Friends help preserve pioneer monuments

Patrick Skelley places leaves, weeds and other debris into a bag during the first work day of the year at Pioneer Cemetery. Photos by Sarah Brown

One might say the dead are coming back to life as Friends of Pioneer Cemetery, Historic Preservation Northwest and the City of Lebanon work together to restore the headstones of Lebanon’s founding families.

The grassroots effort, coordinated by Esther Hillary, consists of about half a dozen volunteers – mostly members of the Daughters of the American Revolution – who spend the summer months cleaning and maintaining the historic cemetery.

Hillary spearheaded the project two years…