Standing among weathered gray stones and freshly cut grass, it can be difficult to fathom the decades of choked-backed tears and carefully placed flowers once present in some of the quietest parts of Western Pennsylvania.

The region is home to dozens of cemeteries that date to the 18th and 19th centuries. Most of the people buried there are long forgotten, and perhaps these cemeteries would be, too, if it weren’t for the few people who maintain them.

“It has to be done,” said Larry Boehm, who has served as the primary caretaker of Leechburg Cemetery since 2010. “It’s partly town pride and partly personal pride, but someone has to do it.”

Leechburg Cemetery was founded in 1864, “just in time” to start receiving people who died in the Civil War, Boehm said. It has a Civil War memorial and is the final resting place of two Confederate soldiers.

Like many other caretakers, Boehm is a volunteer. Most caretakers of these old, smaller cemeteries are locals who dedicate hours of their time for personal or communal reasons.

Sharon Hepler sees her volunteer work at Hoffman Cemetery as a way to carry on her husband Jack’s legacy.

Jack Hepler was one of the founders of the Hoffman Cemetery Association, created in 1968 to maintain the South Huntington Township burial ground. He served as the president of the association for 25 years before his death in 2020.

“This was his pet project. He liked this old cemetery,” said Hepler, who is the secretary and treasurer of the association. “We try to keep it up. We try to keep everything going.”

Veterans dating to the Revolutionary War are buried at Hoffman Cemetery. Townspeople in 1794 founded the burial site, along with the “Old Brick” church that now hosts one service each year.

Nearly a decade earlier, Fells Cemetery was established in Fellsburg. Graves there include veterans from the Revolutionary War onward.

Primary caretaker Harry Beck said the cemetery has gained global interest for its historical significance. A French researcher recently visited the cemetery and neighboring historical society, which is in the former Fells Church building, to research Marquis de Lafayette’s 1825 trip to Fellsburg.

Beck, who has maintained Fells Cemetery for 40 years, said the cemetery “hasn’t changed much” during his tenure. He once mowed and trimmed the grass and laid out the graves himself, but now some “good guys” volunteer to help out.

“I just want to see it kept up,” Beck said.

The founders of each of the communities are interred at their namesake cemeteries: Fells are buried in Fells, Hoffmans in Hoffman and Leeches in Leechburg. Some stones have aged well, while others are barely legible.

Leechburg Cemetery has the disadvantage of being established on a steep hillside. Boehm said the cemetery initially was located where 2nd Street and Siberian Avenue intersect, but it was moved in the 1860s as Leechburg expanded.

That hill means tombstones don’t always stay where they belong.

“We’ve learned over the years that if we can’t find a headstone and we know where it should be, just to walk a straight line and follow the slope,” Boehm said. “We almost always recover it.”

Burials are still being held in Hoffman and Fells cemeteries. The last person buried in Leechburg Cemetery died in 1993.

Now, Leechburg Cemetery must wait 50 years from that date to be eligible to apply for any historical grant money.

Without donations and volunteers, many of these old cemeteries would become overgrown and neglected. Money they receive is often used to buy equipment, pay workers or repair headstones.

Years ago, Hoffman Cemetery had some extra funds that the association used to improve some of the headstones. The cemetery doesn’t have that money now.

“The cost of it, you just can’t do it all,” Hepler said.

She expressed concerns that as time marches on, fewer people will want to help.

“Nobody wants to do too much anymore in old cemeteries,” Hepler said. “The younger generation doesn’t seem like they care as much.”

Boehm said the lack of volunteers and funds at Leechburg Cemetery is a “century-old problem.”

When he offered to help tend the cemetery 12 years ago, there were 14 other volunteers. Now Boehm is the only one left.

“This is nothing new we’re struggling with,” he said. “It’s thankless in a sense because the community doesn’t get a return on it.

“It’s tough, but it’s rewarding.”

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