Belle Vernon lends hand to Donora cemetery restoration
Holly Tonini
Belle Vernon Cemetery Superintendent Tom Hewitt (left) gets a tour of the Gilmore Cemetery in Donora by Donora Council President Dennis Gutierrez.
Holly Tonini
Donora Council President Dennis Gutierrez looks at a headstone inside the Gilmore Cemetery in Donora.
Holly Tonini
Shown is the main family headstone of the Gilmore family in the Gilmore Cemetery in Donora.
When Tom Hewitt, superintendent of the Belle Vernon Cemetery, walks through the Gilmore Cemetery in Donora, he sees history and a future.
Removing all of the sumac saplings to uncover the cemetery and restore it to its past glory will be daunting. But it is a task the superintendent of the Belle Vernon Cemetery agreed to take on after reading in the Mon Valley Herald-Standard about Donora Council President Dennis Gutierrez’s plan to restore the cemetery.
On an overcast morning, Hewitt and Donora Council President Dennis Gutierrez walked the cemetery, even finding a road that crossed through the site at one time.
“This is definitely going to be a project for the ages,” Hewitt said, flashing a broad smile.
Hewitt said the project will likely begin next week. He hopes to have all of the overgrowth cleared this year.
Hewitt said some of his employees at the Belle Vernon Cemetery are interested in volunteering for what will be an “evenings and weekends” project. The cemetery will donate its equipment for the project, he said, adding, “We just have to find a way in.”
Gutierrez was approached by Clifford Gilmore in the fall of 2015, asking if the council president could do anything to restore the family cemetery.
“The support from Tom is like a prayer answered,” Gutierrez said. “That it is coming from Belle Vernon, I love that. Part of my goal is to bring the whole valley together.”
Deeded in Sept. 11, 1884, the last burial in the 1.95-acre cemetery was in 1934. It was at one time the burial grounds for soldiers who fought in the Civil War and World War I.
“This is a big project,” Hewitt said. “I would work from the access points, create staging areas and begin the work.”
Hewitt said the brush will have to be cleared mostly by hand because the ground is soft and the cemetery sits on a steep hill between 13th and 14th street, bordered by Meldon and McKean avenues. The young sumac saplings should come out easily, Hewitt said.
When the site is cleared, grass will be planted. Hewitt said the seed will take right away because the ground is moist and soft.
The next step will be to map out the cemetery, recording all of the graves and who is buried in each.
“It will be like putting together a big puzzle,” Hewitt said. “When we clear it, we’ll do a census of the stones.”
Hewitt said the cemetery will become an attraction for Donora and surrounding communities. He envisioned historical markers being erected in some areas to mark those of historic significance buried there.
He sees an obelisk gravestone lying on the ground.
“They had to have money to have stones that big,” Hewitt said. “Someone took painstaking effort to lay it out.”
Wiping some moss from some of the grave markers, Hewitt noted that those who died young, especially before World War I, may have been victims of influenza.
“Every stone has a story to tell, and they deserve it,” Hewitt said.
Hewitt said his motivation is for the veterans buried there.
“Read these stones, they contain our heritage,” Hewitt said. “Even though I’m from Belle Vernon, I think it is important.
“The souls of these buried here deserve that.”
Gutierrez said he was impressed by Hewitt’s support.
“Someone who does not have someone buried here and is taking a vested interest is admirable,” Gutierrez said.