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The restoration of the Smith Family Cemetery, also known as the Chardon Road Cemetery, has come to fruition in Willoughby Hills.This comes after a push in recent years from local groups to obtain funds to renovate the cemetery that’s located at 29017 Chardon Road.The project to restore the cemetery, which belonged to the Smith family in 1840, was intended to honor the Revolutionary and Civil War veterans who are buried there.Among those buried in the cemetery is Edward Halstead, who served in the Revolutionary War as a private guarding the Hudson River and watching for the movement of British ships.Additionally, William White, who served in the Civil War, is buried in the cemetery.Among those involved in the cemetery’s restoration efforts were Stonehuggers Cemetery Restoration of Indiana, Ed Jones, co-founder of the Men of Honor Social Club, and Linda O’Brien, founder and director of Liberty Camp USA.In 2023, Stonehuggers obtained a detailed estimate based on a site inventory.The cost to complete a full-scale renovation, including headstones, a decorative fence and a memorial sign was calculated at $50,000.Jones said community members were instrumental in fundraising for the project.“Everybody stepped up when we needed help,” he said.“Stonehuggers got this done in four days and it was only three people working over the course of four days — long days.I would come in the morning or come in the evening and they were here.They crushed it.They were leaving here to go to a 270-headstone cemetery in Wisconsin to do the whole thing, so this was easy for them.” Once Stonehuggers’ work was completed, Shannon Fence installed the fence at the cemetery in roughly a day and a half, Jones said.“The crazy thing is, the last person buried here was in 1953,” he said.“We got people in the late 1700s buried here and 1800s, but to know that Halstead rests here is incredible.There’s a marker for his grandson who’s not interred here.He’s in a military cemetery in (Washington), D.C., but we do recognize him here.” Staining and additional things remain to be finished, but the heavy lifting is completed, Jones said.“We’re onto the next project whatever that is,” he said.“We just spoke with representatives from the Harriet Tubman Movement last week about partnering with them on something.” Jones said the biggest thing he feels was accomplished with the cemetery was being able to give people a nice place to reflect on their roots.“I’ve heard people who have driven by this hundreds of times throughout their life and didn’t even know this existed,” he said.“I remember the first time, I had a hard time finding it, so now, you’ve got the urge.We hope to eventually, with the city’s blessing, do something with the driveway, but that’s down the road.Everything after this is just buttoning up and making it even more friendly for the community.” When Stonehuggers arrived to start working on the cemetery, they saw that the cemetery was more of a mess than they expected, O’Brien said.“They said, ‘This is going to take three weeks,’ ” she recalled.“I said guys, you don’t have three.I’m giving you two.The first day I walked through when they cleaned some of those headstones, I had to hold back tears.It was that emotional for me.This is an experience of my lifetime.It’s something I’m honored to have had the opportunity to take.” O’Brien said she hopes many people, whether they are descendants of those buried at the cemetery or not, will visit to see what has been accomplished and honor those who gave their all for their country.“The goal is to talk to our elected officials at the state level to change the Ohio Revised Code that’s currently in existence that eliminates a lot of cemeteries from being able to have state funding,” O’Brien said.“Veterans have headstones in a number of cemeteries that are deteriorated and need help.The towns can’t afford to take care of them.”