Crystal Lake historians publish their first-ever book to raise funds for restoring century-old headstones in local cemetery

The first veteran to be buried in the Crystal Lake cemetery, the oldest public cemetery in the city, was Newman Crabtree in 1843.

Now, over 150 years later, many of the older tombstones for local veterans, including Newman’s are in bad shape, some broken, fallen or unstable, Crystal Lake historians said.

Community members, including members of the Crystal Lake Historic Preservation Commission and the Crystal Lake Historical Society, are working to restore and repair some of the century-old headstones for veterans buried there.

To do so, the historic commission published its first-ever book in early December, “Remembering Those Who Served,” which documents all 54 veterans buried at the cemetery, beginning with Crabtree and Benajah Beardsley, who was born in July 1776, just 16 days after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

“This was a huge accomplishment,” commission member Lisa Solak said. “It was hard work. But the cemetery needed some love. You could tell. When we first started coming in [to the cemetery], it was a little overrun and the stones weren’t in great shape. Now there’s some bright, shiny stones in front of the flagpole.”

The restoration efforts were spearheaded by Mitchell Hopkins, a 2022 Prairie Ridge High School graduate who decided to help clean up the headstones for his Eagle Scouts project in 2020.

Hopkins said he got the idea when his Boy Scout troop would go and plant flags at cemeteries, including in Crystal Lake, for Memorial Day.

“It always got increasingly difficult to read the headstones,” Hopkins said. “Some were dirty. Some weren’t labelled. I looked up to see if there was a way to clean them, and I just fell in love with the process. It brought out the best in me.”

Hopkins reached out to Diana Kenney, historic preservation commission member and president of the Crystal Lake Historical Society, in 2020 to help guide him through the process of leading volunteers to clean several veterans’ headstones at the cemetery, which is owned and maintained by Algonquin Township.

“Mitchell was trying to find out how many veterans were buried there,” Kenney said. “And then we realized we didn’t have a fix on how many veterans there were, who they were, so we started doing research. We thought, gosh, it’d be nice if we knew something about the people whose headstones they are cleaning.”

After looking into the cleaning process for headstones and the possibility of hiring professionals, the historic preservation commission members decided that, with training, they could do the initial work themselves, Solak said.

Kenney praised Hopkins for his work ethic and interest in the history, saying the headstone cleaning was a “nerdy job” that takes “elbow grease.”

Hopkins said he uses D-2 biological solution to spray the headstones, which are mostly marble. The solution moves through the porous stone and eats away at dirt or any biological growth, without destroying the stone in the process, Hopkins said.

“I just find it so satisfying and rewarding [to clean the headstones],” Hopkins said. “You get to see near instantaneous results. These stones have been sitting there for 100 years or so, so they’re going to get pretty dirty from everything. But one week you can a dark brown headstone into a light gray headstone. You can come back a week later to do the same thing, and it will be shining bright white the next time you visit.”

Hopkins said he was surprised by how old some of the headstones were; several veterans buried in the cemetery fought in the War of 1812.

Currently some of the headstones in the worst shape include those for Myron Smith, who died in 1863 and whose tall obelisk has separated from the base and fallen to the ground, and the headstone of Gustavus “Colonel” Palmer, whose unusual house-shaped headstone currently lies broken in several pieces, Kenney said.

Palmer’s residence, built in 1858, serves as the Crystal Lake Historical Society’s headquarters.

It is these damaged headstones that could end up costing thousands of dollars to restore, Kenney said. Solak said that some also constitute a safety concern for cemetery visitors.

“You can’t just slap on stuff and stick the pieces back together,” Kenney said, adding that the historic preservation commission will have to see how much money they raise from the book before moving forward with a contractor.

Despite the cost, preserving the cemetery is important to keeping alive the memory of those who served and passed on, Hopkins said.

“They paved the way for us, so it’s important we celebrate them and take care of where they rest,” Hopkins said. “It’s the least we can do.”

Researching who some of the earliest veterans buried at the cemetery were was a tough process at times, Kenney said, as there was no newspaper in Crystal Lake until around the 1870s, meaning no obituaries.

However, the research team did uncover some fascinating stories, including that of Civil War soldier David Butler, who was wrongly classified by some sources as a deserter, but in truth was injured and captured, Solak said.

Kenney called it a “fun process” and a rewarding experience to put the book together; while this is the first book published by the Crystal Lake Historic Preservation Commission, the historical society has published a few books over the past 10 to 15 years, including a postcard history of Crystal Lake that Kenney compiled in 2009.

“The commissioners did a great job,” Kenney said. “But I pretty much devoted my whole summer to this project, between working on the stones to writing and editing the stories we found. So the publication is a big relief.”

Although the historical society does have funds to potentially jumpstart the more expensive repair process, major cleaning efforts won’t take place until next spring at the earliest, due to weather and the effect on the D-2, Kenney said.

So far, 100 copies of the book have been printed. The books can be purchased for $15 at Crystal Lake City Hall, Carriage House Antiques, the historical society headquarters at the Palmer House and Heisler’s Bootery.

Proceeds for the book will go towards the historical society’s “Save Our Stones” fund, set up for this project; currently the historic preservation commission has a few hundred dollars set aside for stone cleaning supplies, Kenney said.

Those interested in learning more about the book can contact the historical society at cl-hs.org or the historic preservation commission and city staff representative Elizabeth Maxwell at emaxwell@crystallake.org.