On Sunday, September 17, 2017, I visited the Brownhelm Cemetery located on an intersection of two scenic roadways in a farmland area of southwestern Lorain County. I visited this cemetery many years ago and had recalled some of the names of those buried there, and that some have early sandstone grave markers.
Whatever photos I had taken from my earlier trip, I could no longer locate. So I wanted to take new ones and linger a little longer than the last time.
I am so glad that I did return; yet sad at the same time because of what I saw after I arrived.
I was immediately saddened to see the number of severely flaking and crumbling gravestones. Some deteriorated to the point that their layers of deeply carved stone resemble dark brown jigsaw puzzle pieces. As fraying fragments, they are either hardly hanging onto the marker, or lying on the ground.
Sharing below random photographs featuring
the pioneer section of the Brownhelm Cemetery -- because words alone fail to explain the historic loss that time has taken away.
(Above)
Grave Marker and military marker
who was a Revolutionary War veteran
shown and noted above.
(Above)
(Above)
Close-up view of the carver's name
etched on John Roemer's marker:
"H. G. Tousley. Medina"
(Above)
(Above)
(Above)
Large gray granite monument
(Above)
The above photo features a row of white marble
tablet markers that were put in a concrete pad.
Some are now cracking off at their bases and falling over.
