Mary Jo Cox is pictured cleaning the headstone of Lois and Daniel Leininger at Leesburg Cemetery. Cox has cleaned hundreds of headstones at cemeteries around Kosciusko County, volunteering her time to restore them. Photo by Lilli Dwyer.

By Lilli Dwyer
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — In the milder months of the year, Mary Jo Cox can be seen in the cemeteries of Kosciusko County, gently but diligently scrubbing away at headstones.

Originally from Ohio, Cox moved to Warsaw with her husband, Mike, about 40 years ago. She retired from Zimmer at age 55.

History and genealogy had long been an interest of hers. She joined the Daughters of the American Revolution, with evidence of eight Revolutionary relatives she found by digging through archives as far away as West Virginia and Maryland.

In 2009, her chapter, Mary Penrose Wayne, embarked on a mission to photograph every headstone in Allen County – no small feat with 147 cemeteries across 20 townships. Altogether, it took about five years to gather 165,000 photos and 219,000 transcriptions.

During that time, Cox was offered the opportunity to take a class on headstone cleaning, sponsored by the Indiana Historical Society and taught by John “Walt” Walters, who is still repairing headstones today, including in the Leesburg Cemetery, Cox’s current project.

“As I worked on the (Allen County) project, I saw all the tombstones that you could barely read, that were not being taken care of with nobody to do it, that’s not a cemetery’s responsibility. That kind of triggered the whole thing,” Cox recalled.

As Cox noted, no one can walk in and clean a grave that doesn’t belong to their family without permission. Her volunteer efforts took off after her husband mentioned her new skill to former Plain Township Trustee Bruce Ferguson.

“He said, ‘would she like to come and work in one of my cemeteries?’ And my husband said, ‘well, it’s free, and she brings her own stuff.’”

“I was thrilled,” she said.

She started out in Stony Point Cemetery and since then, has cleaned “hundreds, maybe thousands” of graves in cemeteries from Oakwood to Oswego.

A sharp smell rises from the stones as she scrubs, but there are no chemicals involved. She works only with water and nylon brushes to avoid damaging the stone, and lichens release the piney scent when they get wet.

Cox’s services are most needed in older sections, where the limestone markers have fallen prey to the encroaching elements. Newer stones, she said, are often made of granite with a shiny finish that resists lichen.

She creates extensive spreadsheets keeping track off all the graves in each cemetery, and archives many of the graves on findagrave.com for family members to find.

Cox describes herself as a “fair weather cleaner,” working in the fall and spring.

“As soon as it starts to get hot, I quit … those markers absorb the heat, it’s so hot and then you’re standing right next to this little oven,” she chuckled.

After all, she doesn’t do it for money, but for the satisfaction it brings her.

“It’s very fulfilling because, one, I feel like I’m doing something that needs to be done,” she explained. “And secondly, after I’m done, it’s just the self-satisfaction of what you can make those markers look like, that were unreadable. that were covered in lichen or dirt … and if anybody’s every looking for you, they’re going to be able to find you, because now you can read it.”

Cox also became interested in epitaphs during the Allen County cemetery project and has compiled a book of them, “Tombstone Epitaphs from Allen County, Indiana,” available at the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center and the DAR archives in Washington, D.C.

The Mary Penrose Wayne chapter’s archive are available at sites.rootsweb.com/~inallcem/index.html.