By Alyssa Schnugg
News Editor
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com
Photo provided
With many of the graves in Oxford’s St. Peter’s Cemetery more than 150 years old, some of the headstones have fallen over or have become cracked making the wording unreadable; the family members who once cared for the plots long gone.
The Oxford Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday to not let those late Oxonians be forgotten by agreeing to pay about $6,800 to have the city fix the markers.
There are 21 markers in disrepair in the oldest section of Oxford Memorial Cemetery that will be fixed during the first phase of the project, according to Bart Robinson, Oxford’s COO.
Attempts were made to try to locate descendants of the those in the 21 graves but officials were unsuccessful.
“As we move to other sections of the cemetery, we will again attempt to determine ownership,” Robinson said. “I suspect there will be more as time goes by.”
Robinson said the city will repair markers that are damaged as funding becomes available after the first 21 markers are repaired or replaced.
“We intend to move slowly as funding allows, section by section, to protect the history and the integrity of the cemetery,” he said Tuesday.
