Yesterday I was typing away when I received an unexpected phone call from Father Yahner. It seems that he had decided to give up biking in favor of hiking and swimming and our former pastor had told him that our family could always use another good bike! (For years Father K and Mr. Pete would take a group of jr. high and high school students on a long bike ride on one of our bike and hike trails. I know Pete enjoyed these outings.) So Father was inviting us to come to the rectory to pick his bike up!
After dinner, (sloppy joes for the kids, and a Chipolte treat for us!)Mr. Pete and I went over to the rectory and Father Yahner was waiting. His bike is beautiful and he took excellent care of it. Our family will certainly make good use out of it! After we loaded it into the van Father started talking to us about some of his other little projects. He had basically taken his lawn mower out and gone up and down the streets mowing the yards of distressed properties. It seems that these days there are A LOT of distressed properties. We have two or three on our own street! So that is mostly what is keeping Father so busy.
But his biggest project has been the rejuvenation a downtown Catholic cemetery. Mr. Pete and I had walked in that cemetery about 5 years ago and it was a mess! The forest had overtaken much of it, vandals and vagrants had destroyed much of the rest. It was a disaster! But Father Yahner and the church had gotten some grant money and they took out a lot of trees and got the place cleaned up. The only mausoleum on the place got a nice scrub down too and it looked great! The entire place was going to be rededicated this morning, on the 4th of July!
This morning Mr. Pete and I got up did a real quick walk of one of our usual routes. We then walked down to the cemetery just in time for the dedication! There was quite a group already assembled, probably at least 50 people. Although this cemetery is no longer accepting new folks for burial (although they do have room for cremains) most of the folks there knew or were related to some of the deceased in the cemetery. Father Yahner’s maternal relatives were in two different places in the cemetery. Many other folks had parents, grandparents, and I heard one elderly couple say their son was there. The three priests present blessed and reconsecrated the and blessed this holy place and then invited all for coffee and donuts (another time honored Catholic tradition!)
It turns out that this cemetery predates the Civil War. The oldest grave Mr. Pete and I could find was from 1863. It was hard to tell with some of the older head stones. A few years ago an interested lay-historian came through and identified all of the Civil War veterans who were buried in this small cemetery. Since not all of their stones could be found they put memorial plaques out for each soldier close to the road, in a group, for all future visitors to see.
The parish’s first four pastors are buried there.
The most interesting part of the cemetery is the one and only mausoleum. When Mr. Pete and I visited 5 years ago we were scandalized to note that there were lawn mowers and other yard supplies being stored in the mausoleum! But it turns out the crypt had been emptied over 40 years ago when the family moved their loved ones to the newer, bigger Catholic cemetery in the county. The parish has been unable to find the family that built the mausoleum. They would like to either give the space to someone else or find some other proper use for it. In the meantime it makes a very grand garden shed.
It seemed like a good start to this holiday for us to spend some time in this holy and sacred place, with some of the people who fought for our freedoms. We left with a sense of peace, purpose and a bit of fatigue. The entire walk took us to a new distance for us of over 4 miles.
Incidentally, here is a bit Father Kraker, pastor, wrote about the cemetery last fall. It’s a fun little read. (BTW, Vinnie is Father’s dog!)
What do you say we stop at the cemetery on our way home, Vinnie? We can check out the progress of Fr. Yahner and his crew.
It’s all right with me, boss. I love going into the cemetery. It looks like they’re just finishing up for the day, Vinnie. Let’s take a look around at the progress they’ve made.
Look over here, boss. They’ve removed all those trees and old bushes that were old and overgrown.
Yes, Vinnie, and now we can see some of the tombstones that were covered with weeds and overgrowth.
This certainly is an improvement over the way things used to look, boss. I see they’ve also begun to put the tombstones which were knocked over back in place.
So they have, Vinnie. That should make the families of those who are buried here feel better.
A little more work on the fences and trees should put everything in tiptop shape, boss.
I would say so, Vinnie. Be sure to tell Fr. Yahner and all the people who helped him how much you appreciate the work they have done.
I guess it’s pretty important that we keep our cemetery in good condition, isn’t it boss? After all, the people buried here are the people who helped build our parish.
That’s right, Vinnie. Some of these graves go all the way back to the earliest days of our parish, when people purchased these graves and the money was used to help build our church and school.
And look here, boss. Some of the former pastors are buried here in the circle. There sure is a lot of history in this place.
You would be surprised, Vinnie. There are nearly twenty-five Civil War veterans buried here. This is one of the oldest cemeteries in Akron.
When you think about it boss, it’s only proper that we take good care of this place. Even if hardly anybody comes here to visit these graves, we still owe it to the ones buried here to respect their resting places.
Yes, we do Vinnie. Unfortunately, when this cemetery was started, the parish needed all the money it collected to continue it’s growth, so there was no money set aside to take care of the graves.
It looks like Fr. Yahner has a solution to that, boss. We’ll just have to rely on our volunteers.
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