Burns Hill Cemetery desecrated

Dozens of grave markers were damaged or destroyed early this week in Burns Hill Cemetery.
Sometime late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, a person or group wreaked “massive desecration” on headstones and monuments throughout the cemetery.  Waynesboro Police were alerted Wednesday morning after Butch Matthews, the cemetery’s caretaker, saw overturned headstones from the window of his house.

“I saw it around 7:30 a.m. and thought, ‘That’s not supposed to be like that,’” Matthews said.  He began counting broken, destroyed and overturned headstones and stopped at 67.  Police have estimated the total to be closer to 100 or 150, with more than $500,000 worth of damage done.

According to police, Matthews left the cemetery around 4 p.m. Tuesday and everything was still in order.  Matthews and John Gress, director of the cemetery board, both had family headstones knocked over.

Beyond repair

According to Gress, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.

“This is out of control now. This has got to stop,” he said.  Gress explained that although people have occasionally turned over headstones before, the destruction has never been of this magnitude.

Police said the same thing happened within the past year in a Gettysburg cemetery just outside the battlefield.  “I wish someone could come up with an answer of what we’re supposed to do about this,” said Gress, listing the Clayton family monument as a total loss. “It’s beyond fixing. You can’t fix soft Italian marble.”

Another monument damaged beyond repair is of an angel overlooking graves belonging to the Philips family. The angel’s head was broken off along the base of the neck.

According to Gress and police, surrounding the cemetery with wrought-iron fencing would be costly and still wouldn’t prevent people from entering after dusk.

Gress said he will be calling friends to help put headstones back in place that were knocked over but not destroyed.

“It’ll be awhile,” said Matthews of the time it will take to clean up the mess.

The Waynesboro Police Department is asking for help from area residents in finding the culprits behind the cemetery destruction. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 762-2132.

Cemetery history

According to information from the Waynesboro Historical Society, Burns Hill Cemetery gets its name from Gen. James Burns, a captain with the Pennsylvania Militia during the War of 1812.

In addition to his service with the militia, Burns, a prominent Waynesboro resident, was a justice of the peace as well as the Franklin County Sheriff.

He owned the piece of land now known as Burns Hill Cemetery and was the first person buried there.