Middletown Cemetery News
Printed From: MiddletownUSA.com
Category: Middletown Community
Forum Name: Community Events
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URL: http://www.middletownusa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6194
Printed Date: Apr 28 2024 at 7:26pm
Topic: Middletown Cemetery News
Posted By: da120757
Subject: Middletown Cemetery News
Date Posted: Oct 14 2015 at 1:51pm
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It was a Beautiful Day today, and the Cupola has been installed on the Roof of the Historic Vault at Middletown Cemetery. Finishing touches will be done in the next week. It is getting so close to being a complete Project. Thank you to everyone who has been involved with the Cemetery over the last several years but, we are not done yet.. More to come....  |
Replies:
Posted By: da120757
Date Posted: Oct 21 2015 at 4:33pm
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Finishing touches are going on the Historic Vault at Middletown Cemetery today. Thank you to all who were involved in getting this project to its finished state... |
Posted By: da120757
Date Posted: Oct 22 2015 at 8:28am
Cemetery renovations continueMiddletown board raises more than $100,000 for effort.By Rick McCrabb MIDDLETOWN — For the last five years, the Middletown Cemetery Board has raised more than $100,000 to save the vault, restore broken headstones, install an electronic entry gate, and add a concrete patio in front of the vault, doors and roof framing. Ed and Judy Bayless of Bayless Roofing recently installed the cupola they fabricated on the new slate roof, said Deb Morrison, board chairman. Morrison said the Cemetery Board isn't finished with the vault, and at some point in the next five years, hopes to start another fund-raising campaign that will finish the inside of the vault that will be used for a learning center and museum for the history of Middletown and the people buried in the cemetery on First Avenue. Some founding fathers and well-known residents are laid to rest in the Middletown Cemetery, Morrison said. Former Middletown City Manager Judy Gilleland and City Council created the Middletown Cemetery Board five years ago, Morrison said. The vault, built sometime in the 1880s, needed to be demolished and was deemed unsafe, Gilleland said. She challenged the board to raise the funds to fix the vault. The board started a “Save the Historic Middletown Cemetery Vault” campaign. Morrison said quotes for the repairs were received, and the estimated cost to repair the stone work was $42,000. Morrison said Martha W. Newton, one of the Middletown Cemetery's biggest supporters, and one who had family laid to rest there, passed away. She bequeathed a large sum of money that saved the vault, Morrison said. Besides money from the Newton estate, the board received grants and personal donations, and financial assistance from the Middletown Community Foundation, Miriam Knoll Foundation, W.E. Smith Family Foundation, IAM Local Lodge 1943, SunCoke Energy, local funeral homes, and the Walmart Foundation and the City of Middletown contributed the final funds to finish the vault roof at a cost of nearly $27,000. |
Posted By: Perplexed
Date Posted: Oct 22 2015 at 1:12pm
| Without the efforts of Vivian Moon, this project would never have occurred. |
Posted By: da120757
Date Posted: Oct 22 2015 at 1:46pm
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Perplexed knowing what this might lead to.... YES indeed you are correct. Vivian Moon opened everyone's eyes about the cemetery and she cleaned it up and planted flowers, even took her case to the State of Ohio, so on.. However she was not the only person in the last 20 to 25 years that had a hand in the restoration of this cemetery. The condition of this cemetery was brought to the attention of the City of Middletown and citizens in the spring of 1995 years and years after the city acquired this cemetery that it was in need of a good cleaning and that is what Boy Scout Troop 810 from Breiel Blvd Church of God (which at that time my son was in), and area veterans groups spent days in the cemetery raking, picking up trash and cleaning, and Kenneth Wills and Dana Pruitt and myself replaced worn military markers with the help of Buck Swanson who worked at Dodd's Monuments then, only to have the mowing crews chip and scrape them up with the mowers. As I said, and have said all along, Great Job by everyone that was involved and that does include Ms Moon, in the restoration of this Cemetery who are far to many to mention or put on a plaque. Now on to other projects for this Cemetery, because, WE ARE NOT FINISHED YET! If you Feel as strongly about this cemetery as others have please make a donation to the Cemetery fund to help us raise funds to start the inside of the vault. you can send your tax deductible donations to... Middletown Cemetery Fund City of Middletown Finance Department One Donham Plaza Middletown Ohio 45042 Thank you!! |