
*A small group came together on Halloween to restore gravestones at the oldest African American cemetery in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
The group refurbishes the headstones as a way of honoring the memories of the deceased.
Ed Hall, president of the Cedar Hill Cemetery, told local news affiliate ABC7, “I often come down here and just walk around, talk to different people that I’ve known in my life and they were very much a part of my life. I consider Cedar Hill my little park.”
Also working at Cedar Hill Saturday was Ed Wheeless, Chair of the Harpers Ferry Bolivar Historic Foundation.
“This is the headstone of… three sisters that lived in Harpers Ferry and Bolivar around the end of the 19th century,” he said as he kneeled in front of a modest stone, filling in a crack. Once it’s repaired, he said it will be cleaned, the whole process serving to “give it a new life.”
Watch video of the group’s restoration efforts below.
