‘Like a jigsaw puzzle’: Researching history and working in local cemeteries a passion for retiree

Depending on the weather, retiree Vern Paddock often can be found weekday mornings at Volo Cemetery scrub brush in hand, patiently removing layers of dirt, lichen and the grime of time to reveal a clearer picture of history.

Water, a nontoxic cleaning solution, elbow grease and patience are all he needs to refresh a headstone or monument that may have been in place well over a century.

“You couldn’t read it initially,” he says of one of the many headstones he has cleaned in this out-of-the-way cemetery where there have been only three burials in the last 78 years, the most recent in 1974.

“It’s like a jigsaw puzzle and you’re trying to put pieces together,” he said of research that sometimes reveals discrepancies.

He also has identified veterans here and elsewhere and for the past five years has honored them with American flags on Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

At Volo Cemetery, there isn’t a designated parking area and except for Paddock and lifelong friend, Ken Regner, who grew up on a farm next to the cemetery, visitors here are scarce.

“I drive by and am always curious,” Paddock said. “It always has been interesting to me because I grew up in the area.”

In fact, he and Regner met in first grade and attended St. Peter school in Volo through fourth grade, where they were half the class and the only two boys. The school closed in 1961.

Regner said he used to play hide and seek in the cemetery and mowed it for four or five years but never paid attention to who was buried there — until he learned of the Civil War veterans.

In 2023, after attending mass at St. Peter Catholic Church, Paddock found there weren’t any flags placed in the church cemetery, less than a mile away from the Volo Cemetery.

He initially discovered 12 veterans buried at St. Peter and later 26 more, including five Civil War veterans. He was given approval to clean those and hundreds of other gravestones.

Last year, Paddock turned his research to Volo Cemetery.

“I said, ‘Let’s see what’s here,’” he recalled.

Research revealed 11 Civil War veterans at Volo Cemetery. He secured permission from Wauconda Township, which maintains the grounds, for he and Regner to clean those gravestones.

When done, American flags and a brief biography of each of those veterans written by Paddock were placed by the gravestones for Memorial Day and Veterans Day last year. He wrote a brief history of the village, originally called Forksville, and profiles of the 11 Civil War vets for Lake County Genealogical Society’s Quarterly publication.

Among them are Andrew Jackson Raymond who during a brief stint fought Confederates in Virginia. He returned to the area and married Lovina Cook, the daughter of Andrew and Mary Cook, who built the historic farm homestead in Wauconda that’s now the home of the Wauconda Historical Society, Paddock reported.

This year Paddock, with Regner’s help, is back to finish cleaning the rest of the gravestones. About 150 are buried at Volo Cemetery.

“Vern communicates most often with me because part of my responsibilities at the Volo Cemetery is to identify stones that are deteriorating and arrange for a small marble marker to go in the ground in front of the monument,” said Lisa Knight, the township's senior advocate.

“Vern has become very instrumental in bringing the stones ‘back to life’ so I can decipher who they are and order up to 25 identified persons’ small stones once a year,” she added.

Since he was a young man, Paddock has been interested in genealogy and history. Refreshing local cemeteries and restoring respect for those buried there became a passion after a family research project led him to Fort Hill cemetery near Round Lake.

The Paddock family farmed in Lake County for 150 years and six of his relatives including great, great, great-grandmother Lucy Backus Paddock, who died in 1860, are buried at Fort Hill.

Established in 1844, Fort Hill was in poor shape and all but abandoned. A chain of events in 2018 triggered a property transfer and extensive clean up as well as professional repairs to tilted and damaged stones.

During about three years working at Fort Hill, Paddock wrote hundreds of genealogies and launched forthillcemetery.org to share information. He also researched and identified 37 veterans buried there ranging from the War of 1812 to Vietnam.