A cemetery preservation workshop was hosted by the Williamson County Historical Society on June 29th from 9:30 till 4 P.M. at the museum/library at 105 S. Van Buren St. in Marion. The workshop was conducted by Dawn Cobb, an archeologist with the Illinois Department of Resources and John and Gena Heider who operate Restoration in Progress, a gravestone repair business.
The workshop started out at the historical society museum with a 2.5-hour program on understanding cemeteries and the laws that protect them as well as cemetery preservation. That was followed up by spending the afternoon at Barham Cemetery next to Rose Hill Cemetery with hands on training demonstrating cleaning, repairing and resetting techniques to fix grave markers. Also discussed were the Do’s and Don’ts of cemetery preservation to help the attendees understand why some methods will work to preserve the gravestones and why other methods will damage them.
The workshop was limited to twelve participants and was sold out almost immediately after it was announced in March.
