Adopt a Cemetery
YOUR INDIVIDUAL, CHURCH, CORPORATE, YOUTH GROUP, OR CIVIC ORGANIZATION'S
HELP IS BADLY NEEDED
How you can help with
hands-on cemetery preservation
Talking about or having an interest in cemetery preservation is great. The more people who are aware of the problems and concerned with them, the better. However, the weeds keep growing while we talk!
We'll do it next (whenever) shows good intentions, but the weeds keep growing.
It's (fill in the blank)'s responsibility to care for the cemetery is true in many cases. However, for whatever reason, the people who should be caring for the cemeteries haven't. We can't help that, and if these people are comfortable in shirking their responsibility it's their choice. Still, the "it's their responsibility" attitude doesn't solve the problem. The weeds keep on growing!
Cemetery preservation is a hands-on activity. The people buried in endangered cemeteries can't help themselves, and meanwhile Titus County is losing more of its historical heritage each day the cemeteries are neglected. Roll up your sleeves and join us!
Titus Cemetery Search has no financial or other personal or family interest in the endangered cemeteries, other than simply seeing to it that they are restored to the dignified resting places for Titus County pioneers that they should be. Families of most of the people who are associated with this website are buried in well-maintained cemeteries. One does not have any relatives buried in Titus County. We would simply like to see the endangered cemeteries preserved and taken care of.
You can adopt and help preserve a needy cemetery with just a few hours of time.
Several small Titus County cemeteries are in dire need of care and maintenance to keep them from being over-grown and permanently lost. Some are the final resting place of Titus County's founding families. They do not have a cemetery board, perpetual care association, city or county upkeep, or any other method to maintain them.
All need cleaning, some need trees removed, some need fencing, and some need markers uprighted and repaired. Some would require only a few hours to restore to good condition, others will require considerable time and effort and will require the use of some motorized equipment (tractors, boom trucks, etc.).
We would like to form an organized effort to encourage local government authorities and some landowners to help clean these cemeteries.
We are looking for individuals, businesses, churches, civic organizations, and organized associations from other cemeteries who can provide labor, funding, and materials to restore and preserve these small cemeteries.
You individually, or your corporation, church, youth group, or civic organization can perform a valuable and rewarding community service by adopting and helping save one of these cemeteries, and can help keep them from continued decay with only a few hours of work per year.
Please e-mail us or contact the Titus County Historical Commission if you would like to adopt a cemetery and provide for all or a part of its upkeep, or if you are willing to work as part of a team with others.
Please provide the following information in your e-mail:
Your name and your company's or group's name (if applicable)
If you are not an individual, about how many people are in your group
Your telephone number and the best time for us to call
Are you interested in working on a particular cemetery, or just any that need help
What you can provide (labor, materials, funds, specialized equipment or
skills, or other)
When you are available to work
Someone will contact you about our new program and how you can help. We are building a list of interested individuals and organizations who are willing to contribute their time, materials, or money to try to start a coordinated effort to restore these neglected Titus County cemeteries to the dignified final resting places for our forefathers that they should be.
Actual work will begin on a particular cemetery when we are able to obtain sufficient people, materials, and equipment needed to attend to its most immediate needs, with the primary goal to prevent the cemetery from being further damaged or destroyed.
Work will be prioritized as follows, and all things may not be done to a single cemetery at one time:
1. Prevent immediate damage to the entire cemetery (as from cattle or falling
trees that are now destroying monuments or are about to do so)
2. Prevent slower, but long-run damage (remove small trees growing in the
wrong places)
3. Clean the cemetery (remove trash, weeds, vines, mow, weed-eat, etc.)
4. Monuments will be straightened or repaired only if funds and people are
available after items 1-3 are done to all cemeteries in danger.
If you cannot contribute labor, but are willing to contribute equipment, materials, or funds to be used, please contact us and we will add your name to our list. No funds or materials will be accepted until work is started, but we are trying to build a list of those we can depend on for support in order to coordinate the projects.
Once we are able to build a list of persons, organizations, and materials in sufficient quantites to be able to accomplish the task, we will secure the landowner's permission and determine a convenient work day for the most volunteers to coordinate their efforts to try to repair and save each cemetery.
Once the work is done, we will publish an article about each cemetery restoration with "before and after photos" on our website and will credit each person or group contributing to the project for their efforts.
Please click a link below to look at Titus County's distressed cemeteries to see if you or your civic group, company, or corporation can lend a hand to help prevent them from being further damaged or becoming totally lost.
