LAYTON TOWNSHIP CEMETERY WORK
BY JIM HANSEN
This summer Karen and I have worked on over 135 tombstones at the Layton Township Cemetery at Walnut. We have been removing old, tipped and deteriorated bases, straightening stones, epoxying broken pieces together, caulking and cleaning. Lillee Anderson has volunteered many hours and we also had some assistance from Ann and Erin Carroll.
The oldest monument that we have seen is that of William M. Dighton, who died on April 28, 1874. He is mentioned in the article on Walnut’s early history in this ACR as being one of the three first farmers where Walnut is located.
Working on the stones makes us curious as to the stories of those buried there, so we research. It is challenging to identify those with unreadable stones. One stone had been broken and put together with a metal frame. The date of death was Apr. 1876 and the person was 26 years 8 months and 1 day old. The grave is on the plot bought by John Naugle. We have determined that the unknown burial was Adelbert Naugle, brother of John Naugle and of Sarah Linfor, who is buried on the next plot.
We uncovered a gravestone that was broken and buried; it is now repaired and reset.
Many obituaries say that the departed are buried at the Walnut Cemetery, but they do not have markers. We are trying to find where they are buried and get them added to findagrave and to our database.
JH