Recent News
Compatriot Cleans Ancestor’s Headstone
August 12, 2024
From Compatriot Jodie Megile, Member of Harris Ferry Chapter, SAR:
For July 4th this year, I volunteered one of my daughters to help me repair and clean Captain Roger Stayner’s (my 5th great-grandfather) headstone.
I’m excited to share the attached photos because our restoration turned out great. The headstone had been laying on top of the base for many years. The original dowels between the headstone and base were snapped. While I had replacement dowels, the old ones were stuck, and I didn’t have the tools to extract them. I drilled new holes, added the dowels, and we cleaned everything as much as possible. We used D/2 Biological Solution, and it really did wonders. I was able to revisit a week later for a photo, and it probably looks even better now.
Before
After
The headstone is located at the McKee Graveyard in Spruce Hill Township, Juniata County. There is a George McCulloch SAR headstone next to Roger’s, and it’s likely that a few other patriots are buried there as well. This area is now a yard, and luckily for us, the homeowner was there and gave us permission to clean it. We didn’t talk much, and I’m sure he was confused as to why someone randomly showed up to fix this after it had been broken for so many years.