By Leon G. Russ
HOMETOWN NEWS

Photo by Leon G. Russ
Sons of Confederate Veterans member Gary Davis points out the fallen headstone of Confederate Veteran Miles Busbee. The group plans to right the fallen stone in the Clifton-Glendale Cemetery.

Restoration work on the Clifton-Glendale Cemetery received a big boost on Saturday, June 5, when members of The Sons of Confederate Veterans from the 2nd Brigade and the Ballenger Camp #68 pitched in to help clear the cemetery of overgrown weeds and brush.
Their help is certainly welcomed by Pat Oxley, the driving force behind the cemetery’s restoration. She, along with Lou Ellen Wilson and Kay Kessler, began the effort to restore the cemetery and they are out each Saturday maintaining the areas that have already been recovered from Mother Nature’s clutches.
Oxley said, “This is wonderful, we’re thrilled to have them.” She added the women would now be able to place Confederate flags on the graves for Confederate Veteran’s Day and Veteran’s Day.
The three ladies have worked tirelessly on the restoration project said having the Sons of Confederate Veterans on hand “is an inspiration to us and it inspires us to keep on.”
The members of the two organizations came out to help out after another Son of Confederate Veteran’s member, Wade Scruggs, had previously came out to the cemetery to look for Confederate Veterans who may have been buried there.
Scruggs walked the entire cemetery and identified and GPS-ed the locations of 15 confederate veteran’s graves.
Scruggs’ survey of the cemetery added six more Confederate Veterans resting sites to the nine the women had already been aware of.
Gary Davis of the 2nd Brigade, which includes members from Spartanburg, Greenville and Laurens Counties, explained the members came out to clean up and clear out debris from the graves and will place small Confederate flags on the veteran’s graves when they are through.
Reidville’s Bill Geen of the Ballenger Camp stated he came out because “I have a great - grandfather who was a Confederate soldier and I honor him and his courage for fighting for what he believed in. I honor him by doing work like this. It’s just honoring your ancestors.”
Jack Marlar, a Sons of Confederate Veterans member from Fountain Inn, said the group promotes “our Southern American history and shows a proper respect for our Confederate dead who died not for what they thought was right but what they knew was right, which was independence, not slavery.”
Davis explained if the group comes upon a known Confederate veteran’s gravestone that is unreadable, they will contact the Veteran’s Administration to place a new headstone on the grave.
Miles Busbee’s gravestone in the Clifton - Glendale Cemetery is still legible but it has been knocked from its base and is lying on the ground. Davis stated the group will work to lift the stone upright and placed onto its base.
Geen marveled at the size of the cemetery, it holds 844 graves. He said he’s often seen overgrown cemeteries “but they are normally about 15 graves in size. I’ve never seen one as big as this” overgrown.
Geen wondered why area families whose ancestors are buried here have let their family member’s graves get overgrown. He’s hoping they’ll join the effort to restore the historic cemetery where they themselves could be buried as land is still available.
The work is not easy. It’s long, hot, and tiresome, but it’s worthwhile.
It’s also not a job that can be completed in one day. Davis stated, “We won’t finish today. We’ll be out here, probably through November.”
The Clifton-Glendale Cemetery is located just off Cherry Hill Road on Blue Heron Road, not far from Broome High School.
If you’d like to aid in the restoration of the Clifton-Glendale Cemetery you can call Pat Oxley at 579-0563.
To learn more about Sons of Confederate Veterans Ballenger Camp #68 in Spartanburg you can email Geen at wdg een@csaincsc.com.
For more local news and events, see this week’s Spartanburg County News.