Last December, Dick Cobb stood between the two largest tombstones in need of repair in the historic Myrtle Grove section of Maplewood Cemetery. At that time, both monuments had been partially disassembled in preparation for cleaning and repair.(Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Dick Cobb removed the six-foot-long capstone, front, from the tombstone of B. Frank Lee, who died August 15, 1899. Subsequently, he removed the four remaining sections of the monument in order to install a new, secure base. See the reassembled (and cleaned) monument in the following photo.(Dick Cobb|Courtesy photo)
The 11-foot-tall tombstone of B. Frank Lee has been restored by Dick Cobb, with help from Mount Olive town employees to re-install the capstone.(Dick Cobb|Courtesy photo)
The ‘before’ photo of the tombstone of Walter Raleigh Lee, who died April 27, 1904. At this point, it had been partially disassembled by Dick Cobb.(Dick Cobb|Courtesy photo)
The ‘after’ photo of the tombstone of Walter Raleigh Lee. Dick Cobb restored the monument; Mount Olive town employees helped put the capstone in place.(Dick Cobb|Courtesy photo)
Looking at these monuments, newly restored by Dick Cobb, one would never guess they are well over 100 years old.(Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Dick Cobb says his next focus in the cemetery will be to straighten tombstones that are leaning.(Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Mount Olive native and Raleigh resident Dick Cobb has been volunteering his time, labor and supplies to clean and repair tombstones in the historic Myrtle Grove section of Maplewood Cemetery since 2017, and he recently achieved a new milestone in his efforts: he has completed restoration of the two largest tombstones in the cemetery that needed repair.
Mountolivetribune.com first reported on Cobb last December, and it was at that time that he said, “Everybody needs an advocate, and I’m the advocate for the cemetery.” Myrtle Grove is especially in need of an advocate, given the fact that its tombstones date back to 1870 and many have suffered significant damage over the decades, caused by both nature (mold and encroaching tree limbs, for example) and man (most notably, vandalism), and the damage was not being addressed. Cobb, whose grandparents are buried in the cemetery, had no experience cleaning or repairing tombstones, but he taught himself how, through research and trial and error.
“When I began working in this cemetery, I had no definitive plan of work or completion goal,” Cobb now states, noting that he didn’t initially give the two large tombstones much thought, as there were so many smaller ones in need of attention. Finally, though, “I reached the point where all the broken tombstones had been repaired except for these last two, so that is when I began working on them.”
Cobb put in about 20 hours of work time on each of the monuments. Each consists of five separate parts, and Cobb explains the challenge involved: “All the parts had to be taken up, a new secure base had to be put in…and then I began moving the large parts [back] into place…I was able to put the first four parts in place, which created a height of about five feet, but I needed help to put the final capstones on top.”
Cobb called Mount Olive mayor pro-tem Steve Wiggins and asked for help. In response, Cobb says, “The town sent me an excellent back-hoe operator and a few supervisors. Both tombstones received their top capstone within about one hour of work.”
The taller of the two monuments is called an obelisk tombstone, according to Cobb, and it stands almost 11 feet tall, with the capstone alone being about six feet. The other tombstone stands at a total height of about seven and a half feet. In addition to disassembling and reassembling both, he also cleaned them so the inscriptions are once again legible.
With this monumental task accomplished, Cobb now plans to focus on trying to return 10 or so leaning tombstones to their upright positions.
