Friends of Jacksonville's Historic Cemetery
OUR REPORT CARD FOR 2024
WHILE WE LOOK AHEAD TO 2025, TAKE A MOMENT AND LOOK BACK AT OUR
ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN 2024
Our dedicated and loyal volunteers once again managed to do an amazing job of supporting the goals of our non-profit organization in caring for the cemetery. In total they contributed nearly 1,000 hours of labor for activities where volunteer hours are recorded!
Grounds and Cemetery Maintenance - Thanks to our volunteers, those from other organizations, and the community-at-large, we were able to host two successful Community Clean-up Days on March 16th and October 26th, 2024. (A third scheduled evenr on May 4th had to be cancelled due to bad weather).
A total of 135 hours were contributed by the 64 volunteers who attended these events.
Our Adopt-A-Block program, launched in March 2021, has continued to be a great success with some 200 volunteers signed on and regularly caring for their adopted cemetery blocks. They have contributed hundreds upon hundreds of hours in the process, and the cemetery grounds have never looked better! Volunteers in this program work at their own pace, when and as often as they choose, with no pressure of being in the cemetery on a certain day or time or having to keep track of their hours. Our goal has been to keep the program as simple and attractive as possible. Therefore, none of the time contributed by volunteers in the Adopt-A-Block program is reflected or included in the total number of hours noted above or below.
Additional time was spent on General Cemetery Maintenance, caring for the grounds in areas not adopted by individuals, cleaning and maintaining the Interpretive Panels, the Interpretive Center, the Cemetery Map and Pavilion, as well as restocking cemetery brochures, and cleaning and restocking the Volunteer Tool Room. A group of volunteers also placed over 400 flags at veterans' gravesites for Memorial Day and removed them following Veterans Day. Approximately 491 hours of volunteer time went into helping to care for the cemetery grounds in the activities noted above,
Note: Please check our Events Page for 2025 Community Clean-up dates and details.
Marker Restoration - Several restoration projects were completed in 2024. First, damage from an act of vandalism in August 2020 to the south-east corner bollard of the Fitts/Greenman/Taylor block (Masonic 382) was repaired by our restoration team, returning the block to its appearance following a complete restoration in 2019. (An early Peter Britt photo of this block appears on the cover of our general cemetery brochure.)
Other restoration efforts in 2024 included a headstone reset and curbing repair in the Kubli block (IOOF 393), and repair of loose or broken fixtures in the Hanna block (Catholic C6), Fay block (Catholic D5), and Tull block (City 167).
The restoration team also helped fabricate a base for and set the original (circa 1868) Minnie Helms headstone and footstone in the cemetery's Helms block (IOOF 403) following their removal from the historic Helms house by new owners.
A total of 58 hours of volunteer time was directed to restoration work in the cemetery.
Note: If you would be interested in learning about and helping with this type of volunteer work, please contact us at: info@friendsjvillecemetery.org.
Marker Cleaning Workshops- We once again hosted five workshops in 2024. Our volunteers cleaned 265 headstones and monuments, while contributing 192 hours in volunteer labor. Since these workshops began in 2013, volunteers have cleaned 1,608 markers and contributed 2,029 volunteer hours - a very impressive endeavor, and one appreciated even more-so as you walk the cemetery grounds
Note: Be sure to check our Events Page for Workshop dates for 2025.
Honoring our Veterans - Each year the Friends of Jacksonville's Historic Cemetery purchase flags to be placed on each grave site of the Veterans who rest within our cemetery. Volunteers place the flags just before Memorial Day and then remove them in November following Veterans Day. There are over 400 Veterans resting within the cemetery grounds.
Volunteer hours are included under Grounds and Cemetery Maintenance.
History Events and Tours – We again offered our popular History Saturday in the Cemeteryprograms in 2024, this time on five second Saturday mornings from May through September. Our docents also conducted a special Guided Tour for a group of seniors from the Rogue Valley Manor. Volunteers and docents logged 84 hours of volunteer time in presenting these programs to nearly 300 guests.
Additional Projects in 2024
Dirk Siedlecki Memorial - In recognition of the life and accomplishments of Dirk Siedlecki, co-founder and long-time President of the Friends of Jacksonville's Historic Cemetery, and for many years President of the City of Jacksonville Cemetery Commission, the FOJHC, with community support, installed a memorial plaque and boulder in a quiet garden space adjacent to the Sexton's Tool House. A public dedication of the memorial was held prior to the History Saturday program in June.
Story Boards– With funding from our generous donors, Friends volunteers researched and created four additional Story Boards to be installed on metal stanchions at the gravesites of William Pernoll (Improved Order of Red Men 8), Henry Wendt (Independent Order of Red Men 19), Thomas Chavner (Catholic C8), and Gustav Karewski (Jewish 12). As with our previous Story Boards, the texts provide a brief history of the individual and/or family buried in the block, and most include an historical photograph. The four new Story Boards, with their stanchions, will be installed in the spring of 2025, bringing the total number installed to seventeen.