Joseph Wagner & Maria Koreman, bio & gravesite restoration

In mid Spring, I took a ride to Our Lady Help of Christians cemetery in Glenmont to do a quick check on the family plots to see if they needed attention this Summer. While at the cemetery I noticed that an old cast iron bench was missing which belonged to the family of a woman who married one of my cousins. I called her to notify her about the missing bench and during our conversation she asked if I would check on her grandparents grave site. I obliged and while looking for the grave I literally tripped over a set of stones that were spread over the ground and I noticed that those stones were those of my great great grandfather's older sister, Maria Koreman, who married Joseph Wagner. Then a memory from long ago immediately came back to me. Years ago, while at the cemetery with my grandfather, Joseph Koreman, we were visiting the grave site of his grandfather, Henry Koreman, and he mentioned to me that over there is another relative somehow related to the family. It was never followed up by myself and then it all clicked when I stumbled on the graves. Unfortunately, the grave site was a complete disaster. There were only three stones. One, was still attached to its base but was leaning forward just waiting to break; the second stone was broken in three sections and also broken from its un-level base; and the third stone was broken from its un-level base. Below is a photo of the site and the condition of the stones on March 30th.

Spring-time photo of grave site 

Seeing this I knew that I had an additional cemetery job to handle. So that nothing would hopefully happen to the stones before I could get to rehabbing them, I leaned the stones against the only upright stone and placed a flag in the ground with them. The flag was mysteriously gone when the rehab began. Joseph Wagner was mustered in the 7th Heavy Artillery during the Civil War. Below is a picture of the grave site in April. Finally work began on the site on Thursday, August 13th.

While I was waiting for the weather to warm up; some research on Joseph & Maria was conducted. Both, Joseph & Maria, were immigrants. Joseph was born 03 September 1845 in Frankfort, Prussia. He immigrated to America circa 1859 with his siblings and parents, Conrad & Barbara Wagner. Maria was born Maria Allegonda Koreman on 16 March 1838 in Zierikzee, Netherlands. Below is a scan of Maria's birth certificate from Zierikzee.

Maria Allegonda Koreman, birth certificate

Maria immigrated to the United States with her siblings and parents Cornelis Koreman and Maria Catharina Colen circa 1852. Joseph and Maria were married at Holy Cross Church in Albany on 04 May 1869. They had the following children:

• Mary A., born 15 May 1870
• Margaret A., born 17 November 1872, married Charles Aloyisus Beck
• Barbara, born 20 April 1875
• Joseph, born 03 November 1877
• Anna B., born 29 May 1880
• John Joseph, born 12 August 1884

Joseph and Maria lived for many years at 8 Osborn Street in Albany's South End. Brother, Henry Koreman lived up the street at house number 16 for over thirty years. Below is a photo of 8 Osborn Street today. Fortunately the house is still standing. I am not sure if the house is original or the facade has changed over the years. This is questioned because this style home does not fit the architectural style of the surrounding homes.

Below is a photo of a trunk key and name tag listing Joseph Wagner as living at 8 Osborn Street.

As mentioned earlier, Joseph was mustered in the 7th Heavy Artillery and before being mustered out was seriously injured. According to his pension records, his left arm above his elbow had a scar that was five inches long and three inches wide and that "all of the muscles were shattered." Perhaps he was hit with grapeshot? Below is a scan of Maria's Declaration for Widow's Pension.

Joseph died 03 August 1904 and on 08 July 1908 Maria followed him. Both buried in Glenmont. Below is a series of photos of the grave site rehab project which occurred over a three day period. Getting set up; the area looks like a construction site.

Photo below of the condition of the site before beginning work.

The first stone worked on was Maria's. Her stone was broken in three pieces and also broken at its base. First step was to clean all of the pieces with D2 to get them ready for epoxying them together.

Next, the upper two pieces of her stone were epoxied together using a conservator's professional grade epoxy from a German company, Akemi. The two stones were then clamped together overnight.

After putting the top two pieces of grave stone together, my next step was to re drill the lower stone and its base so that the marble could be re pinned for better stability, Below is the final product after cleaning, re pinning and motaring the base with a lime based mortar, Lithomex. 

Next, the stone to the right, son, John J. Wagner's was lifted and its base leveled. Had the stone been left leaning forward, in time the marble where the pins are located would have broken due to stress on the stone. This adverted a future stone failure.

Joseph's stone was worked on next. His stone's base was re leveled and there was already a repair made to his stone sometime in the past. All of the Portland cement that was on the base was chipped off to make for a smooth surface to reattach the stone and base. Both the stone and base were re pinned and mortared with Lithomex.

The next day, on Friday, I came back to check on the top two pieces that were epoxied. Unfortunately the break occurred right where Maria's dates are located on the stone. They are practically unreadable. Also there was not much surface area to bond the stones together. Therefore the upper stone was re pinned with the lower section and epoxy was placed where the sections met. The stone also has a lot of missing surface area that needs to be fabricated. Below is a photo of the stone with the top section on the lower before the clamp was placed.

Below is the stone, re pinned, epoxied, and clamped. The next day the clamp will be removed and Lithomex will be used to fill in the seams and where the stone is missing and also to help stabilize the top portion of the stone to the lower. 

The below photos are the final product of efforts at restoring Maria Koreman Wagner's grave stone and that of her husband, Joseph Wagner, and her son, John J. Wagner. When dry the Lithomex filler should fade to more closely match the actual stone color making the seam less noticeable. 

The Wagner plot restored, below, Saturday evening, 15 August 2015.