Years of preservation of Old Stone Church retold
8:56 a.m. Thursday, February 23, 2006
Maple Hill is home to the Old Stone Church.
A local landmark, the 1882 limestone church held regular sservices from that time until 1905, when a new church in town was dedicated. Since 1905 only weddings and Memorial Day services are held at Old Stone Church.
What helps to make the church unique is its location. It is surrounded on three sides by a cemetary.
In 1952 tragedy struck Old Stone. Gary Clark is the Cemetary Superintendent.
"They were burning some brush just south of here and a spark got on the roof and completely gutted the church," Clark said.
Locals rallied, did some fundraising and the church was repaired.
Then in 1991 another tragedy.
"We had a major tornado come through," he said. "It just pretty much destroyed the church as far as, you know practical use - took off the entire roof and tore down the south side of the building."
Again locals came together to save the church. Limestone from the church was re-used and more stone came from local farms and old buildings.
And through all these years there's been no electricity, not even a spark.
"After the tornado they discussed having electricity installed," Clark said. "I guess it was decided to keep it rustic the way it was originally."
In the surrounding cemetary the first pastor of Old Stone is buried, the Reverend W.S. Crouch. He led service there for 30 years.
War hero James Elmer Romick whom Clark says is the first local to died in World War I. American Legion Post 130 is named after him.
And then there is the gravestone of Sarah Oliver, who is believed to have died in January 1923. Clark doesn't know much about the woman buried here, but the printing on her cement stone is backward.
"I assume the person who made it made the form and set up the lettering for the tombstones and poured it, and then low and behold when they pulled it off the form they realized that it was the mirror image instead of what they intended it to be," he said.
As a Cemetary Superintendent, Clark does the caretaking of the cemetary and church, oversees the digging of graves, and sells plots.
He finds it rewarding meeting people and providing a service. Taking care of cemetery business is an interessting job, he said.
"Walking around as I go through the cemetary and do various things looking at the people's tombstones ... recollecting a lot that I knew and a lot that I didn't that were here long before I was, just thinking about what things must have been like for them," Clark said.
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