Brayden Spayer, of Peru, was putting up flags for veterans at Summit View Cemetery with his mom, Michelle, in Ottawa when he noticed something he found peculiar.

“I saw there wasn’t many flowers and I asked my mom about it and she told me these are very old and I started looking and they’re from the 1800s,” Brayden said. “I thought, ‘Woah’ and they were starting to fall into disrepair.”

Brayden said the cemetery “spoke to him” and came right at a time when he was looking to identify an Eagle Scout project to start as a part of Troop 0745 out of Trinity Lutheran Church in Ottawa.

It became the first group-driven restoration effort the cemetery had seen in quite some time over the weekend with many following the young Scout's leadership including Christopher Kmetz, of Peru.

Kmetz was never a Boy Scout himself but came out to assist his “little buddy” who sells popcorn in the community every year for the Boy Scouts.

He invited Brayden and his father in during one of his annual purchases when they told him of the project.

“When he said it I just thought 'that is a great project.' It’s a great idea. What more could you do for your community?” Kmetz said, standing over an uncovered headstone. “It’s overgrown and it should be more well taken care of because we have dates that go back to the 1800s and it shouldn’t get like this.”

Brayden, along with more than 20 adults and nine other children, lifted and cleaned stones before reattaching the pieces using epoxy and mortar.

“There’s a lot of stuff to learn such as how epoxing works, how mortaring works and training to do it and how the chemicals work,” Brayden said of the prep work before the weekend’s event

“It’s difficult but it’s manageable,” he added.

Certainly more manageable than it usually is, according to the cemetery board treasurer and secretary Gerry Thompson.

Thompson said most of the work is done by herself and her husband, Scott, who are usually busy with general groundskeeping, such as mowing.

So, Brayden’s request to help was warmly received.

“I was so happy, we are so broke,” Thompson recalled with a laugh. “And we have a lack of manpower.”

“I’m mowing so I don’t have time to do all of this, so it’s helpful that they can do it and it’s extremely costly,” she added.

Thompson said volunteers are hard to come by and often eventually back out of helping, but Brayden is the first to be serious about his request.

The volunteers focused on about a quarter of the property, specifically the oldest section on the south side of the cemetery.

Rain over the weekend didn’t stop their work, but merely led to an adjustment of schedule to ensure everything was completed over the weekend.

Volunteers shared laughs and assisted each other as various pieces of stones were routinely shifted to align similar to a large puzzle. They also discovered additional stones by probing known plots on the land.

Brayden said he was confident a lot of the work would be completed by the end of Sunday but they plan to return later in October for additional mortar work and to tie up any loose ends of the project.

Thompson thanked the volunteers for their help and interest in the cemetery.

“They worked their tails off yesterday. I did not anticipate the amount of work they’d get done,” Thompson said.

“We appreciate the help and we’re extremely thrilled with the amount of work they’ve done,” she added.

Those looking to help volunteer can contact Thompson by calling 815-830-3448 or emailing summitviewcemetery@gmail.com.

Where are the oldest burial sites in La Salle County?

Summit View Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in La Salle County but The Times reached out to the La Salle County Genealogy Guild to learn where the oldest burial plots are located in La Salle County.

The three oldest burials in the La Salle County Genealogy Guild Cemetery Database include Henry Bernard with a death date of Feb. 1, 1801, buried in Elerding Cemetery in Sheridan; Thomas Leonard with a death date of Nov. 14, 1802, buried in Belrose Cemetery in Wedron; and Jessie C. Decker with a death date of July 16, 1803, buried in Wenona City Cemetery.