Rootstown cemetery restoration underway, with obelisk secured and more work planned

Jeremy Brown/The Portager

Rootstown cemetery restoration underway, with obelisk secured and more work planned

- Jeremy Brown

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Show me your cemeteries and I will tell you what kind of people you have.” By this he meant that if people make an effort to honor the deceased by taking care of local cemeteries, then they are an honorable community.

At lesser-known cemeteries across the United States and Portage County, those words have largely gone ignored as erosion grinds away tombstones and nature reclaims the grounds. But one group in Rootstown is going out of its way to bring new life into an old burial ground. 

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