has been for sale for some time, as you have seen. The maintenance and ongoing development to keep our non-profit and idealistic platform for contemporary art running and safe from hackers etc. costs money that is no longer there. Because of small investments that are necessary now and the running costs, we will have to shut down with a heavy heart at the beginning of summer on June 21.
Grave encounter in Hilltown leads to friendship
By Theresa Hegel Staff writer | Posted: Monday, May 27, 2013 5:00 am
Dennis Loux was on a mission.
The Rhode Island man came to Hilltown last weekend searching for the final resting place of his great-grandfather, Mahlon B. Loux, a sergeant in the Civil War.
He found much more than he was expecting.
Loux, 64, is the youngest of 11 children. One of his older brothers had begun documenting the family history 40 years ago, and now the task of maintaining the archive has fallen into Loux’s lap.
Armed with a genealogy and a copy of the poem inscribed on Mahlon’s grave, Loux took to the back roads of Bucks County, searching for the German Reformed Church.
“Once you get off the main road, you’re back in the 18th century,” Loux said. “I could actually see the Bucks County countryside as my ancestors saw it.”
However, the reformed church is long gone. In its place for the last 75 years is the Hilltown German Hungarian Sportsman’s Club.
That is where Loux met Hilltown locals Mike McMackin and Steve Wiater, who took him to the small graveyard behind the club. “A stranger walked into the club and asked if anyone had information as to the location of an old churchyard he was searching for”, McMackin said.
Most of the 46 headstones date back to the 1800s. The German club used to maintain the cemetery, back when it received a small fee from descendents. However, as family members died off, the money stopped coming in, the graveyard was forgotten about, McMackin said.
“The cemetery just started to fall into disrepair,” he said.
The headstones have all toppled over, some cracked in two, some half-buried in the ground.
In the back of the cemetery were two sturdy stone slabs that had fallen face-first into the dirt. Loux had a feeling they were the tombs of Mahlon and Katharine Loux, his great-grandparents.
Therefore, McMackin, Wiater and other members of the German club grabbed some tools and levered the graves upright. Sure enough, they belonged to Loux’s ancestors.
What followed was an emotional experience for everyone involved.
“I recall drawing in my breath,” Loux said. “I could see some of the gentlemen, all strong working men, wiping a tear from their eyes.”
Loux knelt by the graves and asked for a moment to be alone with his great-grandparents.
After reconnecting, Loux spent the next two hours chatting with McMackin and Wiater, thanking them for their help.
“We did a simple little deed to help the guy out, and he acted like he won the lottery,” Wiater said.
Loux returned to Rhode Island with two new friends.
“I’ve always had a connection to Bucks County where my great-great-great-great grandfather, Johan Peter Laux, lived in 1748. I was born in Providence, but my heart lies in Bucks County,” he said. “Sharing this, they connected immediately to the same emotion I was feeling. It really is an incredible thing. I feel very close to the folks that I met.”
McMackin and Wiater, for their part, have made a promise to Loux to restore Mahlon and Katharine’s headstones, and get them reset properly in their foundation. The encounter also sparked a renewed interest in restoring and maintaining the other graves, especially those belonging to other Civil War veterans.
“I just felt this was such an important find,” McMackin said. “These soldiers here would have gone unknown.”
His Tombstone Reads: "He sleeps his last sleep, He has fought his last battle, No sound can awaken him to glory again. One less on earth his pain his sorrow and trials to share. One less Pilgrims daily cross to bear. One more crown of the blest to wear. At home and in heaven. 105th Pennsylvania Volunteers"
“The Intelligencer”, Memorial Day May 27, 2013
Across infernal wastelands many miles of sun burnt Hell.
Tribes are scattered limbs and dust all laying as they fell.
Open lies the challenge to all Warriors now dead.
Let the spirits guide the winds until Manitou ascends.
Watch the unseen burial eclipse the blazing sky.
Feast the wings of death with Manitou the soul shall vie.
Distant beats the wardance echo screams out liberty.
Patience stalks the crow, industrail man's scalp brings victory.
Mighty be the powers of the old medicine women.
Whispers of her animal dance flows across the Earth.
Guardian of the elder spirit summoning the storm.
Awaiting the arrival Manitou of flesh is born.
Manitou Warrior
Spiritual fundamental life force - Omnipresent manifests everywhere in organisms, animals, and nature. In direct action against the threat from industrial civilization, a society whose actions are base in human exceptionalism and utilitarianism.
The words are taken from the song Manitou by the band Venom and edited by Anim Ishkode Blackhoof.
