EXCHANGE: Streator man continues his search for relative

OTTAWA, Ill. (AP) - After years of work, Naramor Cemetery looks more like a cemetery than cow pasture.

Before John Kettman, a La Salle artist, began restoring the resting place of his ancestor Laura Cowgill, the cemetery in between Streator and Kangley had become overgrown and taken a beating at the hooves of livestock.

“We’re going to go out there Monday, and we’re looking for more stones,” Kettman said on Feb. 18 during a presentation to the La Salle County Genealogical Guild. “When you unearth a gravestone it’s like being an archaeologist without the 12-year education. It’s like heaven.”

He said there is a downside to finding and fixing a grave marker.

“For each one of these I repair, I have to do paperwork,” Kettman said,

During the nearly two-hour presentation, Kettman shared many pictures from the cemetery’s Facebook page and shared general optimism for the project’s progress.

So far, 30 gravestones have been cleansed and repaired with epoxy, hundreds of grave sites have been found and Kettman estimated as many as 200 bodies are buried in the cemetery.

“Every single one of those stones, we take a phone, and we put it in the GPS, and we chart it,” Kettman said.

Of all the graves so far located and repaired, Kettman said Cowgill’s has yet to be discovered.

“We’ve got 100 people buried out there, but we haven’t found her,” he said.

During the presentation, Kettman said he uses homemade probes consisting of bike handlebar grips, a rod and a blunted screw to jab the earth in search of a telltale ringing sound that will reveal the location of gravestone.

He said he also uses copper witching rods, which he says will cross to reveal the gender of the centuries-old skeleton under the ground.

Kettman stumped for the general utility of the rods.

“If you’re missing your cellphone, which I have done, you can find it with these rods,” he said. “We don’t know how it works, but if I find stuff with it, I guess it works.”

Researchers from the University of Illinois have helped map the cemetery with ground-penetrating radar, and a geologist from Illinois Valley Community College helped identify the stone used to make grave markers.

Recently, Kettman worked with some descendants of the cemetery’s occupants to erect some birdhouses in the cemetery.

“I thought wouldn’t it be nice to bring some life back into the cemetery,” Kettman said.

And in the future, he said he’d like to paint a mural there.

“I think it will be like a sanctuary,” Kettman said.

But first, someone will have to take ownership of the cemetery, which Kettman said he is reluctant to do because of possible liability.

Restoration efforts are always in need of volunteers and donations, Kettman said.

“Everything that’s been donated has gone directly into it,” he said.

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Source: (LaSalle) News-Tribune, https://bit.ly/2kSE39w

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Information from: News-Tribune, https://www.newstrib.com