A Happy Ending, But the Mystery Remains—In November 2017, volunteer John Mcglothlin and I decided that it was a good time to tackle a long-overdue project and empty the storage cabinets in the Sexton’s Tool House. We knew they had not been touched in years and were aware they contained some decorative pieces such as urns, finials, a column and broken pieces of headstones.

These were all items that had been vandalized over the years and placed in the Sexton’s Tool House for safekeeping with repairs to be made in the future. With all of our equipment stored against the cabinets, we couldn’t see what else was stored on all of the other shelves in the cabinets.

To say we were surprised with what we found would certainly be an understatement. In addition to the urns, finials, a column and cross that we expected to come across, we also found a number of smaller headstones.

After we emptied all cabinets, we placed the items outside the Sexton’s Tool house where John photographed each and every item. While we have already found where a number of the pieces belong, we will continue the search for others and start making repairs in the spring and as the weather warms up. We are very excited about placing these headstones and making the necessary repairs to make them whole again.

Group photo was taken at the Civil War Monument in the Eugene Pioneer Cemetery. Left to right: John Mcglothlin, Dirk Siedlecki, Dorothy Brandner, Mary Siedlecki, George Beebe and Quentin Holmes.

An interesting twist to this story is regarding one of the pieces of headstone that was located on the bottom shelf and in the far back corner. John, who was pulling items out and handing them to me, almost missed it as it was a flat piece resting in the dark corner. After getting it out into the light we realized it was just the bottom piece of a headstone and not the entire stone. It obviously had been broken with a very crude repair attempted by someone at some point in time. We could make out at the top of the stone “Wife of” and on the next line a very faint “J” to the left of the name Zumwalt. John, who is an excellent researcher and loves a challenge, checked local cemetery records and census and other records for the era and found no Zumwalts in Southern Oregon. His further research confirmed a pioneer Zumwalt family lived in the Eugene/Salem area. John then found a memorial and photo of the stone on FindAGrave and we found where we believed the stone belonged. We contacted the Eugene Pioneer Cemetery Association and shared our news with them. Needless to say they were very excited about the possibility of having this piece of missing headstone returned to them. They took some photos of their piece of the Zumwalt headstone, the top portion, and took measurements and we were all 99.9 % certain we had a match. We made plans to get together and on January 22, we drove up to Eugene to return our piece of Margaret Zumwalt’s headstone. Placing the two pieces on top of a work table and watching them easily slide together was a wonderful and rewarding moment. Margaret Zumwalt, wife of A.J. Zumwalt, was born on February 13, 1837 and died on November 7, 1873 at the age of 36 years, eight months, and twenty-five days. We had a great visit with members of the Board of the Eugene Pioneer Cemetery Association, Quentin Holmes, Dorothy Brandner and George Beebe touring their cemetery, sharing ideas and mutual concerns about ongoing care of our Pioneer Cemeteries while enjoying lunch together.

Of course the big mystery is how this piece of headstone found its way all the way to Jacksonville from Eugene and how long ago? I am afraid we will most likely never have an answer to that question but we are certainly pleased that thanks to John’s diligence, that it is back home where it belongs.

Marker Cleaning Workshops—Our monthly marker cleaning workshops resume on Saturday, April 21 from 9:00am until noon. Volunteers meet at the Sexton’s Tool House to pick up all the necessary tools and supplies. This is a very rewarding volunteer project that anyone can help with. Dress for the task as you may get a little dirt splatter and you may want to bring along a stool to sit on. There is no cleaning in May as we are busy preparing the cemetery grounds for the Memorial Day Holiday but, workshops resume on June 16, and then the third Saturday of the month through September 15. Check our website for complete details at friendsjvillecemetery.org.