TALMAGE – Caretakers like Mark Badberg are saddened by vandalism that left 16 grave markers tipped over at a non-denominational cemetery in rural Nemaha County, but there is relief to see swift repairs and resilient honor for the people buried there.

Badberg knows the estimated cost of $5,000 to repair and reset grave markers is more than double the cemetery’s yearly operating budget. Some families have offered to do the work themselves and others in the vicinity of Talmage are making donations.

 

Badberg: “I put it on Facebook. I took a picture of all the stones that were on the ground and put it on Facebook. The initial response was … everybody was upset that it had  happened. A few people contacted us on how to help financially get them back up. I appreciate that help. Even though we are not affiliated with anything, I was nice the community stepped up to  help us.”

The oldest markers date back to town of Grant, which is said to have had a grocery store and a post office before it disappeared. The deed for the cemetery was not filed in Nemaha County until 1870, but Badberg says some of the burials from earlier settlements were moved there. There are about 653 memorials today.

 

Those people include Susan Norton, who died in the winter of 1885.  She was the wife of Civil War veteran William Harrison Norton, who was a justice of the peace in Talmage for 20 years. Judge Norton, who fought with the 83rd infantry out of Nashville, was also buried at the Grant Evergreen Cemetery in 1921. Mrs. Harriet Ewan, a pioneer woman who homesteaded with her husband, Gaston, was a Sunday school teacher. Her eldest son became a newspaper editor in Manilla, Philippines.

 

 

Badberg: “You hate to see them get into disrepair. Somebody has to look after them and there is three of us in the community, so it’s up to us to just kind of monitor that it gets mowed and trying to straighten up some of these headstones that are starting to lean, straighten them up before they get too bad. We’re going to try, in my spare time, try to clean these old ones up that have the moss on it.”

His grandparents live down the road and his father, Merlyn, is a former cemetery association member. He said upkeep of the cemetery is something he never aspired to, but has become a sacred trust. He said emotions boiled when he learned of the vandalism.

Badberg: “What I really thought was, if we would catch them, the next burial have them dig that by hand. You know, just so they know, kind of, what they affected.”

He said the vandalism was so random that it will probably never happen again, but they are establishing some cameras just in case.

 

 

Photo by Andrews Monument Works