What’s happening at Evergreen Cemetery in Owego?

Evergreen Cemetery is a lonely treasure on East Beecher Hill in the Northeast quadrant of the Village of Owego. The name, Evergreen, was a common reference to immortality and life in dark periods of the year. 

Evergreen Cemetery is an integral and essential component of living a full life as an Owegan. In addition to being a burial ground, Evergreen was designed as a park, a picnic area, an aerobic challenge, a place of peace and reflection. I hope to spend my eternity nestled in its bosom. 

There have been a number of requests for information and/or repair on Evergreen Cemetery. This note is an effort to provide some information about plans and hopes (short and long term) with the disclaimer that the recent rainstorms have placed an extraordinary burden on the village, town and county, and volunteer resources needed to accomplish repairs and maintenance in the Cemetery.

A common complaint relates to the obstructed view from the outlook at the SaSaNa monument. One only has to imagine a younger Department of Public Works (DPW) Supervisor, Jeff Soules, rappelling down the near-vertical slope to imagine the difficulty. 

A tribute to Jeff’s virility is his professed willingness to give it a try. Rappelling gear has improved in the past 12 years, but I think I heard Jeff’s bones creak a little bit as he rose from his chair. Jeff has accepted the challenge and we are happy to give him credit even if he tags out to a teammate. 

I have collected over 200 newspaper articles reporting on issues and events in the cemetery. Most common among them was discussion of an abrogated $325,000 grant to repair the stacked stonewalls that are an integral component of the whimsical created landscape and a key to the hillside drainage system.

When Jeff is not scaling steep slopes, he is exercising his logistical wizardry and has devised an economical plan to address the drainage (wall) problems on the mountain using available DPW contractors. 

Visitors to Evergreen are warned that the repair will require heavy equipment, installing culvert pipes under some roads, dismantling walls and storing the stone for later rebuilding, installing French drains at various wet places, and digging out and installing rip rap in the roadside culverts. This will require time and patience with the blocked roads. 

Serious repaving will need to wait for these major disruptions. Pothole repair will not stop. The severe rain has washed out some of the spring repairs and added time and cost to the problem. 

It is planned to repave all the roads and work on the side-hill erosion and fence on the entry road. It was also requested that we explore extending and paving parking areas throughout.

A falling tree damaged the roof and back wall of the Mortuary Chapel on East Street. Jeff is getting bids for a new roof and to repair the back wall of the Chapel. It was also requested that Jeff get estimates to convert the chapel for use as a columbarium (a building to house crypts for cremains). This is a change that would require public discussion and board approval. The Friends of Evergreen are raising money to repair and restore the beautiful stained-glass windows in the chapel.

The repair of roadside erosion and redoing ditches and drains will continue as part of the overall targeted repair list.

Jeff deserves special praise and thanks for saving the Village significant sums by continuing to mow the “cleared” area, of about four acres, for new burials. As background, the cemetery has no new plots for sale but a new burial area was cleared, higher up on Beecher Hill, with panoramic views. 

There are almost 10,000 treasured souls resting in Evergreen. All cemeteries depend on the sale of new burial plots to offset the cost of maintenance. Jeff has retained all the engineering studies and Emma Sedore has a lovely garden style plan for the layout in this new burial area. 

The cost is very high and plans will be made public some time in the future. While nobody wants to spend money in the short term, this sort of investment will eventually help defray the burden to the taxpayers.

Importantly, as a defense of the investment, the cemetery is an integral part of living in Owego. Writer and philosopher, Wallace Stegner (commenting on Wendell Berry’s philosophy), refers to the importance, especially for children, of investment in the land for a sense of place in modern society where so many people ignore their roots in the village or connection to past generations. 

The Friends of Evergreen have recently painted the floors in the Caretaker’s cottage and dressed up the windows. It too needs a new roof, as does the gazebo. Other repairs are planned here too. 

Special thanks need to go to Bob Bassett and teams from the Charles H Bassett Youth Foundation for their regular and tireless labor to improve our Cemetery. Members from the Rotary have been regular supporters, and along with volunteers from the Office of Aging and Tioga Opportunities, Inc. will be working on Sept. 15, and deserve all of our heartfelt thanks. Other groups, the Kiwanis, VFW and other Veterans organizations have also made substantial contributions.

Those of you looking for more information on the history of Evergreen Cemetery in Owego, or the Rural Cemetery movement in general are welcomed to visit one or all of the upcoming events: Village Historian, Michael Roberts, has been working hard on a rededication of the GAR section scheduled for Sept. 8; the Tioga County Historical Society’s “Walk Among the Dead” kicks off on Sept. 15; and A Peek inside the Evergreen Mortuary Chapel to see the 100-year-old stained-glass is scheduled for Oct. 7. 

The public is also invited to attend the Cemetery Committee meetings held in the DPW building on Elm Street. The next meeting is scheduled on Monday, Oct. 15.

You can immediately become involved if you have treasured relatives in Evergreen. Go visit them and tell us about the site. If there are problems, let us know. 

The headstones are the property of the plot owners and cannot be touched or repaired without your say so. Send me a picture, or a description of the problem and your contact information (email preferred) to Owego.Historian@gmail.com or send a note to Jeff Soules at DPW, 20 Elm St., Owego, N.Y. 13827.

It may be a lot to ask, but if you have more than one family member in Evergreen, please make sure to get permission from the surviving family members who can authorize action. If all is well, please also let us know and give us permission to fix problems in the future. 

Jeff and his crew of earthmovers and mountain climbers can fix subsidence and upright undamaged stones. We can help refer you to qualified headstone restorers if the monument is damaged. 

Let’s all work together in celebration of our people, past and present.