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Sep 06, 2023

Cleaning headstones, a labor of love

After decades of exposure to pollution and natural elements, headstones and

After decades of exposure to pollution and natural elements, headstones and monuments become dirty and difficult to read. They can be cleaned but it must be done right or one risks destroying the stone.

Cemeteries across the country have horror stories about well-meaning people going in and using bleach or other harsh chemicals to restore the stonework to its original look.

"I always call it good intentions with bad results," said Amanda Brown, owner of Healthy Headstones Inc., in Abilene.

She understands how easy it is for people to make the mistake. Most headstones are made with granite, limestone or marble. All of those are strong, sturdy surfaces that can withstand the elements but chemicals, when they seep into the pores are more damaging.

People also get impatient.

"They want that bright, white, brand-new look right away," Brown said.

Doing the work right takes time, as Janet Wade of Herington has learned. She has worked on cleaning headstones in the Herington and White City cemeteries and about a year and a half ago started the laborious task of cleaning the Herington Monument.

Besides making it look better, cleaning it will also extend its life, she said.

"The biological growth can damage the stones, particularly the older ones, the softer ones," Wade said. "The biological growth can seep into the pores of the stone. It has to be killed and then basically washed off."

Depending on the type of stone, it can be scrubbed. However, if the stone is fragile, Wade said it is best to spray it and leave it in the sunshine and rain, which will help clean debris from the base of the stone.

"It can take time to get it completely clean and sometimes you have you go back and do a re-application," she said.

If someone is interested in cleaning their family headstones, Brown said they should do their research first. Go to a reputable website like the Veterans Administration's or National Park Service's.

"I give classes on it because it is not something you can just tell somebody in five minutes," she said.

When Wade first started researching and learning the proper techniques, there is one thing she wished she had known. She had sprayed one headstone with a special cleaner but wasn't aware it would temporarily change colors — a process called blushing.

"You spray it on and walk away and leave it," she said. "When you come back it’ll be improved but what's somewhat shocking is you can spray it on a stone and it’ll turn orange or red or some funny green. The first time I was like, ‘Oh my God, what have I done.’ But really what it was doing was immediately killing the biological growth."

Preserving history

What led the two women to started cleaning headstones and monuments are different but the reason they continue is the same. Brown and Wade both expressed a desire to preserve the past and honor those who came before us.

Wadea started with family stones in Dickinson and Morris counties, some of which date to the 1800s. As she worked, she saw several others that needed a little attention she said. Before cleaning a headstone of someone not in her family she will always reach out to the deceased descendants, if she can find them but often the gravesite is one with no known relatives.

"Some of these have been here 140 years already," she said. "Hopefully they’ll be here for another few hundred more. It's also very satisfying to go from dirty to clean."

Last year she reached out to descendants of the Herington family, who now live in California and gained their permission to clean the monument erected in their ancestor's honor.

Brown, on the other hand, started learning the proper way to clean the stonework about 20 years ago while living in Virginia. However, her interest in preserving the headstones goes back to when she was a child.

"My mom and I used to visit the cemetery that was right across the valley from where we lived," Brown said. "She would bring a little cornhusk (hand brush) and she would brush them off. It was just something that we did when we spent time together."

As Brown got older and gained an appreciation for history, her interest grew. When she and her husband lived in Virginia, she took a class to learn more about the best techniques for cleaning the headstones.

During that hands-on class she cleaned one from 1693, which is still the oldest one she has cleaned.

"That one was cleaned with just water and a very light brush," she said. "Here, the oldest one I’ve done was 1870."

Most of the headstones she focuses on today are those of the nation's military veterans.

"I am a veteran myself," she said. "It's about taking care of the ones who came before me. I believe every veteran's headstone should look like it's in Arlington."

The headstones that touch Wade's heart are those of the children.

"Children's gravestones — I have sort of a special affinity for them because they’re so easily forgotten," she said. "A baby that died 120 years ago may not even show up on census records."

Both women are in the process of setting up a class or workshop for people who are interested in learning more. Brown's will be through the Dickinson County Historical Society. In Herington, Wade is working on brining in a subject-matter expert with Atlas Preservation who holds workshops across the county. Information on these events will be announces when days and times are set in stone.

Caring for the stones is a way for Wade and Brown to keep the memory of those who came before us, whether they were child, a founding father, a war hero, or someone's mother or father, from permanently fading away.

"Just remember that when you're doing this, if you decided to do this, that this was the last expression of love that a person has to the dead and you treat it with the utmost care and respect," Brown said.

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