Mission on Military Hill: cleaning headstones of soldiers buried in Rice Lake cemetery

Slowly the markings on the headstone of the Civil War soldier emerge from beneath the lichen and moss clinging to the granite.

The late Gilbert King had been laid to rest at Orchard Beach Cemetery, but his headstone’s raised etching yielded little more. As was typical of the stones marking the graves of Civil War soldiers, it contained only his name, company and infantry.

King’s headstone and those of soldiers from many other wars rest on Military Hill, a space in Orchard Beach Cemetery reserved for veterans. It was set aside at the behest of James Bracklin, who donated the land to the city in 1890.

But over the years lichen and moss laid claim to the surface of the headstones, making some difficult to read if not downright illegible. Tree roots and shifting ground forced some into a tilted position.

They won’t be for long as a former Rice Lake man, at the age of 81, has vowed to restore the headstones to their former glory.

Graveyard visitationsJerry Curnow, now of Frederic, grew up in Luck and, after college, embarked on careers in journalism, commodity futures trading and advertising, bouncing around the Midwest to work in cities such as Chicago and Minneapolis.

Meanwhile, his grandfather was growing Rice Lake Glass and Door Co., which his father eventually took over. When his dad decided to retire, Jerry and his wife, Judy, came to the community to lead the business.

But Jerry’s project to clean and straighten tombstones at a Rice Lake cemetery wasn’t inspired locally. While traveling throughout the U.S. and Europe, he and his wife would devote a little of their vacation time to visiting cemeteries.

During these visits, the Curnows noted the care and upkeep of cemeteries and headstones differed greatly from cemetery to cemetery. Jerry remarked that Europe took great care of their graveyards, keeping everything nice and neat.

And then a few years ago there came his brother-in-law’s funeral at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis. Jerry again noted how the clean, uniform headstones were aligned in perfect formation.

So Jerry approached a man standing at attention during the 21-gun salute and asked: “How do you keep these things so clean and nice?”

“You asked the right guy,” the man replied. “I’ve been here 27 years and the first 10 my job was to clean the headstones.”

That day Jerry learned the secret formula — a few cups of white vinegar in water plus a dash of Dawn to create suds.

When Jerry and his wife inspected Orchard Beach Cemetery, looking to buy a plot 1½ years ago, the sexton showed him Military Hill as they toured the 13 acres.

“I said, ‘Gosh, there are a lot of headstones here that are really hard to read,’ and some of them were tipping over and kind of out of square, out of plum, out of level,” Jerry recounted.

The sexton replied that there weren’t enough people on staff to tend the headstones on top of other chores maintaining Rice Lake’s cemeteries and parks.

“Would you mind if I started out a project to clean up?” Jerry asked, telling him about what he had learned at Fort Snelling, and the sexton replied, “Sounds right.”

Standing proudJerry visits Orchard Beach Cemetery’s Military Hill, with cleaning supplies and occasional volunteers from the Rotary Club of Rice Lake in tow, once a week and starts scrubbing. During the 1½ hours he allots himself, he can clean up the front and top of two tombstones and perhaps get a start on a third.

Cleaning off the lichen and moss takes a bit of elbow grease, but the effort restores dignity to the graves and reveals the names of the soldiers who are buried in Rice Lake.

The project sometimes yields a few surprises too, as in the recent discovery of the grave of a soldier who served in the Mexican-American War, a conflict fought between 1846-48 over the annexation of Texas.

And when Jerry has help from fellow Rotarian Kevin Jacobson, the pair straighten headstones that have tilted to the side. The task requires digging around the marker to get at the cement base underneath so both can be pushed back into proper position.

Jerry estimates he has about 20 markers left to tackle, and the clean-up project is something the 81-year-old has promised himself he will complete.

“I’m committed to finishing it before I can’t,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I can.”