Where Valor Proudly Sleeps-full title

CHAPTER EIGHT: Cemetery Employees

Additional Photos

Andrew Birdsall (shown here later in life) and his family (bottom) lived in the cemetery from 1883 to 1892. Birdsall and his wife, Julia (middle), are buried there.

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One of the Birdsall girls

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Andrew Birdsall’s calling card while he was superintendent of Hampton National Cemetery in Virginia.

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Superintendent Melker Jefferys and his family

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Robert C. Hart was a long-term employee at the cemetery and served briefly as acting superintendent. Friends called him “Cush.”

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Cutting grass was a full-time job during the temperate months of the year. Much of the work was done with push mowers and scythes, but employees also used mowers pulled by horses or mules.

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In addition to keeping up the cemetery, superintendents had to maintain National Boulevard (now Lafayette Boulevard), which ran from the train station to the graveyard.