Volunteers spruce up Old Lincoln Cemetery

Volunteers cleaned up old flowers, pulled weeds, raked grass and pine needles, and fixed the cemetery fence during the annual clean-up of the historic Lincoln Cemetery Saturday, May 28.

About a dozen folks were on hand to help out, including four of the five remaining members of the Lincoln Cemetery Board. Lincoln Cemetery District Chairperson Bonnie Shown said they didn't have quite the crew they've had in the past, but said, "these people are all very devoted."

"I think the few of us who show up for this anymore, it's kind of because we have family on the hill and we've been here forever," Shown said.

While that wasn't necessarily the case for all the volunteers who were there, many of them could list off multiple family members buried there.

Sandy (Perkl) Winters has a sister, brother-on-law, mother, father, and husband all buried in the cemetery. "I know more people on the hill than I do downtown now," she said. Winters hopes people who remember those buried in the old cemetery will continue to take care of it once those who have family members buried there are gone themselves.

Winters and Toni Ekhart have been tapped to fill the two empty seats on the board, left vacant following the deaths of Gino Morris and Lonnie Cox.

With her knowledge of the burials within the district's two cemeteries, Shown is the go-to person for information on where people have been laid to rest in Lincoln.

During the cleanup, relatives of Louis Turgeon arrived looking for his grave. Turgeon had been a logger in Lincoln before he passed away in 1978. His wife Barbara had worked at Lambkins. Shown remembered the couple, recalling Turgeon was "very dedicated to the crew at Lambkins." She also recalled that he had been buried in the lower cemetery along Morris Drive.

During the clean-up, Winters and Sue Murphy placed American flags at all the graves of veterans. Murphy said she put out 78 flags in the old cemetery. Between the two cemeteries they placed 93 flags on veterans' graves.

The biggest task of the day was repairing the jack leg fence along the west side of the cemetery, which had tipped over at some point during the winter.

"We've had all kinds of suggestions," Shown said. "Maybe the elk, maybe the wind, maybe the snow, maybe vandals, but I'm hoping it wasn't vandals."

Later this summer more work is slated for the cemetery. Between July 8 and 13 six teenagers with the Montana Conservation Corps will be at the cemetery to help Lewis and Clark County Heritage Preservation Officer Pam Attardo install a series of stone and mortar bollards. The bollards will be about 30-inches tall and will delineate the historic section of the cemetery, with graves dating back to the 1860's, from the more modern burials.

"There are a few modern burials.in the old part of the cemetery. The problem with that is there are a lot of unmarked graves. You don't want anyone disinterring someone by accident," Attardo said.

Attardo will also be joined by Mary Webb, the restoration director for Preserve Montana. The two will restore the historic wooden fences around three graves that date to the pioneer era that saw considerable damage during the winter of 2017.

"She's a carpenter and preservation specialist about things like this," Attardo said. "It's great I have her help, because she knows way more about this than I do."

Attardo said two of the fences are unique, with hand-cut pickets featuring a diamond shape at the top. Likewise, the corner posts have diamond shaped finials. One of the graves belonged to a woman named Minnie Neal, who died in 1869. Of the three fenced graves hers is the only one that's identified, thanks to a cement headstone. Aside from her name there's no other information available about her. The graves are known by some locals as the "dance hall girl" graves, although there's nothing to indicate the people buried there were actually dance hall girls.