Remembering Tom Jesso: ‘You can’t leave 15,000 bodies just turn into forest’

PLYMOUTH — A posting on Facebook said it all about Tom Jesso.

“Your life here on earth made a difference for many of us whose loved ones rest at the Shawnee Cemetery. Your legacy of love, dedication and hard work remain behind.” — Johanna Prochaska Lambert.

Thomas Edward Jesso, 72, of Franklin Township, died June 19, 2024. A memorial service will take place on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the S.J. Grontkowski Funeral Home, 530 West Main St., Plymouth. Family and friends are invited to call on Thursday, from 5 p.m. until service time at funeral home.

Mayor Frank Coughlin said Jesso was a tremendous asset to the community.

“You couldn’t find anyone more dedicated to care for the Shawnee Cemetery,” Coughlin said. “Tom was all about serving our community in any way he could.”

Alexis Eroh, member of Plymouth Borough Council and President of Plymouth Alive, said she was saddened to learn of Jesso’s passing.

“I think fondly of the short time I was able to get to know him,” Eroh said. “He was truly a great man who lived the motto ‘service above self’ and he dedicated his entire life to service to our nation, his family and the Shawnee Historic Cemetery.”

Eroh said the efforts Jesso made at the Shawnee Cemetery were incredibly impressive, spending hours there restoring headstones, caring for the grounds and educating the Plymouth community about the rich history of those laid to rest and their contributions to Plymouth’s storied past.

“To listen to Tom speak on the history of the cemetery was an honor,” Eroh said. “His knowledge and stories knew no bounds and I consider it a privilege to have experienced and heard some of his tales from the past.”

In 2023, Plymouth Alive honored Jesso as the Kielbasa Parade Grand Marshal.

“I am grateful for the time we were able to spend with him and honor him during his time here on earth,” Eroh said. “We have lost a great man who exemplifies the true definition of ‘a life well-lived.’”

Earl Cunningham, a member of Plymouth Borough Council and also a member of the Shawnee Cemetery Association, said Jesso was a very dedicated veteran and his heart and soul was in the historical Shawnee Cemetery.

“Tom restored many grave markers that were sunk into the ground or broken,” Cunningham said. “I helped him with a Civil War private’s stone that was only sticking up two inches from the ground. We restored it and his name could once again be seen and read”

Cunningham said Jesso was a very honorable and kind man — a very hard worker who loved Plymouth Borough with all his heart.

“He enjoyed seeing the the pioneer veterans graves were taken care of and shown the respect every veterans deserves,” Cunningham said. “He spent days and nights cutting the grass and weed whacking. He had the roads graveled. He had trees removed that have fallen from the high winds. Tom always appreciated all the volunteers and always said thank you. Tom always had the equipment repaired when needed and always had the fuel for the equipment. He was always relaxed when he was in the cemetery and loved making it beautiful. It was his pride and joy.”

Fellow veteran remembers Jesso

Rich Pries of Kingston, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, said he used to frequent the Shawnee Cemetery going back to the late 1960s.

“I have relatives buried from the late 1700s (the Ransoms) up to my great-grandfather and great-great grandfather,” Pries said. “The cemetery was an absolute jungle back then. Then one day about about 18 years ago or so I noticed someone had started taking an interest and began to clean the place up a bit. Of course I had no idea who.”

Pries said he found out that Tom Jesso and his wife, Ruth, were the ones doing the cleaning up — mowing the grass, straightening up head stones, etc.

“Then one day I finally met Tom and Ruth Jesso up there when I went I care for my forefathers grave sites,” Pries said. “From the moment we met, we clicked.”

Pries said Jesso’s dedication to the cemetery and the veterans buried there was unwavering.

“Slowly, he had the entire place looking like it never had in my life,” Pries said. “It was like a crew took care of it 24/7.”

Then, Pries said Jesso discovered parts of the cemetery that were absolutely not visible deep in the back end in the woods.

“Of course, Tom jumped on that as well,” Pries said. “I want you to keep in mind this was all volunteer work they performed. He never got a nickel for all this work.”

Pries said people started to notice and then Tom and Ruth established the “Shawnee Cemetery Preservation Association.” They began membership drives to help offset the cost of the upkeep — they were able to purchase lawn mowers, fuel, trimmers and the volunteers began helping out.

“They also stated to let people adopt sections of the cemetery as their cleanup responsibilities,” Pries said. “It was, and is, a huge success to this day.”

Pries, a past Commander of the Black Diamond American Legion Post 395 in Kingston, said if Jesso needed things like grave flags or markers, he would get them for him. Pries said even the large flag on the flag pole was an expense and the U.S. and MIA/POW flags would get torn up by the wind on that hill more than the average flag.

“Tom was a kind and wonderful, giving man,” Pries said. “A great representative of a veteran if I ever saw one. I cherished his friendship. I will miss him greatly. I’m sure his legacy will carry on up on that hill he cared so much for. Tom is a true hero, in my book.”

Many memories

In 2023, Plymouth Alive named Jesso as grand marshal of the Kielbasa Festival Parade.

“Tom has been a valued member of the Plymouth Community for his entire life,” Eroh said when making the announcement.

Jesso, was the son of John and Dorothy Morgan Jesso. He attended Franklin Street Elementary School and he graduated from West Side Area Vocational-Technical School.

Jesso served in the Air Force from 1970 to 1974, serving all around the world, supporting fighter planes to refuel and reload for their missions.

Jesso married Ruth M. Daley on March 1, 1975, and they have three children: Mary, Thomas Jr., and Gregory; and they have six grandchildren.

Jesso worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 28 years and he began caring for the Shawnee Cemetery in 2008, which he spearheaded becoming a nonprofit organization — the Historic Shawnee Cemetery. Jesso created the Shawnee Cemetery Preservation Association, which has been caring and maintaining the 13-plus acre site since 2008.

Jesso once said that it all started when he was a teen growing up in Plymouth and his grandmother sent him to the cemetery to tend to relatives’ graves.

“I used to take the old push mower, the one with the blades in the front, cut through the yards and drag it up from Franklin Street and cut our family plot,” he said.

When he returned from the Air Force, he resumed the task and expanded his cemetery work to tend the plots on either side of his relatives’ graves.

There was a time when Jesso noticed an elderly man trying to cut grass with scissors; he took over the maintenance of that man’s plot as well.

“We couldn’t let it go,” Jesso said. “There are so many veterans there. It just hurt me so, to think they would be forgotten. There are three veterans from the American Revolutionary War there, and hundreds of Civil War soldiers. I didn’t want their graves to be unknown and uncared for.”

With nobody left to mourn or visit these graves, Tom and Ruth made sure that the world would not forget them.

Many of the 15,000 graves were being covered up by overgrown shrubs and trees. The cemetery, founded in 1870, is the final resting place for many of the pioneers who settled in Plymouth.

For many years, Tom and Ruth Jesso and Henry Sobolewski, were determined to find every grave in the Shawnee Cemetery and have them properly marked, even if there are no surviving family members to visit.

Section by section, the Jessos and Sobolewski cleared the ground at the cemetery off of West Mountain Road, locating grave markers and researching maps.

In 2010, a Times Leader story reported that Jesso walked through the area, pointing out graves and markers — many of them had sunk into the ground.

Jesso pointed to the rows of graves now marked with American flags, just like at Arlington National Cemetery.

Ruth Jesso said in the 2010 story that she shares her husband’s passion for the Shawnee Cemetery and finding all the graves.

“One of our goals is to find some young people that will carry on after we’re gone,” she said.

Tom agreed, saying, “Someone is going to have to step to the plate. For now, me and Henry and Ruth are able to do the work, but nobody lives forever. You can’t leave 15,000 bodies just turn into forest.”

The times has come to pass the torch.