Pitcairn man performs restoration, replacement work on Civil War headstones

As Thomas Daugherty’s headstone is lifted out of the earth at the Cross Roads Cemetery in Monroeville, its size comes as a bit of a surprise.

While the visible portion is perhaps 2 feet high, the stone itself is at least another 3 feet in length underground. Daugherty was a member of Company G in the 136th Infantry of the Union Army and died in April 1894.

Ellis Michaels of Pitcairn, a member of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, is removing Daugherty’s weather-worn, barely legible headstone and will replace it with a new one secured through the VA. It is part of the society’s National Graves Registration Project, created to maintain a national database of Civil War burial sites, as well as maintaining the gravesites themselves.

Michaels, who works as a registered nurse at AHN’s Jefferson Hospital, also specializes in restoring damaged headstones using a variety of materials.

“Sometimes I can use stone epoxy, and there’s also something called Lithomex,” Michaels said. “It’s made in France, and it’s this special stone replacement material that can fill in cracks and harden.”

Michaels got involved with headstone restoration after taking part in a learning session hosted by Jonathan Appell, owner of Atlas Restoration in Connecticut.

“He does 48-state tours and puts on free demonstrations showing people the basics,” Michaels said.

Each situation is different — Michaels said sometimes he’s able to patch a few cracks and clean up a headstone fairly easily. Other times the stone is too damaged or illegible and needs to be replaced. Michaels has a tripod pulley system to lift the heavy stones out of the earth after digging around them.

“At the time when a lot of these old headstones were installed, they poured these concrete bases and, at the time, they were great. But the grave eventually starts to sink, and then when you try to fix it, the concrete breaks,” he said.

Time occasionally takes a heavy toll.

“One of the headstones I did here, for John F. Patterson, had fallen over, and it was in three different pieces that I had to dig out of the ground,” he said.

For replacement stones, Michaels uses 2A gravel that is much easier to work with but also sturdy enough to hold the heavy stones in place.

“It’ll harden almost to a concrete consistency,” he said. “But in 100 years when they need to relevel the headstone, it’ll break up and they can use it again.”

In addition to Monroeville, Michaels also has been working recently at cemeteries in Homestead and Richland. He worked with the Queen Alliquippa Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution on the replacement of headstones for veteran brothers James and Thomas Jordan of the Union’s 77th Regiment. They were grandsons of Revolutionary War veteran James Jordan who first arrived in the Monroeville area in 1811.

For people like Joe Ventresca, vice president at the Monroeville Historical Society, the work Michaels does is crucial. The society manages the Old Stone Church, while Cross Roads Presbyterian manages the adjacent cemetery.

“I just happened to meet him while he was here one day working,” Ventresca said. “It’s really a great honor to have him do this.”

For more about the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War or to register a headstone, visit SUVCW.org.