Friends of Silverbrook Cemetery
2009 Annual Report 
Candace Skalla, President

The Friends of Silverbrook would like to thank 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.

“P.S. Just Bring Flowers” Project:

A special Thank-you to the Four Flags Garden Club and Master Gardener, John Misler, for the beautiful landscape of John Gipner’s family grave site at Silverbrook Cemetery.  It is a fitting tribute to the man who put Niles on the map and earned it the nickname of “The Garden City”.  A dedication is planned at the cemetery in June 2010.

The Annual Membership Drive and generous donations made it possible to purchase a 4 foot X6 foot entrance sign panel with the pre approved art work installed on a black wooden support post and post caps.  The sign panel displays the full size cemetery plot map with the photographs and cemetery history.  Working with the City of Niles, Kathy and Mike Knoll of Gitchell Signs, this signage was placed near the main entrance/ office area.

Highlights of 2009:

The Friends and Bob Cooley, Berrien County Genealogical Society, held 8 Saturday work sessions, with 40 volunteers attending, and 120 volunteer hours given.  Restoration or repairs were completed on 62 headstones.

The Friends of Silverbrook web site is maintained and updated by Bob Nightingale and Vickie Caison.  This past year, our website has had over 10,000 visitors.  At the end of 2009, 12,004 photographs of headstones and 20,108 Grave Search items were posted.  Currently, the “New Feature” of Grave Search linked to photographs has 3,520 to review, and 1,085 obituaries posted.

The “Silverbrook Legacies” series written by Kathy Hempel, published 21 featured stories in The Niles Daily Star, our local newspaper.

Guest Speakers at our monthly meetings:

• Carol Bainbridge, Director, Fort St. Jospeh Museum “Early Berrien County Settlers: Where Did They Come From?  What Did They Do?”
• Dave Roeder- The Brandywine History Club “Historic- Boston, MA”
• Ann Flora, NDL, Local History-Genealogy Dept.  DVD Presentation on “National Geographic on Arlington Cemetery”. 

The Friends gave 5 presentations to:

• Greater Niles Senior Center “Tell your Family Story”
• Family Campers & RV “Cemetery Restoration and Preservation”
• Niles Optimist Club “Silverbrook Legacies”
• Buchanan-Michiana Regional History Days “Friends of Silverbrook”
• Brandywine History Club “Intro to NDL Local History-Genealogy Room”

The Friends donated $100.00 to the City of Niles for purchase of Flags and Flag holders for veteran’s gravesites.

The Friends received a generous donation from Leslie Bookout, family and friends, from Mel’s estate sale. Small flags were also donated.

The Annual Membership Drive is held in April.  The Membership roster currently has 113 members listed.

Projects Funded in 2009:

• New Signage at Cemetery Entrance.
• Donations to Four Flags Garden Club for plants/supplies for the beautification of the Gipner family plot.
• Donation to City of Niles for Veteran’s Flags and flag holders.
• Purchase of cleaning and restoration supplies.
• Printing Membership Letter Drive, Friend’s Brochures, Cemetery Maps and Walking Tour Maps.
• Postage for mailings.

Thank you for your support in this endeavor.  We are looking forward to Spring 2010!

Respectfully, 

Candace Skalla

Gitchell Sign has been asked to give an estimate to create a sign for Silverbrook Cemetery at the request of Friends of Silverbrook.  This sign features a map that visitors can use to locate graves.  At our next meeting on August 20, 7 p.m. at the Law Enforcement Complex, we plan to vote on having this sign made and installed.

You can see a full screen version of the proposed sign by clicking on the image above.

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, webmaster@friendsofsilverbrook.org