The Experiment Begins

This is going to be interesting. TW gave me a gallon of D/2 Biological Cleaner for Valentine's Day. Yesterday we scampered out of the hutch to try it out.

First stop was Herndon Cemetery and the believed graves to two of my 5th Great-Grandparents, James and Sally (Gannaway) Malcom. I say believed because there is nothing surviving documenting where they are buried. Some of the descendants erected a monument in the 1950s a few miles away in the Green Cemetery, but frankly that location makes no sense. Somewhere I have a whole analysis based on dates, marriages, etc. that makes a damned good case that with respect to James and Sally, Green Cemetery is almost certainly a red herring. There are tales that they could be in a third cemetery. But with the Covid lockdowns I have not been able to access the old land records to evaluate that tale.

Prior researchers were firm in their conclusions that James and Sally rest under two False Tombs constructed of stacked rock in Herndon Cemetery. These are not marked. Or at least no markings are visible today. Those prior researchers all mentioned one of the tombs having an "M" etched on it. Only one of the two has any spot of sufficient size to be so carved or etched. So it is getting the D/2 Treatment. Perhaps a safe cleaning will reveal any secrets.

This image is prior to applying the D/2. Frankly the after image was not a significant improvement. Not exactly a shock for something that has been in the weather for a couple of centuries without any cleaning. Following the product instructions we left it to continue working its magic over time. 

As long as we were there, we tackled three other stones: Anna (Malcom) Herndon, her husband, Elisha Merriman Herndon, and his father, Joseph Herndon (who served in the American Revolution. Anna was the daughter of James and Sally Malcom.

Anna and Elisha's markers after initial cleaning. Believe it or not, this is a massive improvement. Obviously, though, still a long way to go.

Joseph's marker before any cleaning. Worth noting (and it is not as clear in the photos), the stone appears to have distinct sections of pink color in it. It will be interesting to see if this persists or changes over time as the D/2 continues to work its magic.

And the same marker after cleaning. Much better initial results, though as with the other cases, still a lot of room to improve. We will check back in a few weeks to see how things are progressing.

From Herndon it was over to the family cemetery in Oglethorpe County and the markers for one 3rd Great-Grandfather, one 4th Great-Grandfather, and a shared marker for two 1st Cousins 2x removed (brothers who both died in infancy). These three stones being the only real monuments in the cemetery.

James Macon Griffith's stone was only erected in the 1980s so wasn't in too much need of cleaning

James Robert and his unnamed infant brother share a marker.

I stole these photos from Find A Grave. Here is the same marker after initial D/2 application and cleaning.

I see a lot more work in my future on this one. What do you expect after 120 years of neglect?

This brought us to arguably the greatest initial success of the day. Arthur W Smith.

Some before images:

The monument stands about 5 feet tall and dates from 1892 (possibly later, but he passed early in 1892). You can see all the lichens and moss festooning the stone.

Here are some after images. Note that the stone is still wet and that is affecting the images.

There is an inscription on the last image that we could never read before. It may be visible if you save and enlarge the photo. It reads:

No pains, No grief, no

anxious fears

can reach our loved one

resting here.

We were taken a little aback at how striped the stone is. I will have to see about getting a good photo of the top of the column. It has a detail we had not noticed before (being under crud thus invisible) and that have not seen before. 

The column appears to be of the Doric Order. A classic image of a broken column symbolizing death (a life ended or broken). Nothing surprising at all. But looking at the top of the column you now can see that it is carved to look like the cross section of a tree. We never encountered the column/tree combination before. Separately, these are ubiquitous. 

As with all the other experimental stones, it remains to be seen how the cleaning progresses over time.