Imagine the horror of West Newton Cemetery worker Herb Keck who found the coffins containing the remains of Sutersville’s founder and his wife broken open and laid out in front of their burglarized mausoleum, ransacked by robbers in search of valuables almost 100 years ago.
Now, the stone mausoleum holding the earthly remains of Eli C. Suter, his wife, Mary, and two sons, is undergoing a much-needed face-lift. The door had been bricked over after it was ruined in the burglary and the windows were cemented. It is identifiable by the Suter name etched into the stone above what had been the entrance.
“We wanted to make it an aesthetically pleasing part of the cemetery,” said Ben Markle, cemetery manager. “Our staff makes repairs to stones when needed.” Markle added.
Newspaper accounts from February 1922 state that the burglar or burglars broke Suter’s metallic coffin in search of jewels or other valuables. Part of Suter’s hand was broken, possibly by the vandals stealing rings from his fingers.
Suter was a successful businessman who purchased the land he would later divide into lots for the town of Sutersville. He died in 1904, a year after the town was founded. He was the first to buried in the 19- by 12-foot mausoleum, with the last burial in 1927, according to cemetery records, Markle said.
The Suter mausoleum is one of eight turn-of-the-century mausoleums in the cemetery, but the only one made of sandstone, which has made it more susceptible to erosion and the annual freeze-thaw cycles from 100-plus years of winter weather, Markle said.
Artie Cochenour Masonry of Turkeytown was hired by the cemetery association at a cost of a few thousand dollars to remove, reface and reinsert several large five-inch-thick stone slabs that had bowed outward and then repoint the stone with new grout, Markle said. New cement was placed over the area where windows once had been. The entrance, once covered by a door that allowed for burials inside the mausoleum after Suter died, will be resurfaced as well, Markle added.
Suter’s resting place, topped with a roof of long gray granite slabs, was not in danger of collapsing when the stones were removed because of how the slabs were laid one atop the other in a manner to provide support, Art Cochenour said.
Although the Suter family set aside money for perpetual care, all the funds were spent by 1961, when the association contacted a Suter heir in New York City to inform her that the mausoleum was in need of repairs. The association, however, does not have any record of receiving a reply, Markle said, and there are no known Suter heirs to pay for its renovation.
While the association covered the cost of the initial repairs, Markle said the cemetery organization wants to raise about $3,000 to cover the brick doorway with natural sandstone so it matches the rest of the mausoleum, Markle said.
“We want to hire a stone cutter to sandblast the names of the deceased into the newly laid stones,” Markle said.
A GoFundMe page has been created on the West Newton Cemetery Facebook page to help pay for the project, Markle said. Donors also can send checks to the West Newton Cemetery, 210 Vernon D., West Newton, PA 15089.
