‘The Tidy Tombstones Man’ has a new goal in a uniquely historic Bensalem graveyard
Who isn’t familiar with this scene? Dearly departed are laid to rest in a park-like cemetery. The centuries unwind and those white tombstones become tarnished, cracked, and sometimes targeted by vandals.
“The Tidy Tombstones Man” aims to change that. This month, he’s all aglow applying his special skill in restoring a graveyard to its former alabaster grandeur at an historic Bensalem church. Jim Davis of the Glen Ashton section of Bensalem has been at his trade for years all over Bucks County, currently on a big project buffing up markers at the old St. Andrew’s Roman Catholic Church on Sycamore Street in Newtown. One of his great joys is rediscovering lost inspirational messages carved in the stones. When something memorable emerges, he’s apt to call pal Sally Sondesky of the Bensalem Historical Society. “Sally, you can’t believe what I just found!”
Until I met Jim, I had assumed fallen and cracked tombstones were the product of vandals. Not necessarily, says Jim. It’s the weather. Cyclical rain, ice and thawing can move headstones inch by inch until they topple over or crack in half from sheathing. He uses specialized adhesives that shed moisture to glue the stones back together. His work is astounding to behold. Eternal messages reappear. The markers take on the pearly white appearance of how they must have looked at funerals centuries ago.
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At Bensalem AME Church on Bridgewater Road, Jim is joined by 13-year-old apprentice John Catrombon of Boy Scout Troop 132. Both are restoring graves as a community service project. John is aiming for a scouting Merit Badge. Family adventure pal Wynne Wert and I recently caught up with Jim, John and Sally at the church once known as Little Jerusalem African Methodist Episcopal Church. Five freed slaves founded the congregation in 1820 as an offspring of the first African Methodist Episcopal church in America in Philadelphia. The founder of that church – Richard Allen – supervised the establishment of Little Jerusalem church in 1830 and built the pulpit used since then.
For 40 years, the church was a hallowed stop on the legendary Underground Railroad of safe houses for those seeking freedom in the North before the Civil War. Many of them and their descendants are buried in marked and unmarked graves in the churchyard.
We watched as Jim liberally sprayed a faded tombstone with a gentle biocide to remove algae and water stains. He then scrubbed the front, back and sides with a soft brush, bringing out names and epitaphs while removing traces of lichen, mold and mildew in the engravings. Over the next several months, the stone will return to its luminous white sheen.
In the hours spent cleaning, repairing, and resetting gravestones, Jim’s become the cemetery ghost whisperer of Bucks County. “I have gotten to know the person beneath the stone, probably a little about their history, may have gotten to know some of the family and all of this feeds into my relationship with the stone.”
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Jim is also a believer in the power of divining rods to locate unmarked graves. He holds two brass rods with insulating hand collars that enable the rods to move independently while being held. As he strides through a suspected gravesite, the rods begin moving. When they cross, the holder is standing above the grave. Jim calls on divine inspiration from angels before setting out. He insists he’s used his device to find graves, later confirmed to exist.
Each of us tried it. In an area likely to contain unmarked graves, I called on angelic powers as directed. The rods began moving, suddenly coming to rest in the form of an X. “There you are!” shouted Jim. “A grave is right below the ‘X’.” Was it the wind or something else? I was uncertain.
Meanwhile, Jim’s mission to restore dignity to ancient cemeteries goes on.
Sources include “Bensalem AME Church to honor founder Richard Allen” by Peg Quann published on Feb. 10, 2016 in the Bucks County Courier Times, and the nomination form for the church on file at the National Register of Historic Places. Jim Davis can be reached via email at TidyTombstonesPA@gmail.com or by calling 215-378-8943.
Carl LaVO can be reached at carllavo0@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: These two are are restoring tombstones at churches to original luster
