GOOD WORKS ENCORE
A Grave Issue
Volunteers working to save headstones in Mountain Home Cemetery
Brian Powers
BY CHRIS KILLIAN
A
recently organized effort to clean headstones and obelisks marking the graves of some of Kalamazoo’s most well-known departed residents is helping to save local history. Whereas gravesites used to be on church properties or a family’s land, a movement in the 1830s sought to create cemeteries that were more open and park-like, where families of the departed could enjoy an afternoon picnic while remembering their loved ones. Such was the case for the historic Mountain Home Cemetery, off West Main Street in Kalamazoo. In the older sections of the graveyard 16 | ENCORE OCTOBER 2019
there are tall obelisks and elaborate headstones clutching the hillsides, some containing the surnames of some of the city’s most well-known residents: Ranney, Ransom, Patterson, Upjohn, Gilmore. But there are also headstones in various states of disrepair. Some are knocked over, others are cracked or crumbling, and still others are worn and weathered, the names and dates eroded over the years by wind and water so that some are barely legible. It just so happened that earlier this year the Kalamazoo Historic Preservation Commission was looking for an activity that could