Descendants of the Revolutionary War unloaded mops, gloves and towels from their cars on a recent Friday, determined to honor military heroes by cleaning their deteriorating gravesites at a Florida burial ground.
After gathering at historic Evergreen Cemetery, deep in Fort Lauderdale’s Harbordale neighborhood, the women weren’t sure where to begin. They lacked a map and depended on a printout of names with hard-to-follow plot listings.
So Laurel Grube, of Coral Springs, picked a random name she could connect with. Civil War veteran Edgar A. Bras had the same first name as her father and died on June 24, 1923, the day before her father was born. She headed for the grave’s vicinity and found Bras’ marker, which showed he served in the war’s Iowa Infantry.
She began to scrub the stone.
“I am so proud to be cleaning his grave,” said Grube, who traces her ancestry to a Revolutionary War drummer boy named Paul Potter, who was born in New Jersey in 1764. “I feel such an emotional connection because of the date and the name.”
Grube and a half-dozen other members of Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) spent the day clearing weeds, sweeping off dirt and spraying water and cleaning agent on the grave markers, which were suffering from storms and humid weather. There are more than 100 veterans buried in the cemetery, which was established around 1910.
The volunteers brainstormed the idea after hearing a talk in May from Christiana Lilly, author of “100 Things to Do in Fort Lauderdale Before You Die,” who was giving a presentation at Stranahan House, the oldest home in Fort Lauderdale. Lilly is a DAR member and traces her lineage back nine generations to Richard Lilley, a behind-the-scenes revolutionary battle planner who lived from 1732 to 1792.
Some of the attendees at Lilly’s presentation were also DAR members and decided to meet at the cemetery to clean the gravesites of Fort Lauderdale pioneer Frank Stranahan and his wife, Ivy, and other family members. The women later agreed to expand their cleanup project to include the gravesites of veterans. Permission was granted by the city of Fort Lauderdale, which has owned the 11-acre property since 1917.
“I am so proud to be cleaning his grave.” — Laurel Grube
Members of the DAR trace their ancestry to men and women who participated in the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) or showed their support for the revolution in other ways. There are chapters throughout the country; the local chapter that took part in the cemetery cleaning was Fontenada in Pompano Beach.
Evergreen Cemetery is one of the oldest burial sites in Broward County and is also the resting place of some Fort Lauderdale founding families such as the Stranahans. There are also several famous people buried in the cemetery, including H. Wayne Huizenga, the Fort Lauderdale businessman who founded AutoNation and Waste Management and owned Blockbuster video, the Miami Dolphins and Florida Panthers. Comic actor Leslie Nielsen is also buried at Evergreen; his gravestone famously says, “Let ‘er rip.”
The DAR volunteers didn’t hesitate to clean up non-veterans’ grave markers that needed tending. Near the Stranahans’ plot, they came upon the grave of Mina Louise Miles, who lived from 1853 to 1933. Her plot was covered with invasive vines.
“She’s saying, ‘Let me out,’ ” DAR member Sarah Moran imagined.
The group cut the weeds that enveloped the marker, swept off the dirt and scoured the stone with D/2 cleaner. Now the name is legible, and can live on in dignity.
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