Friends of Silverbrook Cemetery
2008 Annual Report
Candace Skalla, President
 
It has been another "fast paced" and exciting year for the Friends of Silverbrook Cemetery.
 
A Special thanks to the City Of Niles, Niles District Library, Fort St. Joseph Museum, Bob Cooley (BCGS) and the many volunteers who have donated numerous hours of time, talent and equipment to this effort.
 
The Friends held 21 scheduled work sessions, with 84 volunteers, a total of 261 volunteer hours. Friends cleaned 155 headstones and completed 69 restoration repairs to headstones and monuments.
 
Annual membership dues and donations allowed the Friends to present the City of Niles a check for $400 to purchase additional flags/flag holders for Veteran's gravesites.
 
Highlights of 2008:
 
The Niles Service League featured the entrance gates of Silverbrook Cemetery for their annual "2008" Christmas ornament.
 
Published Author and Friends member Charles Chauncey Wells, descendent of Jonathan Wells, presented Friends with his two publications:

     "Boston's Copp Hill Burying Ground Guide"
     "Preachers, Patriots & Plain Folks Boston's Burying Ground Guide"

Friends donated the books to the Niles District Library, Local History and Genealogy
Department. Ann Flora accepted on behalf of the library.
 
Our monthly meetings featured guest speakers:
*Barb-Griff Cook         "Early Stagecoach in Niles"
*Donna Ochenryder   "Urban Renewal- Before and After Downtown Niles"
                                   Photo Collection 1953-2003
*Elaine Metzger          "John Gipner- He Brought Fane to Niles"
                                   Four Flags Garden Club
 
 
FriendsfSilverbrook.org website has been redesigned by Web Master, Bob Nightingale.

Vickie Caison continues to update the "Photo Gallery". To date 20,570 burial records posted, 2,050 veterans identified and 12,000+ photos in the gallery.
 
"Silverbrook Legacies" articles written by Kathy Hempel, in local newspaper, The Daily Star, has published 31 feature stories.
 
Annual Cemetery Guided Tour in October. Friends volunteers (4) conducted the walk with 10 people attending the tour.
 
Radio interviews with Bobbie Jo Hartline, WGTO radio featured:
  "Silverbrook Legacies" written by Kathy Hempel
  "Guided Walking Tour" for October event.
 
Projected Projects for 2009:
*Help locate Veteran's gravesites for flags for Memorial Day.
*Continue restoration in older part of cemetery.
*To edge around flat markers in Garden of Memory area.
*Design and build enclosed case to hold cemetery map to help visitors locate gravesites.
*Check into the publication of Silverbrook Legacies articles for fundraiser for 2009.
*To get quotes for street signage to identify areas in cemetery.
*To get quotes for numbered markers for annual walking tour.
*To set up committee for National Historic Registry
 
It has been a wonderful year for the Friends of Silverbrook, we are looking forward to spring!

If you haven't been here in a while, you might think you've landed someplace else!  It was time for a change.  This website had been maintained since its inception with Microsoft's Frontpage web editing software.  Microsoft is dropping support for it this year.  That forced us to look for something else. 

We wanted to make this website more of a research portal.  There are binders packed full of really interesting history of the cemetery and the City of Niles. 

I found a Content Management System called Joomla.  Besides having strong support for news articles, it's FREE!  That means that more donations can go into the stone restoration efforts instead of buying software.

When setting up the new website, I tried to use as much of the themes from the old one.  The grave search and photo gallery are the same.  I have a stack of updates to the grave search database.  There are thousands of new photos in the gallery.

Come back often!  If you have any questions or suggestions, please write.

Bob Nightingale, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it