The Lewisburg House and Garden Club is pleased to announce the work on the Erskine plot at Old Stone Cemetery is close to competition. It has been the goal of Morgan Bunn of Raleigh, North Carolina, to restore and beautify the cemetery. She is the author of numerous books on the cemetery and those buried there. Her books are for sale at the North House Museum.
Cemetery Trustee Lynn Brody found a fence in Alderson where it originally surrounded a turn-of-the-century home. Bunn bought the fence to replace the one that once enclosed the Erskine family gravestones. Skip Deegans, a volunteer, scraped, sanded and undercoated the old fence sections.
With financial assistance from the Bunn family, the fence was taken to Glen Bryant, a Clifton Forge blacksmith. Bryant made posts and a gate to complement the fence. He adjusted the length of the fence to fit the Erskine plot.
In April, with the financial assistance of the Lewisburg House and Garden Club, Skip Deegans engaged the services of mason William Martin and work commenced to install it around the Erskine plot. The cement foundation for the original fence had sunk significantly, and a cement cap had to be poured over it. Deegans and Martin installed the fence, and Deegans completed it by applying two coats of black paint. Deegans removed the sod, and it is now awaiting planting by the Lewisburg House and Garden Club.
