Click for Home Page
St Boniface Old Walled Cemetery Restoration
of stone and Iron Cross Restoration Project 2019
..................................................................................................................
To view restoration work which started in 2015 please visit
https://schmuckfamilyhistory.weebly.com/old-walled-cemetery-project.html
Aug 25 2020; It is indeed a pleasure to announce that all of the monuments that were to be removed in 2015 because of one reason or another are ALL back in their proper location and restored. Pictures of this (single Handed work) can be see below in a picture format. Now the OWC referance book will have to be re-edited to remove the words "Removed in 2015" as all are once again back on the grave's of our ancestors as they should be.
Work continues over the summer restoring the various stone monuments but special effort being spent to restore some of the many Iron Crosses. Please take a moment to view the works and even better take a minute to visit the St. Boniface Old Walled Cemetery.
Work continues over the summer restoring the various stone monuments but special effort being spent to restore some of the many Iron Crosses. Please take a moment to view the works and even better take a minute to visit the St. Boniface Old Walled Cemetery.
The above pictures are an aerial survey of the St.Boniface "Old Walled Cemetery" Picture on the left is as seen from a drone while the picture on the Right is the same location with the cemetery sections, Rows and Stone numbered.
Iron TREE Of LIFE Restoration Project 2019
===============================================================================================
I decided to begin with the following monument which was ready to fall forward as well as having iron scroll damage.
Sept 2019.
Inscription Dedicated to Maria Anna Goetz/Huck.
Rest in Peace
MARIA ANNA GOETZ,
Wife of FRANZ HUCK,
Born 15 Aug 1851 - Died 12 Dec 1886.
REST HER ASHES.
************************************************************************************
Jan 2020 (RESTORED AUG 2020)
A very rare "Double Iron Cross which is missing several major scroll sections. At present I have no information if his wife is also buried at the second cross.
Jan 2020 (RESTORED AUG 2020)
A very rare "Double Iron Cross which is missing several major scroll sections. At present I have no information if his wife is also buried at the second cross.
In Memory of Felix Schumacher
Here Rests
FELIX SCHUMACKER
Born 1812 - Died 12 May 1893
REMEMBER ME IN PRAYER
Here Rests
FELIX SCHUMACKER
Born 1812 - Died 12 May 1893
REMEMBER ME IN PRAYER
Restoration Progress on Stone Monuments etc
Spring 2020
Spring 2020
Restoration work July 2020
Aug 2020 restoration on Iron Crosses etc.
Restoration work Sept 2020
Work continues through Sept 2020
October 10 2020 Progress to date includes over 65 Iron Crosses restored and painted.
Below is two pictures from Mrs Pat Weiler and family who have restored two of their family Iron Crosses this summer of 2020
November 2020 completion of the painting of the remaining Iron Crosses. The excellent summer type weather we have recently had, has allowed the remaining Black colored Iron Crosses to be completed, leaving only the 25 or so French Blue colored crosses to paint once the paint arrives.
Restoration continues on the Iron Cross project in 2021.
Now all of the black painted Iron Crosses have been restored and painted to their original color which was black. Some will need revisiting to complete scroll work, etc. (75+ are black)
Now the work moves to painting the French Blue colored Iron Crosses. A special thanks goes to Lisa at Tremclad pains, Brad at Granger Industrial supplies and finally to Rustolium Piants who supplied the actual paint I used. Paint chips were given to many different people to identify the color that these 25+ Iron Crosses were painted 125 years ago as now the paint has changed to a more grey color. First pictures were used to identify the color which did not work bur actual paint samples quickly exposed the trur color that the paint used (back when new) actually looked like. The very closest is a color called "French Blue" land all but 1 of the 25+ crosses are the same color. The single one is a little deeper blue and this was identified as a color called "Sailor Blue".
All of these blue crosses where finally painted during the month of June 2021.
Some of the black crosses have been painted black that were originally the " French Blue" by their owners. Two such crosses are the Weiler Iron crosses at 1.1.A and 10.10.A simply because they could not find the correct color of blue. It is interesting to see the blue crosses are all located in clusters of 4 or 5 around the cemetery yard.
I am not sure if the "French Blue Color" was supposed to have a meaning or was just offered by the black smith who created these amazing works of art. Once you start to restore the Iron Crosses you quickly realize the great amount of work and time that was involved to create one.
J.D.Mueller, a blacksmith in Bridgeport Ont, (5 miles from New Germany Maryhill ) was famous for his wrought iron work and he is responsable for many of the Tree of Life Iron Crosses found in the Old Walled Cemetery He also forged the cemetery's decorative iron gate and iron fence on the church wall, Also my Great Uncle Joseph Schmuck Blacksmith in Kossuth Ont. is known to have created these crosses. He is mentioned the the book "Ghost Towns Of Ontario" (Vol 1) by Ron Brown page 70 who writes, "As the century drew to a close and a changing economy doomed many country villages, Kossuth
dwindled. By 1896 only two businesses remained. Joseph Schmuck (Smuck) the blacksmith, and operated the hotel. and the shoemaker Henry Sohrt.
More history on the Schmuck Family and the large number of hotels they operated can be found at;
https://schmuckfamilyhistory.weebly.com/schmuck-owned-hotels--business.html
Now all of the black painted Iron Crosses have been restored and painted to their original color which was black. Some will need revisiting to complete scroll work, etc. (75+ are black)
Now the work moves to painting the French Blue colored Iron Crosses. A special thanks goes to Lisa at Tremclad pains, Brad at Granger Industrial supplies and finally to Rustolium Piants who supplied the actual paint I used. Paint chips were given to many different people to identify the color that these 25+ Iron Crosses were painted 125 years ago as now the paint has changed to a more grey color. First pictures were used to identify the color which did not work bur actual paint samples quickly exposed the trur color that the paint used (back when new) actually looked like. The very closest is a color called "French Blue" land all but 1 of the 25+ crosses are the same color. The single one is a little deeper blue and this was identified as a color called "Sailor Blue".
All of these blue crosses where finally painted during the month of June 2021.
Some of the black crosses have been painted black that were originally the " French Blue" by their owners. Two such crosses are the Weiler Iron crosses at 1.1.A and 10.10.A simply because they could not find the correct color of blue. It is interesting to see the blue crosses are all located in clusters of 4 or 5 around the cemetery yard.
I am not sure if the "French Blue Color" was supposed to have a meaning or was just offered by the black smith who created these amazing works of art. Once you start to restore the Iron Crosses you quickly realize the great amount of work and time that was involved to create one.
J.D.Mueller, a blacksmith in Bridgeport Ont, (5 miles from New Germany Maryhill ) was famous for his wrought iron work and he is responsable for many of the Tree of Life Iron Crosses found in the Old Walled Cemetery He also forged the cemetery's decorative iron gate and iron fence on the church wall, Also my Great Uncle Joseph Schmuck Blacksmith in Kossuth Ont. is known to have created these crosses. He is mentioned the the book "Ghost Towns Of Ontario" (Vol 1) by Ron Brown page 70 who writes, "As the century drew to a close and a changing economy doomed many country villages, Kossuth
dwindled. By 1896 only two businesses remained. Joseph Schmuck (Smuck) the blacksmith, and operated the hotel. and the shoemaker Henry Sohrt.
More history on the Schmuck Family and the large number of hotels they operated can be found at;
https://schmuckfamilyhistory.weebly.com/schmuck-owned-hotels--business.html
June 5 2021. I am pleased to report that the winter of 2020/2021 was a gentle one on the OWC> The biggest damage was one stone monument falling over breaking the cross. While a number of stones will need to be straightened I think this has been the easiest year ever.
Below are the pictures showing the damage to the Martin Elcher monument and repairs . Row 4, Stone1, Section D.
While digging a hole for one of the supports needed to safely lift this 400 pound monument I found the monument of Joe Hauck buried a few inches below the ground which I have now cleaned and re mounted in it's proper location at Row 5 Stone 3 Section D pictures below;
Ron Schmuck
Below are the pictures showing the damage to the Martin Elcher monument and repairs . Row 4, Stone1, Section D.
While digging a hole for one of the supports needed to safely lift this 400 pound monument I found the monument of Joe Hauck buried a few inches below the ground which I have now cleaned and re mounted in it's proper location at Row 5 Stone 3 Section D pictures below;
Ron Schmuck
RESTORATION OF LARGE CENTER CRUCIFIX & CORPUS;
-2021-
The large crucifix and Corpus located in the center of the OWC are long past needing a full restoration. The idea has been to simply repaint back to black but because the Corpus is a carved block of stone it is porous and moisture in the stone causes the paint to only last 10 or
15 years.
*The crucifix is a cast cement and as you can see from the pictures below holds the paint much better.
*The Corpus will have to have the remaining paint removed before another coat of paint is applied.
*My Idea is to do this stripping of the old paint over the coming summer, and to simply leave the Corpus without a coat of paint,
which it was originally and is supposed to be unpainted by it's design.
I believe it was first painted in the 1960's as the crucifix located across the street in the "New Cemetery" was also painted black around that time.
My Uncle Tony Drexler is buried beside the Crucifix in the new cemetery (across the street from the OWC) in the 1950's and the crucifix was white stone at that time.
As you can see "Holy Mark" has already done a little work on the feet.
To be continued :-))
-2021-
The large crucifix and Corpus located in the center of the OWC are long past needing a full restoration. The idea has been to simply repaint back to black but because the Corpus is a carved block of stone it is porous and moisture in the stone causes the paint to only last 10 or
15 years.
*The crucifix is a cast cement and as you can see from the pictures below holds the paint much better.
*The Corpus will have to have the remaining paint removed before another coat of paint is applied.
*My Idea is to do this stripping of the old paint over the coming summer, and to simply leave the Corpus without a coat of paint,
which it was originally and is supposed to be unpainted by it's design.
I believe it was first painted in the 1960's as the crucifix located across the street in the "New Cemetery" was also painted black around that time.
My Uncle Tony Drexler is buried beside the Crucifix in the new cemetery (across the street from the OWC) in the 1950's and the crucifix was white stone at that time.
As you can see "Holy Mark" has already done a little work on the feet.
To be continued :-))
Restoration continues June 20th stripping of the old paint from the Corpus
as you can see this is very slow work with a special stripper being applied to the painted area then allowed to work for around 20 minutes and then to carefully scrape, sand and wire brush the old paint off without damaging the original surface.
There are a number of areas which will need further work to repaid damage to the statue itself though we are more then lucky that the entire statue was not ruined by this painting.
The paint used holds in the moisture, not allowing the stone statue to breath. Normally when this is done here in Canada where the winter often goes will below -30C for months at a time
which causes the stone to flake off. This has happened a little on the face and right leg but otherwise everything looks excellent for a successful restoration. The process is to slowly do the entire statue once the go back and start it all again as the stripper can take days to fully loosen some areas. As you can see from the picture of Christs face the two pictures below show a before and after one session, Stay Tuned.
Ron S
as you can see this is very slow work with a special stripper being applied to the painted area then allowed to work for around 20 minutes and then to carefully scrape, sand and wire brush the old paint off without damaging the original surface.
There are a number of areas which will need further work to repaid damage to the statue itself though we are more then lucky that the entire statue was not ruined by this painting.
The paint used holds in the moisture, not allowing the stone statue to breath. Normally when this is done here in Canada where the winter often goes will below -30C for months at a time
which causes the stone to flake off. This has happened a little on the face and right leg but otherwise everything looks excellent for a successful restoration. The process is to slowly do the entire statue once the go back and start it all again as the stripper can take days to fully loosen some areas. As you can see from the picture of Christs face the two pictures below show a before and after one session, Stay Tuned.
Ron S
July5 2021 this is the 5th visit to the OWC to work on the restoration of the large crucifix and finally some real progress is being made. It take around a week for the stripper to eat into the old paint enough to then let the paint dry and raise enough to be removed with wire brushes etc and no damage at all to the original stone.
Ron July 11 2021 progress is slow but results are worth the wait. Today most of the old paint is removed showing the corpus of Jesus was originally painted in flesh tones. Now I was able to repair the nose and left leg.
My plan is to leave the corpus as it was originally and just touch up the cross as the idea of restoration is to restore and not look new. The base however will be painted back to it's original color being cementbut again "antiques" so as to look old.
Ron
July 19 2021. Restoration continues with the completion of the repairs of the nose and legs etc. I have gone as far as I can with the paint removal on the corpus for present. The remaining stains are deeper and more time is required to remove though the idea is not to make it look new.
So this is a work in progress.
I did however move ahead and paint the nails in Jesus hands and feet the traditional bronze which is the Roman color for judgement and is said the nails used were bronze. Also the top marker would of been an animal skin thus the color I used and the "I N R I " as is originally cast into this piece which translates to "Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews"
I will leave the cross as it is which is perfect for the "Old Rugged Cross look" and is very typical of the crucifixation monuments I have seen in Israel.
The bass was originally painted a medium grey, then it was painted white as was the cross, and finally everything including the corpus was painted a black color probably 20+ years ago.
So now this monument is completed except for a few items that time itself will aid in the restoration.
My idea was to bring this very important monument back to a presentable state, while maintaining its historic look and especially not to look as if it is recently restored or new.
Ron
So this is a work in progress.
I did however move ahead and paint the nails in Jesus hands and feet the traditional bronze which is the Roman color for judgement and is said the nails used were bronze. Also the top marker would of been an animal skin thus the color I used and the "I N R I " as is originally cast into this piece which translates to "Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews"
I will leave the cross as it is which is perfect for the "Old Rugged Cross look" and is very typical of the crucifixation monuments I have seen in Israel.
The bass was originally painted a medium grey, then it was painted white as was the cross, and finally everything including the corpus was painted a black color probably 20+ years ago.
So now this monument is completed except for a few items that time itself will aid in the restoration.
My idea was to bring this very important monument back to a presentable state, while maintaining its historic look and especially not to look as if it is recently restored or new.
Ron
Aug 18 2021 Restoration continues with the completion of a broken monument that had been waiting for the correct epoxies to arrive. Also the straightening of monuments and repointing crosses etc.
Aug 22 2021 Restoration this week concentrated on the restoration of one of the last Iron Crosses needing full restoration and surely our saddest looking.
Unfortunately we do not have the name of the person which had vanished long ago. I have however included a place to locate the name stone as soon as it is known.
Also completion of the Caroline Keller monument, Most monuments were sprayed with D2 Cleaning agent in June and many were ready for the first brushing to remove the now dead molds etc. that stain these very soft stones. Ron S
Unfortunately we do not have the name of the person which had vanished long ago. I have however included a place to locate the name stone as soon as it is known.
Also completion of the Caroline Keller monument, Most monuments were sprayed with D2 Cleaning agent in June and many were ready for the first brushing to remove the now dead molds etc. that stain these very soft stones. Ron S
Aug 29 2021 work is now moving on to the very rare Double Angle Iron Cross 1860 and making new name stones for two that vanashed over the past 20 years.
Nov 5 2021 This brings the restoration work for this year to an end.