The North Carolina resident was in town last week to meet with Mark Smith, of Gravestone Transformations, to discuss preservation efforts on the cemetery that plays home to members of the Mallow and Hegler families and a few others who were permitted over time to be buried there. Thus far, enough money has been raised to restore four of the markers, but there are several others in dire need of work.

While Mallow has an obvious family connection to the project, she feels the cemetery is a piece of Ross County history worthy of preservation.

“We’re not only trying to save a big part of Frankfort history because these were the founding fathers, but it’s the preservation of something meaningful,” she said.

One of the four grave marker restorations already paid for is that of Adam Mallow Sr., who at six years old was captured by Indians in an attack on Fort Seybert in what was then Virginia and then was brought to Ross County.

“After he became an adult and had grown children, he wanted to come back here because he said it was the most beautiful water he’d ever seen, that was his reasoning,” Mallow said. “He brought the adult children and grandchildren.”

Adam Mallow Sr., fought in the Revolutionary War, while sons Adam Jr., and Henry served in the War of 1812. Joining Adam Mallow Sr., with regard to the marker restorations already funded, are those of his wife, Sarah, Adam Mallow, Jr., and John Mallow. The next stone to be targeted for improvements if funds become available would be that of Henry Mallow, which has come out of the ground and has an entire corner broken off it.

Some others buried in the plot of land have ties to service during the Civil War as well, so, as Diane Mallow puts it, “there’s a lot of history here.”

“Basically, we will take (the markers) up all the way in two of these cases and we’ll take the other (two) apart completely and clean them and put a new foundation under them,” Smith said of the ones already paid for. “A little bit different from what other people do, I count myself as historic and we try to do it historically correct. … We will be resetting these largely the way they were set originally except we will be using finer crushed stone instead of what they used before.

“I’m really big on having things look historically correct.”

The cemetery’s neighbor is the Melvin Stone Quarry, which has donated the gravel for the project. Diane Mallow is hoping other members of the Mallow or Hegler families or those in the community interested in historic preservation will choose to also donate to the work so that as much of the cemetery as possible can be restored.

Those interested in donating the project can do so by visiting GravestoneTransformations.com and clicking on the “Donations” link. There, donors can earmark their donation to a specific project if they so choose.

Smith said the average marker in the cemetery would take around $300 to $450 worth of work, which would put the entire cemetery in roughly the $10,000 to $15,000 range.