For this community servant and her team of volunteers, the work isn’t just about honoring Civil War veterans. It’s about uncovering and preserving the stories time almost erased.
On a Saturday morning in early June, Janie Jenkin kneels in front of a dated gravestone in Cedar Bluff Cemetery, on Rockford’s east side.
Jenkin wears a muted gray-green shirt with the words “815 Stone Scrubbers” emblazoned on the front. Her braided pigtails hang from her camouflage hat as beads of sweat drip from her forehead. With a bag of cleaning supplies by her side, Jenkin wipes down the gravestone of a Civil War veteran.
What started as an offer to help a Civil War buff has turned into a labor of love for Jenkin, a bank credit analyst by day. In her free time, she oversees 815 Stone Scrubbers, a nonprofit she founded in 2023, which is dedicated to cleaning and restoring the gravestones of Civil War veterans who are buried in the Rockford area.
Jenkin attributes her passion for honoring fallen soldiers to her Mexican heritage, a culture that believes strongly in honoring the dead. And she comes from a family of aunts, uncles and grandparents who served in wars dating back to the Civil War and World War II…