September 13, 2013 Connie Schmidt and I decided to go out and find a cemetery to photograph. We decided to go find Hopewell and when we got there we were both so disappointed, the weeds were taller than I am (5ft. 10in.). Instead of tackling the job we started driving around trying to find out who is responsible for the care of the cemetery. No one seemed to know! We finally happened upon Wayne and Rita Bruffey and they had some information. It all led no where. Since the day was almost over we decided to go home and start early the next day.

September 14 we arrived at the cemetery and much to our surprise someone had ran a brush hog over the cemetery and some limbs and Yuccas had been trimmed down. Reta and Wayne Bruffey had come in and mowed and trimmed and they are not responsible for the cemetery, nor do they have anyone buried there. They felt the same as we did, the cemetery is a disgrace and it is not an abandoned cemetery.

Without the help from Wayne and Rita many of these stones would not be visible. Wayne used his chainsaw to trim down some trees and uncovered 3 stones buried beneath them. They trimmed out several Yuccas and guess what, more stones.

Connie and I spent 6 hours cleaning and in that period of time we had only cleaned up one and half rows. It took us five days to get it so we could clean and photograph the stones. I have posted some over all yard shots at the start of this to show you what kind of shape it was in and to show how much help Wayne and Rita were in getting this cleaned up.
Connie and I wish to THANK Reta and Wayne for all the unselfish help they provided.   THANK YOU!!