The Fernwood Cemetery Sign

In the past couple of years there have been several questions and inquiries about the Fernwood Cemetery sign.  Many by people who are quick to voice their concern and opinions but lack a basic knowledge of the situation.  I am writing this short piece for the sole purpose of explaining this situation.

The sole purpose of The Spring-Ford Area Historical Society is preserving the past for the future.  It is in this spirit that we rescued the old sign.  Several years ago after a developer purchased the Fernwood property one of our members drove by and saw a bulldozer literally rolling up the sign into a ball.  He stopped his car and asked the machine operator what was going on. He was told the sign was being scrapped out. He was given orders to remove the sign and get rid of it.  Acting on
the spur of the moment our member asked he if could have it. The operator said
it was of no value now and if he could find men and a truck to take it away
then he could have it.  It was moved to his backyard in Spring City that same day. Several months of work including banging, sanding, scraping and welding
were involved in undoing what it took the dozer 5 minutes to do.   

It was a labor of love and when the project was completed the sign was moved to museum in Royersford.  Volunteers from the society helped set up and paint it.

On January 19, 2009 at the Spring-Ford Area Historical Society board meeting, held in the gallery room of the museum, Evan Ward, local Boy Scout from Sacred Heart troop 231 made his presentation.  Shown in the picture is Evan presenting the Fernwood data disc to William Brunner, president of the society, and to his right are Evan’s parents, Lisa and Shawn Ward. 

In 2008 Evan contacted our society about a service project for Eagle Scout.  He not only wanted a challenge, but a project that would be worthy and one that he could truly be proud of.  We suggested he create a comprehensive map and database of all of Fernwood cemetery.  Bits and pieces of information were very hard to find and he decided to enlist the help of his troop.  Evan, with the help of his fellow scouts, and his parents managed to acquire all of the information and
compose maps and a detailed data base on disc that lists everyone buried at
Fernwood. The large map he made, showing every grave site, hangs in our library
and his log book containing the names of over 4000 people sits on the
shelf.  It is available to the public now, and for those who follow in future generations.

We are proud to display the sign. We respect all of the families with loved ones buried there.  We did not chose to take the sign, only to save it.   I hope this answers the question of why does the local society have the cemetery sign.