Labor of love will help locate grave sites at local cemetery

The phenomenal task was instigated well over a decade ago when Liz and Dick Forsythe, both local paper mill retirees, visited Forest Hill Cemetery in International Falls to place flowers on the grave of a family member’s companion.

When locating the burial site proved difficult, the Forsythes were determined that the cemetery’s grave records, found in the sexton’s office in a small building on site, could be improved from the antiquated and handwritten indexed card system utilized. This had been the only guidance for grave-siting at the cemetery on Memorial Drive.

So in 1999, the couple sporadically began the laborious task of typing the information from each of the index cards into spread sheets of the Excel computer program, painstakingly building the records for a website which is now up and running at www.foresthillcemeteryifalls.com before Memorial Day this year.

Available resources in addition to the index cards were the cemetery office’s historical sexton records which began Jan. 16, 1908, and increasingly deteriorating grid maps of the graves, Liz Forsythe said. Some of these maps are relics which are “literally falling apart,” she told The Journal.

“Sexton” is an old English term for the cemetery attendant (originally at churches of yore) who is the caretaker for burial grounds. Currently serving in that role at Forest Hill is sexton Roger Lehman, who has been helpful, Forsythe noted.

Sexton ledgers of the olden days contained more detailed notes about the demise of the buried, listing “suicide,” “alcoholism,” “consumption” (tuberculosis) or “killed in a bar fight” and other personal notations. Those kinds of records have long-since ceased, prohibited because of privacy rights.

A few years ago, a box of crumbling ledgers such as these were instrumental in identifying many of the people who were surprisingly discovered to be buried in a field of unmarked graves. Block A which contains the remains of dozens of unfortunate settlers from the early 20th Century, is now memorialized by Joe Rahm’s eloquent monument in St. Thomas Cemetery.

The Forsythe’s endeavor went way beyond typing thousands of names into a system. Updating with accuracy is a primary concern, Forsythe said. Countless hours of intense work over the last decade involved a cross-referencing of records as well as comparisons with some of the actual stone markers which dot the landscape at Forest Hill.

Confusion, conundrums and complications often slowed the process. Forsythe said that sometimes two, perhaps three ways of spelling the same name were encountered. This can significantly hinder “those searching for a grave,” she remarked. Also revealed was data which didn’t match the literal carvings on grave stones. And some of the index cards have just been lost, or misfiled.

“I’m trying to be as precise as I can be, probably pickier than I need to be,” Forsythe said, noting that she has even used high school year books and other resources to make determinations.

She notes that Green-Larsen Mortuary has kept records since it was formed in 1968; and there has been access to the old death ledgers of the now-defunct Cudmore Funeral Home as well as to historical records of the local pioneering Green family, which generationally operated Green’s Mortuary in a building which still stands on Third Street (Lyndon Larsen’s law office).

There are actually four separately identified sections within the cemetery at large. They are known as the American Legion, Forest Hill, St. Thomas, and VFW cemeteries. All have a gridded structure of blocks, each marked with a letter or a numeral. Every individual plot within each block has an assigned number.

Entering a name in the search field on the new website provides a grave “address” based on that grid. A website overview of all four sections is illustrated on a colorized map. “It’s confusing because many of the plot numbers are the same, but are in different blocks,” Forsythe said.

The somber project has imparted times of sadness and depression in the journey along the way. Certain discoveries in vintage records unexpectedly kindled introspection, Forsythe said. For instance, reading that members of a family were all buried on the same day; or an infant and then its parents were interred in the same time period sent their minds wandering into the perceived agonies for families of days gone by.

Forsythe said she ultimately began allotting one-hour intervals for the project, to prevent excessive saturations of personal time. The couple travels a lot, she said.

But the Forsythes have also taken on the task of computerizing the names of the newly buried, an ongoing maintenance necessary to update the website in the future. As new burials continue to be recorded on index cards at the sexton’s office, the Forsythes goal is to keep them regularly translated (about every two weeks) into Excel. Periodically updating the website costs money. “I’m not sure exactly how the updating (fees) will be handled,” Forsythe said, noting that while the initial design costs have been generously sponsored, no ongoing plan exists to fund new additions.

Forsythe also hopes to eventually post website records for cemetery plots which have been purchased by the living but are yet unused; as well as the plots which are available for purchasing.

The cost of a computerized program which automatically pin-points a grave’s location on an overall grid has also been reviewed. One cost estimate of about $35,000 is prohibitive currently, but Forsythe said she hopes that a grant or a benefactor could make it possible eventually. “Forest Hill really needs it,” she said, adding that the project was a labor of love.

“People deserve respect while they live,” she said, “and certainly after they’re gone.”

Cemetery operation

Forest Hill Cemetery is managed by a board which consists of the following people: Kris Johnson, Steve Olson, Joe Prettyman, Paul Radford, Becky Roeder and Jim Stavseth.

Johnson told The Journal that the cemetery is allotted $533 per month by the city of International Falls. That amount plus the sale of plots and burial fees goes toward cemetery equipment and maintenance which includes Lehman’s services. Those services encompass grave digging and upgrades, burials, mowing and pruning as well as office work and assistance to those who visit the cemetery.

Lehman also has the task of removing the thousands of unretrieved memorial items that accumulate on graves across the grounds. Johnson said she encourages a minimal grave decorum which presents an integrity of appearance, such as that sustained in the St. Thomas section, for the overall cemetery. Minimally adorned graves allow the name of a loved one to be the most prominent, Rahm told The Journal in a previous interview.

Johnson said there are original bylaws established for the structure of board and the cemetery, which are casually followed. She said the “dos and don’ts” of the cemetery which are posted at the office, as well as financial decisions, are decided by the board. She commented that the cemetery’s bricked entry columns were recently restored, and repairs and the straightening of particularly older stones are ongoing.

Questions should be addressed to Lehman on site, Johnson said, or board members during the evening hours. The new website should also help the public significantly, thanks to the unnamed donor and the work of the Forsythes.

“They’re so awesome, to volunteer their time, forever,” Johnson said of the couple. “And they aren’t looking for a pat on the back; it’s just something they feel should be done.”