photo by: Eric Ayres

A stone wall in the historic Mount Wood Cemetery in Wheeling collapsed in January of this year as the result of erosion and the growth of tree roots. It was restored this month by crews from Precision Excavating Co. and Rantiff Services LLC.

WHEELING — The Ohio County Cemeteries Foundation will welcome volunteers on Sunday, April 27, for a spring cleanup at Mount Wood Cemetery in Wheeling.

The first cleanup and restoration effort of the year by the group will take place from 1-3 p.m. Sunday at the historic hilltop cemetery. Volunteers may come and go as their schedules permit. Training is not required, and no experience is necessary.

“It’s literally a spring cleanup,” said Jay Frey, president of the Ohio County Cemeteries Foundation. “We’ll be clearing away brush — we’re not restoring monuments. It’s more of a general cleaning. Many hands make light work.”

These ongoing efforts to help bring some much needed “TLC” to Mount Wood Cemetery began in 2013, Frey noted.

“At the time, it was the only cemetery that was being worked on by volunteers,” he said. “In 2016, we started to work out at Stone Church (Cemetery). We expanded the restoration of cemeteries to include more of the cemeteries in Ohio County that have no financial support through a board of directors or an association. We got our nonprofit designation last June 2024.”

Frey said there are more than 35 cemeteries in Ohio County that have no financial support. Mount Wood, Stone Church and Peninsula cemeteries belong to the city of Wheeling, and city crews cut the grass and remove trash at those properties.

However, Frey indicated that the city maintenance crews do not have the manpower or expertise needed to actually restore monuments

“That’s what we do,” he said. “They are responsible for the infrastructure, and we do the conservation and restoration work on monuments.”

Some local cemeteries have a built-in funding mechanism that helps pay for upkeep and restoration. Frey explained that places like Greenwood Cemetery have an endowment. When a plot is purchased, there is a charge in addition to the cost of the burial plot that goes into an endowment, and that money is used for trimming trees and keeping up with preventative maintenance that may not be possible at other old cemeteries.

“Trees do more damage than anything else,” Frey said. “When trees fall, they damage monuments significantly. It’s erosion, it’s drainage, it’s the freeze and thaw on tall monuments that have seams with mortar in between sections. If that mortar starts to fall away because of the freeze and thaw, it’s hard on them, and they can topple without any help.”

Of course, cemeteries are unfortunately often targets for vandalism. Mount Wood Cemetery in particular saw a lot of vandalism back in the 1970s, Frey said.

Most of the people who initially got involved in creating the Ohio County Cemeteries Foundation were members of the local preservation group Friends of Wheeling and had been active volunteers at the Mount Wood Cemetery work sessions dating back to 2013, Frey explained. Wheeling Heritage has also been involved with restoration efforts at the Mount Wood Cemetery.

Founded in 1849, Mount Wood Cemetery is the only cemetery in Wheeling that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Frey said a cemetery is considered to be historic not just because of its age or because of notable individuals who are laid to rest in them, but also about their aesthetic appeal. Mount Wood Cemetery checks all of those boxes.

“I was designed in the late 1840s in what the call a rural romantic style,” Frey explained, noting that the layout of the property is visually interesting with views of both the Ohio River and woods, offering an almost park-like atmosphere where people actually came to picnic in the cemetery a century or so ago. It was a time in the Industrial Revolution when ironworks, glassworks and heavy industry churned out pollutants that people did not like, so those who lived in the city would come up to Mount Wood to get fresh air and get back to nature, Frey said.

Last summer, some significant work was done by trained volunteers who cleaned, repaired and reset grave stones. Additionally, Rantiff Services LLC spent four days reassembling 11 of the largest, heaviest and most prominent monuments in the cemetery.

More recently, a stone wall along the cemetery’s main road had collapsed in January as a result of tree root growth and earthen erosion. That wall was restored earlier this month by Precision Excavating Co. and Rantiff Services.

Volunteers available to come out Sunday to help in the cleanup effort with the Ohio County Cemeteries Foundation are encouraged to wear sunscreen and a hat, protective shoes and work gloves. Volunteers are also encouraged to bring garden tools and a folding chair. Water will be provided.

“It’s going to be the perfect day – it will not be raining,” Frey said. “It will be 65 degrees and sunny. It’s actually very interesting to be in the cemetery because of the way it was designed, and there’s always a surprise. We have found stones by clearing away brush that haven’t seen the light of day in a long time.”

Frey said city crews have already been in the cemetery working, and after the cleanups, volunteers can always look back and realize the impact their efforts have made.

Additional spring cleanup days will be held on May 4 at Peninsula Cemetery and on May 18 at Stone Church Cemetery. Frey said the Ohio County Cemeteries Foundation was “well aware” of the tractor trailer accident this past week that damaged or displaced around 30 headstones at Stone Church Cemetery. They are monitoring the situation and are hopeful that the city is successful in seeking a liability insurance claim to pay for the repairs there.

For more information about the upcoming cleanup and other work by the Ohio County Cemeteries Foundation, visit the group’s official Facebook page for the latest updates.