Uncovering And Restoring The Past
by Bea Peterson
More than a year ago Joe Ferrannini decided on a career change. “I was still young enough to have a new career,” he said, “and I find this work much more gratifying.” Ferrannini cleans and restores old cemetery markers. His business is called Gravestone Matters. Though he’s new to the job as a professional, he has restored gravestones in abandoned cemeteries as an amateur for several years. Ferrannini is into genealogy. “In 2003 I found my old family cemetery,” he said. “I’m not a person to just complain about something and not do something about it.” He began taking classes on stone restoration so he could restore his family cemetery. Since then he has shared his knowledge with historical societies and other groups and trained volunteers in proper stone cleaning techniques. He annually does a program for the Grafton Historical Society. On Wednesday evenings this summer he worked with Peg Bakaitis and other volunteers at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Hoosick Falls.
The Cemetery Association has also hired him to repair some of the larger monuments so the pieces don’t
fall off and injure someone. Ferrannini has made a big investment in equipment, including a rig that can lift a stone up to 4,000 pounds. With the right equipment, he said, he doesn’t have to worry about endangering himself or the stone while he is doing the repairs. “Much of the old marble is so fragile, it requires special care,” he said. “All the stones have been affected by acid rain and biological growth.” He recently completed restoration and repairs on several gravestones at St. Agnes Cemetery in Menands.
Stones Uncovered
Peg Bakaitis, who is in charge of St. Mary’s Cemetery, is one of Ferrannini’s trained volunteers. On these beautiful warm late fall days she has continued the work on the gravestones. Her latest project is uncovering slim old markers that have
fallen flat on the ground. Over the years these fallen markers have sunk further into the earth and become unnoticeable, completely covered with soil and grass. Last week she uncovered the Cumber family stones. Two were government markers with flags on them for Civil War veterans Timothy Cumber of Company C, 142nd Illinois Volunteers, who died when he was 47 years old, and John Cumber, with Company B, 21st New York Cavalry. He died on July 5, 1869 at age 22. In between the two military stones was a plain one for Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Cumber. Later in the day Peg uncovered the marker of a Spanish-American war veteran. She’s a woman on a mission as she expects to uncover many more markers in the same row where these were discovered.
They will probably all be left in the ground and covered over with protective material for the winter.
Restoration of gravestones is costly. Peg is in search of grants to help improve and beautify the old portion of the cemetery. Contributions by St. Mary’s church members, or anyone in the community, toward the work would be appreciated, she said.
