Claus Family Cemetery Restoration

I was contacted several weeks ago by the Colonel himself.

No, not the one with his face on buckets of chicken. That would have required a seance. I'm talking about Col. Matt Nahorn, well-known local historian and Amherst City Council member. He emailed me to share the story of the restoration of the Claus family cemetery on West Erie Avenue (U. S. Route 6) and provide some photos of the process.

An article that I posted about the cemetery from the November 9, 1956 Lorain Journal provided some information for Matt and the team to go on. Here's the photo that accompanied the 1956 article, showing the sad state of the cemetery at that time.

As Matt noted in his email, "When the 1956 article was published, two stones were standing and clearly visible, while a third had broken, and its pieces were laying nearby. Mrs. Florence Claus, noted to be a granddaughter-in-law of the early owner of the land, Adam Klaus, recounted that Klaus had purchased the property from the William Hershing family. 

"Mrs. Claus noted an interesting story that was passed down over generations, regarding that of Lucy Morgan, an aunt of Hershing’s. Morgan’s grave still stands, and the story goes as this: “She had come here all the way from England to visit Bill,” said Mrs. Claus. “The morning after her arrival she was out on the back stoop looking over the farm, and when she turned to come in she fell and broke her hip. She never recovered.” 

1986 Map showing the Claus properties
(spelled 'Clause' here)

"Other stones in the cemetery are of infants or very young children, such as: a 21-day-old infant, Armine Klaus (a child of “Martha”); a third stone is carved in German from 1866, possibly believed to describe the death of an 11-month-old infant, Anna M. Heideloff. “Mrs. Claus believes this may have been a child of one of the Klaus daughters living in the vicinity.” 

"The article further notes some of the genealogy of Mrs. Florence Claus: “Owner of the property after Adam, was his son Bernhardt, then Bernhardt’s son, Henry who was a brother to Mrs. Claus’ late husband Adam, namesake of the grandfather. Henry’s son, the second Bernhardt, was the last holder of the property, selling out not long ago to the real estate firm from whom the Ford company bought its site.” 

"As a life member of the Brownhelm Historical Association, and having worked with Kate Rivet, of the BHA, assisting in the restoration of Brown’s Lake Road Cemetery, I appreciate the importance of cemetery documentation and restoration. 

"In May 2024, I contacted Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley, regarding restoration of the cemetery. He put me in contact with Jim Sutter, of the Lorain Utilities Department.

Before restoration. Only two gravestones were visible.

"Kate Rivet, Jane and Ron Crandall, all of Gravestone Restoration Services, along with my father Bill Nahorn, and I met on July 13, 2024 to begin the cemetery restoration, in cooperation with the City of Lorain. Only two gravestones were visible, one of which was badly leaning."

"We began by probing for lost gravestones, soon finding a footstone for Lucy Morgan’s grave," said Matt. "Her gravestone was one of two still standing, before our restoration project began. Next, we located the gravestone of Carl H. A. Braun, who only lived to be two years old. His stone is entirely in German."

"We then found the stone of Wm. Henry Herschin(g), also an infant who lived only a few months. His footstone was also located. Only the base and a fragment of the gravestone of what is believed to be that of Armine Catherine Klaus can be seen. We have probed for the remainder of the stone, but unfortunately, this is the only stone we were unable to fully locate. All stones were re-set, with new foundations, re-mortared to straighten them, and in two cases, we had to completely rebuild the sandstone base.

The restoration team after a job well done

"On July 21, 2024, our team worked on final cleaning and restoration of the gravestones. We are proud that we have successfully restored this tiny family cemetery, which once was lost."

"I am proud to have initiated the restoration project of the Claus Family Cemetery. I thank Kate Rivet, and her Cemetery Restoration Services team of Jane and Ron Crandall for making this restoration happen.

After restoration

Click here to visit the Gravestone Restoration Services by Kate & Jane Facebook page to see some of their other impressive restoration projects. They have certainly been busy in Lorain County.

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Here is the final listing of the five known and located graves in the cemetery, courtesy of the Colonel.

• Carl H. A. Braun (Dec. 8, 1860 – May 12, 1862)

• Anna Margarita Heideloff (Aug. 10, 1865 – July 31, 1866)

• William Henry Herschin(g) (April 15, 1860 – Oct. 17, 1860)

• Armine Catherine Klaus (May 5, 1866 – May 26, 1866)

• Lucy Morgan (? – April 9, 1855) Aged 80 years

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Here's a photo of the cemetery (from my 2015 blog post) before the 2024 restoration. It was pretty much in the same shape as it was in 1956.

And here's my recent 'after' shot. It no longer looks so forlorn.

And finally, I've written about the Claus family before. This 2015 post covered the story of the Claus Farm on Lake Road and its 'hole-in-the-wall' leading to Lake Erie; and this post highlighted one of the houses (now gone) that used to be located on former Claus property.