While Memorial Day began as a time to pay tribute to the fallen soldiers of the Civil War, the holiday also has become a time for many families to remember their heritage and honor the memory of their forebears.

In recent generations, the pursuit of careers has taken many people far from the often rural communities where neighbors were often members of their extended family. As families have scattered, many old family cemeteries have fallen into disrepair.

Restoring old cemeteries is a lot of work and costs money, but thanks to matching grants from the Madison County Cemetery Board, there is now help with the funding.

Volunteer organizations who have worked to restore two local cemeteries last week received checks from the cemetery board after documenting their completed work.

If relatives of people buried in the Hamilton Cemetery near Union City or the Old Soldiers’ Cemetery in Richmond visited grave sites this Memorial Day, they will find that the final resting places of their family members are now neat and well cared for.

Volunteers working to restore the Old Soldiers Cemetery have documented the graves of 28 African-American Civil War Veterans there.

Representatives of volunteers responsible for the restoration of those two burial grounds received checks from the Cemetery Board last Monday.

Lewis Curry, who has at least two generations of his ancestors buried in the Hamilton Cemetery and has coordinated restoration of the cemetery, accepted a check for $1,025. Representatives of the Madison County Boys and Girls Clubs and the Richmond Rotary Club, which supplied funds and volunteer labor for restoration of the Old Soldiers’ Cemetery, received a check for $7,500.

After a check presentation ceremony at the Madison County Courthouse, Curry took his aunt, Edna Oliver, to visit the restored Hamilton Cemetery.

Restoration of the cemetery had been a dream of Mrs. Oliver’s late husband, Mitchell Oliver. At age 92, Mrs. Oliver is a living link to past generations, Curry said of his uncle’s wife.

“Everybody here is kin to everybody else,” said Curry as he walked through the cemetery with Mrs. Oliver and Madison County Deputy Judge-Executive Linda Ginter. Ginter co-chairs the cemetery board with magistrate Dr. William Tudor.

Curry had been recruiting volunteers and seeking donations for several years before the match grant enabled him to complete the work, he said.

“I’m sorry Uncle Mitch can’t be here to see the way the cemetery looks now.” Oliver suffered a stroke just two days before worked first started on the cemetery clean up.

“He was able to come out and watch us work on the clean up a few times before he died,” Curry said.

Curry said he had other volunteers “tore up a lot of chain saws and weed trimmers” reclaiming the cemetery from the trees, shrubs and vines that had overtaken it.

The cemetery, which stands in the middle of a pasture, had no fence, and cattle often roamed through it as they grazed.

A wild cherry tree, five and half feet at its widest point, had to be felled in the process. While have a large cherry tree shading a rural cemetery may sound picturesque, it had to go, Curry explained. “Tree roots spread along the ground, and the tree’s roots had upturned many of the headstones.” Also, wild cherry tree follage can be harmful to cattle, he said.

A shiny new chain-link fence now surrounds the neat cemetery. Curry plans to put a strand barbed wire outside the main fence to keep the cattle from encroaching on the chain-link barrier.

Head stones were cleaned during the restoration to reveal the names of many former Union City residents who died in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

“Mrs. Oliver is very special to me,” Ginter said. “As a child I had her as both a public school teacher and as a Sunday school teacher.”

Curry has fond memories of growing up in the near the rural crossroads community of Union City where he still lives.

“We loved to play in the fields and woods and swim in the Kentucky River,” he said. As a teenager, Curry said after he and his friends would cool off with a dip in the river after doing farm work.

Four other cemeteries have applied for matching restoration funds, Ginter said. Tudor Cemetery on Curtis Pike, Maple Grove Cemetery off Lancaster Road, Red Lick Cemetery on Red Lick Road and Burgin-Taylor Cemetery on Lost Fork Road will be eligible for funds have their restoration work is complete and documented.

Because part of the cemetery board’s funding comes from state government, meticulous documentation of competed work is required before grants can be paid, Ginter said, displaying photographs and receipts submitted by the granat recipients.

With more than 460 cemeteries scattered about the county, the limited funds available to the cemetery board can only begin to scratch the surface of cemetery restoration needs, Tudor said.

Other members include Pat Ballard, Gene Barnes and Bill Palahunich.

For information about applying for cemetery restoration/maintenance funds, call Ginter at 624-4700.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 623-1669, Ext. 267.