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From the Oakland Tribune online
16 May 2004
Oakland docent is giving section a face-lift while learning about
veterans from 1861-65
By Laura Casey, STAFF WRITER
OAKLAND -- During the past several years, the Mountain View Cemetery
plot for Civil War veterans was looking grim.
Grim even for a cemetery.
Some of the more than 200 grave markers honoring colonels, generals
and other fighters in America's war between the Union and
Confederate armies had sunken into the grass over time. Others were
broken in half.
Its sorry state made Mountain View Cemetery docent and history buff
Dennis Evanosky heartbroken, and he decided to push the cemetery
into giving the plot a face-lift.
"It is important to me because these guys served our country," said
Evanosky, a veteran who leads historical tours around the cemetery.
His next tour will be held Memorial Day, May 31, and focuses mostly
on the Civil War plot.
He started leading Mountain View tours about seven years ago, and
two years into his tenure he started feeling guilty walking by the
Civil War plot and knowing nothing about it.
He did a little research and found the Grand Army of the Republic
established the plot in the mid-19th century to bury veterans and
their families.
By the late 1800s, a group of men placed the rounds of cannon shot
along the outer edges of the plot and howitzer cannons here and
there.
Evanosky worked with friends to find all the headstones sunken into
the ground, using a tool made of welded rebar sharpened at one end.
Monument worker Denny Peirpont and his partner, Edwin Martinez, used
a back hoe to pull the stones out of the ground. They washed the
intact ones off, and Evanosky ordered replacements for the broken
ones, compliments of the United States government. His enthusiasm
for the project pushed Peirpont and Martinez to work harder to make
the plot look better.
"As we were pressure washing the stone we could read the names and I
said, 'Oh man, this is really interesting,'" Peirpont said. "I am
almost tempted to start studying up on it myself."
There were setbacks in the remodel. First, many of the stones were
not in the right place. Some had been moved over time, or placed in
the wrong plot to begin with. Evanosky used a plot map to guarantee
the right placement of the headstones.
Also, chips of many of the broken stones were strewn all over the
plot. Evanosky had to match the chips with partial names to figure
out which ones to replace.
He also had to prove to the U.S. Government that the men in the plot
were Civil War veterans, usually an easy task if the name is right.
However, there are a couple stones in the plot that do not match
records of Civil War veterans.
One in particular, Evanosky said, looked like it had been moved from
one part of the cemetery to the Civil War section even though the
deceased man was probably not a veteran.
Evanosky found some pleasant surprises along the way. For example,
writer Jack London's stepfather John London is buried in the plot,
his marker entirely underground.
There are no Confederate soldiers buried in the Civil War plot.
Evanosky knows of one Confederate soldier buried at the cemetery,
Henry Davidson. His grave was unmarked until 1991.
While there are other Civil War veterans buried in Mountain View
Cemetery but not at the designated site because of overcrowding,
most lie in the overgrown section.
Obedia Summer was a slave under command of his slave master fighting
for the Confederate Army when he was captured. The Union Army gave
him a choice -- fight with the Union Army or go back to the South
as "contraband." Summer chose to fight with the 18th United States
Colored Troops and served in the Battle of Nashville.
He later moved to Oakland where he built the Old Bethel Church on
15th Street. He died a reverend, the first African-American chaplain
of the state legislature, and homeowner in West Oakland.
Evanosky has made arrangements with Summer's great-granddaughter,
Myrna Adams, to have his body moved from the unendowed plot to an
empty space in the Civil War section. It should be done in the next
few months.
Mountain View Cemetery will be hosting its annual Memorial Day event
May 31 at 10 a.m. Evanosky will lead a tour of the cemetery
following the service.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This shows the value of research combined with elbow grease.
16 May 2004
Oakland docent is giving section a face-lift while learning about
veterans from 1861-65
By Laura Casey, STAFF WRITER
OAKLAND -- During the past several years, the Mountain View Cemetery
plot for Civil War veterans was looking grim.
Grim even for a cemetery.
Some of the more than 200 grave markers honoring colonels, generals
and other fighters in America's war between the Union and
Confederate armies had sunken into the grass over time. Others were
broken in half.
Its sorry state made Mountain View Cemetery docent and history buff
Dennis Evanosky heartbroken, and he decided to push the cemetery
into giving the plot a face-lift.
"It is important to me because these guys served our country," said
Evanosky, a veteran who leads historical tours around the cemetery.
His next tour will be held Memorial Day, May 31, and focuses mostly
on the Civil War plot.
He started leading Mountain View tours about seven years ago, and
two years into his tenure he started feeling guilty walking by the
Civil War plot and knowing nothing about it.
He did a little research and found the Grand Army of the Republic
established the plot in the mid-19th century to bury veterans and
their families.
By the late 1800s, a group of men placed the rounds of cannon shot
along the outer edges of the plot and howitzer cannons here and
there.
Evanosky worked with friends to find all the headstones sunken into
the ground, using a tool made of welded rebar sharpened at one end.
Monument worker Denny Peirpont and his partner, Edwin Martinez, used
a back hoe to pull the stones out of the ground. They washed the
intact ones off, and Evanosky ordered replacements for the broken
ones, compliments of the United States government. His enthusiasm
for the project pushed Peirpont and Martinez to work harder to make
the plot look better.
"As we were pressure washing the stone we could read the names and I
said, 'Oh man, this is really interesting,'" Peirpont said. "I am
almost tempted to start studying up on it myself."
There were setbacks in the remodel. First, many of the stones were
not in the right place. Some had been moved over time, or placed in
the wrong plot to begin with. Evanosky used a plot map to guarantee
the right placement of the headstones.
Also, chips of many of the broken stones were strewn all over the
plot. Evanosky had to match the chips with partial names to figure
out which ones to replace.
He also had to prove to the U.S. Government that the men in the plot
were Civil War veterans, usually an easy task if the name is right.
However, there are a couple stones in the plot that do not match
records of Civil War veterans.
One in particular, Evanosky said, looked like it had been moved from
one part of the cemetery to the Civil War section even though the
deceased man was probably not a veteran.
Evanosky found some pleasant surprises along the way. For example,
writer Jack London's stepfather John London is buried in the plot,
his marker entirely underground.
There are no Confederate soldiers buried in the Civil War plot.
Evanosky knows of one Confederate soldier buried at the cemetery,
Henry Davidson. His grave was unmarked until 1991.
While there are other Civil War veterans buried in Mountain View
Cemetery but not at the designated site because of overcrowding,
most lie in the overgrown section.
Obedia Summer was a slave under command of his slave master fighting
for the Confederate Army when he was captured. The Union Army gave
him a choice -- fight with the Union Army or go back to the South
as "contraband." Summer chose to fight with the 18th United States
Colored Troops and served in the Battle of Nashville.
He later moved to Oakland where he built the Old Bethel Church on
15th Street. He died a reverend, the first African-American chaplain
of the state legislature, and homeowner in West Oakland.
Evanosky has made arrangements with Summer's great-granddaughter,
Myrna Adams, to have his body moved from the unendowed plot to an
empty space in the Civil War section. It should be done in the next
few months.
Mountain View Cemetery will be hosting its annual Memorial Day event
May 31 at 10 a.m. Evanosky will lead a tour of the cemetery
following the service.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This shows the value of research combined with elbow grease.
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