So, you and your friends, family, or coworkers have decided to observe the spirit of the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday or Black History Month by joining a Lane Street Project service day! Thank you!!
What can you expect at a clean-up day?
When you arrive, seasoned volunteers will be there to greet you. They’ll ask you to sign a waiver and invite you to add your name to a contact sheet to get more information about LSP activities. You’ll receive a brief orientation about our work, including do’s and don’ts, and will learn of the history and significance of Odd Fellows Cemetery. You’ll be asked what kind of tasks you’d like to engage in. (Remember: all ages and abilities are welcome!)
To help you decide how you might best contribute, here’s what you’ll see and where we’ll need the most help the first four service days.
- Mowing and weedwhacking the front section
Ordinary lawnmowers and weedwhackers will work for this section, which contains the Dawson, Tate, Hines-Barnes, Mincey, and Vick family plots, among others. Be careful cutting around the headstones, as the soft marble is easily damaged by trimmer string.
Inside the tree line, you’ll see light-colored twigs sprouting waist-high. These are new wisteria vines. Wisteria infests Odd Fellows Cemetery. We’ve made tremendous progress in eliminating the older growth — some of the vines were as thick as a man’s arm! — but cutting back new growth is a perennial task. Weedwhackers fitted with cutting disks are the best option for cutting these sprouts, which will then need to be raked to tarps for easy transport to the curb. There may also be dead tree limbs that can easily be dragged away. Place any brush in neat piles of lengths of about 6 feet for claw truck collection by the city’s Sanitation Department.
Removing the heavy canopy of wisteria has exposed the cemetery to increased sunlight, which spurs other new growth like these tiny pines. Cute as they are, they have to go. Weedeaters will make short work of this task.
On the other hand, never cut the yucca! These tough little plants were placed by families as grave decoration, and may be seventy to one hundred years old.
Privet, the green bushes seen above, are also highly invasive. They should be pulled up by the root if small or otherwise cut very low. Pruners, loppers, or hedge trimmers are best for this job.
We use the fence between Odd Fellows and Vick Cemeteries to post information and seasonal decoration. The little orange streamers that bear the names of all known Odd Fellows burials are torn and faded, as are flowers placed at the beginning of last season. A few small vines have also begun to grow through the wire. If you’d like to help remove them, please bring scissors or other small snipping tools.
The only known Wilson County grave of an African-American Spanish-American war veteran lies in Odd Fellows, about thirty feet from the fence. We know there are many World War I veterans buried here, too. Will anyone commit to replace our little flag and to remember our veterans on Memorial and Veterans Days?
A shallow ditch partially separates the boundaries between Odd Fellows and Rountree Cemeteries. We cleared the worst of it last year, but need to tackle the regrowth.
Our Senior Force, led by Castonoble Hooks and Briggs Sherwood, has identified additional small trees for removal in the interior of Odd Fellows. This work will be done under their discretion and direction, depending on the skillsets and tools of volunteers and weather conditions.
If you’ve been out to Odd Fellows before, THANK YOU and WELCOME BACK!! If you’re a first-timer, THANK YOU — WE’RE GLAD TO HAVE YOU!
Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2024.
