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Ever wonder why there are so many empty spaces in old cemeteries?
Michael Emery, who has spent two decades documenting historic cemeteries throughout southeastern and central Pennsylvania, has concluded that these seemingly empty spaces were once occupied by temporary wooden markers, most of which have rotted away long ago. While some of these were replaced by formal tombstones or markers of modest fieldstones, others were never replaced at all, leaving empty gaps among the oldest memorials in historic graveyards.
Until recently, only one such wooden grave marker was still known to exist in its original location in Southeastern Pennsylvania, at the Bern Historic Graveyard behind Bern Reformed United Church of Christ in Bern Township, Berks County. The wooden marker was situated at the uppermost edge of the cemetery among late-19th century gravestones. A metal G.A.R. military marker suggests that the grave is for a veteran of the American Civil War, but no other identifying features