant son of J. F. & M. T. WILLIAMS (These parents are Josiah Frederick Williams and Margaret “Peggy” Thomas Williams.)
When this monument was straightened it stuck out of the ground further than it should. I cleaned the monument and will add dirt around it to restore it to its original depth.

Still some work to do on this headstone.
I found a portion of this obelisk that contains the words " A had S". From the above record we know the compleat two lines are "And" and "had Six children". I epoxied this fragment in the approximate location where it originally appeared on the obelisk.

The week ending 23 November 2013 I worked two days cleaning up the cemetery and repairing the grave markers. Below are pictures of some to the work I was able to complete. The pictures on the left are the "before" pictures and the ones on the right are the "after" pictures.

Next week will be cold and it's also Thanksgiving week so I won't be working at the cemetery.




	Table top tomb of Martha Wharton Williams, daughter of William Williams and Sally Philips. This tomb has a rare inlay of her name in the side of the top. I poured a concrete section to replace the broken part of the top and inlayed plastic letters for the "N WILLIAMS" part of the name that was missing.
	The tombstone above is the footstone for this grave. The pieces on the ground in front of the footstone are the only remaining pieces of the headstone. They provide evidence of the original design of both stones and allowed me to recreate a reasonable likeness of the footstone top.

I spent Thursday 13 November at the cemetery with my blower and rake. I picked up four contractor plastic bags of leaves, roots, limbs, etc. There are still four piles left that I will pick up later.

I reviewed with Dan my plans to use Sakrete fast set cement repair mix to form the missing tops of most of the tombstones and to use Sakrete sand mix to form the other half of Mary Wharton Williams' table-top tomb and he agreed with my approach.

The picture on the left shows what it looked like after we found the broken off top and Dan epoxied it to the bottom and grouted the area around the break using a white mixture of cement, sand, and lime.

The picture on the right shows what it looks like now after I filled in the top using a quick-set cement patch material that if very similar to Sakrete sand mix, but sets quicker.

I also will be trying to find a tree service that will remove the dead limbs over the cemetery and take down trash trees near the fence.