Vandals wreck cemetary

[SilverHeels]

April 11, 2006 -- AUBURN, N.Y. - Vandals rampaged through the cemetery that includes the grave of Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad leader who led more than 300 slaves to freedom, police said yesterday.

Dozens of gravestones were knocked over, causing at least $15,000 in damage, they said.

Investigators were looking into whether the weekend rampage at Fort Hill Cemetery involved Tubman's grave or that of William Seward, Abraham Lincoln's secretary of state, best known for negotiating the purchase of Alaska.

Fifty to 70 tombstones were knocked over Friday or Saturday. The damage was discovered Saturday night. >>


Annie, this is nasty story. Do you know any thing more?

[charlene]

We had this happen up here a couple of weekends ago...the cemetery in the neighbourhood where I grew up. Kids getting stoooopid and being idiots....It happens when the weather gets nice and will continue till the snow falls..
very very sad.....
They should have to face the families and do penance....

[SilverHeels]

Yes,like pay for the damage caused. The world is filling up with more and more cretins!
I've been doing some research on the Freedom Railway - which was why the story caught my eye.

[Sheryl]

This happened at the cemetery where my grandparents are buried, too, about 15 years ago. Sick people...

[Auburn Annie]

It's spring break here, so my daughter figures it's high school kids. This kind of vandalism seems to go with spring in the air. It's a beautiful cemetery, with Fort Hill itself rising in the middle, long sunlit lawns down the south side, and winding paths throughout. I have a friend buried there, towards the back, and I always have the devil's own time finding her marker because it's flat. Once I locate the big tree by the back entrance, I'm okay, but it's always further east than I remember.

Here's a link to their site with its history and a who's who of local prominent citizens buried there: http://www.cayuganet.org/forthill/

My family members are buried at St Joseph's cemetery, along Owasco Lake. My dad's site is just about the highest spot in the cemetery; we joke that he finally got a "lake view" property.

[Cathy]

Originally posted by Sheryl:
This happened at the cemetery where my grandparents are buried, too, about 15 years ago. Sick people...

It happened in Fort Fairfield a few years ago. They caught the kids, and I think one of them is still in reform school. They didn't mess with the Giberson lot, though. Grampy's grave was spared.

[Auburn Annie]

Follow-up article:

Vandals shatter pieces of history
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
SEAN KIRST
POST-STANDARD COLUMNIST
Whoever desecrated the grave of Emily Upton probably wasn't thinking of what Emily's husband endured when his wife died.

But that's all Lydia Rosell could think about Tuesday, as she stood above a broken tombstone so heavy it dug a trench in the turf when it fell.

Emily's grave was one of about 70 monuments vandalized after closing time Friday at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, where some of the most famous men and women in Upstate New York history are buried.

Abraham Lincoln's secretary of state, William Seward, is

buried there. So is Harriet Tubman, the escaped slave who was known as "The Moses of her people."

So is Leon Czolgosz, who assassinated President William McKinley and was put to death at the state prison in Auburn. So is Myles Keogh, one of the Americans who died in 1876 while serving under George Armstrong Custer at the battle of the Little Big Horn.

Emily Upton lies beneath the same circle of monuments as Keogh. A profile of her face dominates her tombstone. That is what first caught the attention of Rosell, a historian who fell in love with the cemetery years ago. Rosell soon learned that Emily was a niece of Enos Throop, a 19th-century governor of New York. She grew up to marry Emory Upton, a general in the U.S. Army.

In 1870, as a young woman, Emily died of tuberculosis, Rosell said. Emily's husband struggled with his grief until it overwhelmed him and he committed suicide, Rosell said. The monuments to that tragedy stood side by side at Fort Hill for more than a century.

Friday night, someone pushed Emily's tombstone to the ground.

"I feel this very deeply at many different levels," said Rosell, author of a book about the cemetery. "In the broadest sense, I feel it because the community's history is represented here. It's such an insult to these people, the people who built this city, and such a slap in the face to all their hopes and dreams. You think of all the emotion that went into these burials, all the craftsmanship that went into all of these stones."

She wondered out loud about the fury that triggered the destruction. Old records show acts of vandalism occurred even in the 1800s, she said. But there is little question that it has gotten worse in recent years, and Rosell links it to young people who've lost all connection to their community and the way it came to be.

Don Poole, superintendent of the cemetery, and Elaine Hutson, the office manager, said vandals picked up stone urns and shattered them by hurling them against monuments. They pushed and shoved until they overturned stone pillars supporting a stairway in a hill. They knocked over a beautifully detailed tombstone for Louise Agnes Moses, an Auburn woman who died in 1872. That tombstone, inscribed with delicate script and floral patterns, broke in half.

"These weren't kids," said Poole, who guesses the vandals were probably young men. As of Tuesday, no arrests had been made. Poole said the Fort Hill Cemetery Association is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible.

The mayhem wasn't limited to old tombstones. Poole also discovered a line of newer monuments that were broken loose and shoved to the ground. One of them carried the names of an elderly couple whose infant daughter died in the 1950s and is buried in the plot. While the father also died more than 20 years ago, the mother, in her 80s, is apparently alive.

The vandals did not let a family's grief over losing a baby slow them down.

As for old stones that are severely damaged, Poole isn't sure if they can be restored. "Technically, under state law, if a tombstone gets knocked over the family is responsible" for the costs of repair, Poole said. But many descendants of those 19th-century families left Auburn long ago. And it would cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, to repair the more elaborate stones. While the most renowned graves in the cemetery somehow went untouched, Rosell said that offers little consolation. "Everyone in here is important," she said Tuesday. "Seward and Tubman just got a lot more headlines."

That point was reinforced a few minutes later, when a car pulled up and a woman climbed out with three young children. The woman said she'd read about the damage. She then hurried to Fort Hill to check on the grave of her father, who died in 2004. Although the tombstone wasn't harmed, the woman declined to give her name. She was afraid the vandals might return and target her dad's monument.

"I don't understand why anyone would do this," she said, as her voice began to crack. "Don't they understand this is a sacred place?"

All around her, as if in answer, she could see the broken stones.

Sean Kirst is a columnist with The Post-Standard. His columns appear Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Call him at 470-6015 or e-mail him at skirst@syracuse.com or visit his blog and forum at www.syracuse.com/kirst.

© 2006 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.

[SilverHeels]

Thanks for this, Annie.

[Jesse Joe]

This is a sorry subject, but it happens everywhere. We have it downhere too. I guess they figure we have to destroy something, so why not where everbody lies dead? "TOO BAD SICK SOCIETY."

[Jesse Joe]

JUNE 29, 2006.








Vandals damage cemetery


Vandals damaged a number of gravestones at the St. Mary's Catholic Church cemetery.

MIRAMICHI - The eternal rest of some at St. Mary's Catholic Church cemetery was disturbed last week when vandals knocked over and damaged several gravestones.

Volunteer caretaker Gerald Beaulieu made the shocking discovery on June 22 that sometime during the previous night, the gravestones were disturbed.

Two were damaged, one was knocked off its base and one stone cross was bent over.

Beaulieu said he wasn't really shocked because the same kind of incident occurred a couple of years ago.

"It's pretty bad when you have to go and bother the dead," Beaulieu said of the vandals.

Beaulieu couldn't estimate a monetary value on the gravestones but believes their significance to the community is more valuable.

One of the damaged gravestones dated to 1831 and Beaulieu estimates that many of the graves are from the 18th and 19th centuries.

"They're probably some of the first settlers here," he said.

"We're trying to salvage as much as we can."

Beaulieu has been trying to fix the stones but there's a fear of further damage because some are made of clay.

Beaulieu said he's even thinking about contacting government to see if there is some kind of grant that will fix the mangled gravestones.

Contacting family members of the deceased to let them know what happened is also a challenge because some of the gravestones were so old that the names have worn off.

Beaulieu doesn't think this act is anything personal since he has heard of similar incidents at other graveyards.

Sgt. Randy Hansen of the Miramichi Police Force said that while it doesn't happen often, they do periodically get calls about vandalism in graveyards.

[ September 30, 2006, 08:00: Message edited by: Jesse -Joe ]

[Jesse Joe]

Daily Gleaner | News - As published on page A3 on August 29, 2006


Cemetery vandalism investigated


Police say property damage charges may be laid in connection with a Sunday morning auto theft in Scotch Settlement.

Early Sunday morning police recovered a 2006 Dodge Ram taken earlier the same day from a residence in Scotch Settlement. It was extensively damaged.

RCMP arrested an adult male and a youth.

The vehicle was taken from a residence after 2 a.m. and ditched on a dirt road in Silverwood.

Before it was ditched, city police suspect it may have been involved in two separate incidents of damage in the city's downtown.

Police spokesman Cpl. Martin Gaudet said the vehicle could have been used by culprits to cause damage to cemetery plots at the Aboriginal Burial Grounds on the Woodstock Road.

Gaudet said a vehicle was also used to smash into a highway sign on Golf Club Road.

[ September 30, 2006, 08:03: Message edited by: Jesse -Joe ]

[Cathy]

I remember back in the late '70s, a man dressed in Goth clothing was hanging out in the Fort Fairfield cemetaries, jumping up from behind gravestones, chasing people around the cemetary and knocking over gravestones. He also was hitchhiking from town to town, and some people were actually dumb enough to pick him up. He made the mistake with getting in with some of the local teens. They beat the crap out of him and dropped him off at the police station. He went to court and recieved some fines, and was escorted out of the state of Maine by the Maine State Police.

[Jesse Joe]

They should have drop him at there local cemeterie, and make him dig his grave. lol It's weird , how some people get a kick out of doing that eh?

[ October 14, 2006, 09:26: Message edited by: Jesse -Joe ]

[Auburn Annie]

Part of the problem with neglected cemeteries is that many were managed by local associations (family or civic) that have long since run out of funds or the association itself been legally dissolved and there's no one to hold accountable. Church or municipally owned cemeteries fare better because they can raise funds for upkeep through contributions from the congregation, bequests and endowments, or taxes.

[Shutup and Deal, I'm Losin']

Originally posted by timetraveler:
I'd be willing to bet that if they had, then they might have reconsidered putting their business where it is today.

I wouldn't build a house or any business over a gravesite because for one reason, it's disrespectful. More importantly, I wouldn't put a business near there because whoever's buried there might come back and haunt me. Seen enough scary movies to know better than that. (like Pouldergiest)

[Jennifer]

I live in the vicinity of 2 of Chicagos most well-known haunted cemetaries. Resurrection Cemetery and Bachelors Grove Cemetery. Both are creepy as hell and have a very extensive history with headstones going back to the 1800's. The latter being one of the better known, but it has also been completely neglected over past years and often vandalized by partying teenagers. Just recently a group came together trying to get donations of old lawn mowers and other supplies to clean it up. Although not visually impressive, it has gained a place of importance in local legend.

http://www.prairieghosts.com/bachgrov.html

[Jesse Joe]

In this morning Newspaper...


{The quest for copper to a new low}...

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.co.../article/54882







Thieves steal copper vases from graves

Valuable metal latest target of thieves looking to sell to scrap dealers


Published Friday August 24th, 2007



Appeared on page C12

HALIFAX (CP) - Bill Philpitt was perplexed when he knelt to place flowers on his wife's grave on what would have been the couple's 42nd wedding anniversary and found the bronze vase that adorned her headstone was missing.

The retired truck driver looked around and noticed that several of the other vases that held bouquets at other graves were also gone, leaving open holes in the name plates of the deceased.
Philpitt soon learned that he had become the latest victim of a phenomenon that has taken the quest for copper to a new low -- thieves pilfering the valuable metal from gravesites and selling it for scrap.
"You don't know what to think -- I mean, who would do this?" Philpitt, 66, said yesterday from his home at a trailer park in nearby Beaver Bank, just days after the incident. "It sort of upsets you."
Managers of cemeteries throughout the city have been hit by the same problem in recent weeks as dozens of the vases have been pinched by robbers who cash in on the reddish metal, which has risen to about $3 a pound from a low of about 70 cents.
Bill Mont, manager and owner of the Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Lower Sackville where Philpitt's wife Anna is buried, said the vases began disappearing about five months ago.
He installed a flood light and a full-time caretaker on the grounds, but the thieves returned just weeks ago and have already made off with about 30 vases that once dotted the 12-hectare property outside Halifax
"The problem is the demand for copper and the prices the junkyards are paying," Mont said.
"I've got rewards out and called the RCMP on them. I mean, you're robbing someone's gravesite."
The vases cost about $400 apiece.

[charlene]

it's been happening here too: 800 of them!
Case of the missing urns
TheStar.com - News - Case of the missing urns

Police suspect high price for bronze behind theft of 800 tombstone urns

May 23, 2007
Debra Black
Justin Piercy
Staff Reporters

John Willox and his girlfriend had hoped to place some flowers at her father's grave over the weekend. It was the second anniversary of his death and they wanted to mark it.

But when they arrived at Glendale Memorial Gardens in Toronto's west end they found the bronze flower vase mounted on the tombstone was gone. So were the vases on about a dozen other tombstones nearby, all part of an apparent theft of about 800 vases from the Albion Rd. cemetery.

The solid bronze vases were likely taken to be sold for scrap metal, said Detective Robert Gallant of Toronto Police's 23 Division. "My understanding is that it's a problem throughout the city."

If sold on the open market the vases would be worth a bundle; scrap metal dealers are currently buying bronze for about $2.50 a pound.

Bronze, copper and nickel thefts have been rampant worldwide as scrap metal prices have soared. But when contacted yesterday by the Star no other GTA cemeteries reported any thefts.


Last December a 5-metre tall bronze statue of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko was stolen from a park in Oakville. Two men were charged after the head was taken to a Burlington recycler, who contacted police.

In the cemetary case, police have charged a 77-year-old man – whose wife is buried in the cemetery – after finding his car nearby with 60 stolen vases. Police are not releasing his name. No other charges have yet been laid in the theft of the other hundreds of vases.

But Willox and his girlfriend, who did not want to be identified, knew none of this when they went to her father's grave. "I thought they must be cleaning or doing something," he said. "These things are all made of bronze and weigh close to five pounds each."

The pair also visited the grave of her uncle, about 100 yards away. They found other graves nearby were also missing the vases. Willox went to the cemetery office to find out what was going on. He said he spoke to an unidentified official and was told police had been called and a man had been charged last month.

"It's unbelievable that somebody would do something like this and certainly we regret that the families who have their loved ones there have to go through this kind of upset," said Gary Carmichael, vice-president of government and corporate affairs for Memorial Gardens Canada, which owns Glendale Memorial Gardens.

The cemetery is trying to determine just how many vases were taken and from which graves, Carmichael said, and will then contact all families.

The cemetery has stepped up security and will be working with police to see if any other measures should be taken. Negotiations are now underway to replace the missing vases. Carmichael hopes at least some of them will be recovered by police and returned.

But Willox isn't satisfied. "We don't know if it had happened recently, a day or a week ago, or even been months since it happened. No one has received any notice over this, and I don't know if any other families know this has happened."

Willox said the cemetery has contacted the manufacturer to try to negotiate a deal where families would only have to pay 50 per cent of the replacement cost. "It just seems ridiculous to get the families to replace them ... and what about families that have no one left?" said Willox.

Carmichael, however, said the question of who will pay and how the bronze vases will be replaced is under "discussion."

With files from Adrian Ma

[Jesse Joe]

It's a strange strange world we live in. Very Sad...

[SilverHeels]

Not only strange but incredibly cruel and mindless too. Thinking about some of the stuff happening in Britain right now - I think the world is on a death wish! Very sad, yes, and very demoralising.
Stop the world I wanna get off!

[Jesse Joe]

Yes indeed {Bru Lady} I think I wanna get off too.