Minnesota post provides clean-up effort for small town

In the small community of Millerville, Minn., American Legion Post 133 annually visits seven area cemeteries each Memorial Day to provide honors to the veterans buried there. But recently, a few of the post’s Legionnaires added another visit to one of the cemeteries to provide another service.

Past Post 133 Commander Greg Slack and fellow Legionnaires Dwight Droen and Dennis Otto spent a few days cleaning the 350 tombstones at Millerville Cemetery, where some of the gravesites date back to the Civil War. Slack, now Post 133’s treasurer, said an article – and the accompanying photos – in the local paper inspired the trio to do so.

An Echo Press article on a shooting 133 years ago near Millerville that left a Civil War veteran dead included photos of the headstones of those involved in the shooting. Slack said the dirt, mildew and moss that had been built up made it impossible to read the names on the headstones.

“I told Dennis and Dwight ‘I’ve got a couple of these 300-gallon water tanks. I’ve got a pressure washer. Why don’t we go see how hard it (will be to clean the headstones)?’” Slack said. “We had them start looking so nice … that the cemetery board guy said ‘man, that looks like a brand new cemetery.’

“We did about 150 of them the first day … and I said ‘we’re not done yet. We’re going to do them all.’ We didn’t want to just pick out the vets.”

Slack said they came across three or four tombstones dating back to the Civil War over the three days of cleaning. “It just made me feel so good, taking all that off. It was like peeling paint,” he said. “Here comes this guy’s name. One was dated 1808. We found families buried there. It was something we just wanted to do.”

Slack said cleaning the tombstones was another example to show Post 133 is concerned about its community – similar to what it has done in the past when it donated around 30 flags to Millerville to place around the town leading up to Memorial Day.

“It’s a small town, but we sure like to help,” Slack said. “We do what we can for the veterans, but we’re also here to help out our town in any way we can. We do our best.”