By Shannon McFarlin WENK/WTPR News Director
Paris, Tenn.–For the Daughters of the American Revolution John Babb Chapter in Paris, a National Day of Service meant the arduous work of helping to restore the historic Paris City Cemetery.
Suzanne Richter explained that the local chapter designated its anniversary as its National Day of Service and decided its project would be to volunteer to help the Henry Co. Cemetery Committee clean tombstones at the city cemetery.
As we’ve reported previously, the county cemetery committee has been spearheading cleaning, marking and saving cemeteries in the county and have been restoring as much of the city cemetery as they can.
Committee members Susan Stewart and Marge Barrows have been working along with professional restorers Brent and Marty Brauer of Greenfield.
Richter noted that many of the stones at the city cemetery are broken or parts of them are embedded in the ground.
For the DAR’s National Day of Service, Stewart and Barrows selected the Dawson family plot at the city cemetery. The Dawson’s were an early family in Paris and one of the stained glass windows at the First Presbyterian Church is dedicated to Col. Dawson.
Richter said she and the other DAR members “had a good experience and now know how to clean and use the proper ingredients.”
Richter said the DAR and other local historical groups would love to have a regular date each month for volunteers from local churches or clubs to help with the cemetery restoration. Anyone interested can call the County Archives at the Henry County Archives office at 644-3638 or Stewart at 336-9764.
Photo by Marge Barrows.