FADED INTO the MISTS of TIME

Jackson-Goforth Cemetery
Nodaway County, Missouri

Click on Pictures

There has been a news article done on the cemetery, which also is below for your viewing and best summarizes what has gone on. I would like to thank the Nodaway News Leader for their coverage of the cemetery, and heightening public awareness on preserving our old cemeteries.  If you would like to contribute to the further rehabilitation of the cemetery and its continued upkeep, donations are welcome, and you can mail them to me at:

Michael J. Von Gebel
5802 Rustic Hill,
House Springs, MO 63051;  

People who make donations will be given updates and financial accountings to keep them informed about all details of the continued cleanup and upkeep on the cemetery.  I especially want to thank Mr. & Mrs. Darrel Hawley for their assistance trucking water, and bags of concrete out to the site and Mr. & Mrs. Marvin Davis, who during the summer keep the grass mowed in the area that has been cleared.  Below are pictures side by side of the same area of the cemetery taken on the day before cleanup started, then the same area after the week in May, 2009 I started cleanup, then that same area after the days in October, 2009 that I returned to continue cleanup.  I don’t think it looks to bad for one person handling this.  The cleanup has been done in an a certain order, as I continue to find buried tombstones, those tombstones are put back in their “pocket holders” when they can be found, or they are reset in cement.  None of the larger trees that are in poor shape can be cut down until every effort has been made to make sure no stones are lying under the soil.  Dropping a huge tree, could crush an unseen stone that might otherwise be in excellent shape. 

Reassembled Stones:

The pieces of the monuments are reassembled to their original state, each section is held together using monument adhesive to make sure they stay as they were meant to be.

James D. Goforth Stone before.	James D. Goforth Stone after	Adaline Goforth Stone before	Adaline Goforth  Stone reassembled

Reset stones:

Many stones were just lying on the ground or broken off.  Close to 20 have been reset or repaired below are a few examples of the many that have been done.  Fortunately, most had foot markers with the person’s initials, so locating the original location for the tombstone was made a lot easier.

Before: Malinda Lanning’s stone was broken and lying on the ground		After: The stone was reset in it’s original location
Before: James Conlin’s stone was at a severe angle		After:  After several hours of work this stone is firmly upright.  This particular stone goes about 2 feet under the ground.
This monument was toppled and the main base which weighs several hundred pounds was sunk at an angle into the ground, I dug it out and then braced it up, it took 160 pounds of cement to secure it level again