A groundswell of support is arising and the future of Tamaqua’s 38-acre Victorian garden burial ground is looking brighter.

On Sunday, more than 50 volunteers — representing the general public, businesses and Scouts — brought rakes, gloves, trucks, buckets and even heavy equipment to Odd Fellows Cemetery and launched a wide-scale cleanup operation to spark the site’s renewal.

The outpouring of support comes just in the nick of time for the historic site, which has threatened to close due to a lack of volunteers and resources. Entire families showed up to lend a hand.

“We raked leaves and put everything into buckets, then dumped them into a truck,” said Angela Flack of Tamaqua, with her three children, Loki, 12; Kalli, 11; and Dean, 6.

Flack was part of about one dozen Scout families on hand, associated with Boy Scout Troop 777 and related Cub Scout pack.

Response from the business community also stood out.

Contractor Nick Boyle of Boyle Electro Mechanical, Tamaqua-based commercial property management firm, showed up at 9 a.m. with a backhoe, three dump trucks, a Kubota zero-turn mower, and one dozen employees and friends.

“We came to clean up for the community,” Boyle said.

The Boyle contingent divided into four work crews and started sprucing up at the top of the cemetery, then worked downhill toward Soldier’s Circle.

The cemetery’s rich history and interesting tombstones weren’t lost on the team. In fact, they used it to spark initiative.

“We decided that whoever finds the highest-ranking military officer gets $100,” said Boyle, whose crews labored all day long accompanied by Bane, a 2-year-old Belgian Malinois mascot.

The Boyle team also took on the task of removing a large, overgrown tree branch that had threatened an old grave marker and had to be carefully chopped down to avoid damage.

“We cut it into lengths to remove it,” said Tyler Hope.

General public

Residents Bruce and Chris Reed took part in the project and said the activity was healthy and therapeutic.

“We helped at Soldier’s Circle. It was a good cardio workout,” said Chris Reed, adding that the 155-year-old cemetery needs to be preserved.

“We can’t let this fail,” she said. “There’s a lot of history here.”

Anchored by towering Soldiers Circle Monument, erected in 1870 by the Abner Doubleday Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, the cemetery is host to Civil War veterans’ graves and others.

In fact, it holds graves from all American conflicts, including at least one veteran of the American Revolution, believed to have been a drummer boy.

Interestingly, many volunteers said they have no connection to the cemetery but feel compelled to be part of it.

One who stands out is Kathleen Quinn-Farber of Tamaqua, an LPN and home care specialist for Bayada Nurses. Quinn-Farber has been trying to build support for the cemetery for a few years.

She recently created a Facebook page, Friends of Odd Fellows Cemetery, where she promoted Sunday’s cleanup over the past three weeks.

She was astounded at the response.

“I’m overwhelmed. When I drove up here today and got out of the car I was almost in tears.”

Like so many others, Quinn-Farber visits the lavishly designed resting ground even though she has no family members buried there.

She said she developed an affinity and special reverence for resting sites after serving as a caregiver for her late father. Odd Fellows, she says, is something special.

“It’s a beautiful cemetery. I come here and sit. I feel attached to it.”

Manny Vasquez of Tamaqua felt compelled to be on hand.

“I was raking and picking up twigs. I came to help the community,” he said.

Representatives of Hazleton Job Corps also turned out.

“We have three here today,” said Jodi Gloman of Berwick.

Next steps

Nobody was more delighted on Sunday than Justin Bailey, cemetery caretaker and secretary of Odd Fellows’ Harmony Lodge.

“I’m ecstatic with this turnout,” he said, as he prepared hot dogs and hamburgers on an outdoor grill to feed hungry volunteers.

“If we can keep getting people to come here, we can keep up the momentum. Today, I even gave out three applications for people to become new members. One for Odd Fellows and two for Lady Harmony Lodge.”

Bailey said the cemetery board will approach the Tamaqua-based John E. Morgan Charitable Foundation to apply for assistance.

The burial ground, referred to as the “City of the Dead” in early accounts, is the site of more than 16,000 graves, more than twice the population of the town.

It was created on Jan. 4, 1864, and is one of only two Victorian garden cemeteries in Schuylkill County.

It also contains 102 undocumented graves and more than 100 resting sites inside a large trunk, representing a mass grave of unclaimed bodies from when Primitive Methodist Church moved its cemetery. Odd Fellows also holds an unknown number of graves buried before records were kept.

Another cleanup is scheduled for noon Sunday.