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Show Remembering THE by ALICE M. VOLLMAR Forgotten Driven by a deep respect for human life, Charles Rieland has nude it his personal mission to scour old cemeteries and overgrown burial sires, locating the unmarked graves of people and doiqg what he can to keep their legacies alive. Over the last six years, Rieland, who was a Korean War paratrooper; has marked marble headstones provided by die mote than 60 veterans' graves with federal government and placed 183 homemade aluminum crosses, on abandoned burial plots of pioneers. I read about how hard those early settlers worked, and I thought, an unmarked grave can't be the end of their story,'' says Rieland, 69, of Delano, Minn. "It just didn't seem right to me. Riciand's mission starred some years ago when he was puzzled by a grave marker bearing the maiden name of his former wife. He checked historical records and discovered that a girl was buried there. Then Rieland encountered die gravestone of someone named Martin. 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CA and NY reridents please add wits tax. tSTlHN Rieland had read stories about Delano-are- a men who fought in the Gvil War and marveled at tales of settlers who spent all summer clears ing a single acre of land, grubbing out trees with an ax. For any of these people to be buried without a trace didnt set tight with Riehuid. He began looking up and making copies of old obituaries 10,000 in all and discovered that many dead were hla marli on unmarlmd giavsa. unaccounted for in local ceme- teries. He started walking through those cemeteries looking for slight depresuons that might be unmarked gravesites or other dues. When he discovered that the federal government provides free markets for every veteran in in unmarked grave, Rieland vowed to do his part to honor them. For unmarked civilian graves, Rieland makes aluminum crosses and cements each cross into a flowerpot (so it can't be yanked up by pranksters). Then, he digs a hole for the pots at each gtavesite. Having explored and researched many local burial sites, Rieland has gained a reputation as a graveyard sleuth. Now, people from ocher states seek him out to locate lost graves of family members buried in Wright and other nearby counties. One such request came from a woman in Texas looking for her grandparents' graves. I found them and 20 other family members she didnt know existed, mriand jays with a smile. Thanks to Rieland, the Delano Public Cemetery has undergone a needed fspamhm and old, forgotten burial grounds around the region have been cleaned up, says Allen Swenson, a member of the cemetery board. Charlie Rieland is npw president ofthe board, and hes the perfect man for that job, Swenson adds. He's got the time for it and really like what he's doing. He also is good at contacting businesses to solicit donations for the cemetery and places bows on the crosses he's made on Memorial Day, says Neva Adidces, a cemetery board member who has known Rieland since childhood. Since retiring from die insurance business in 1996, Rieland has worked at cemetery sleuthing nearly foil time. Sometimes he finds cemetery records of deaths, then hunts for the burial spot. Other times, he fields phone calls from people telling him of abandoned gravesites they recalled seeing as a child. Chades Rieland is very dedicated, and when he gets on a project, he's persistent and just keeps goiqg on it," says history buff William EppeL chatter member of ' the Delano-FranklTownship Area Historical Society. He often turns to Rieland when he's looking for information about deceed nrfaim wciilwm ' is By remembering the forgotten and keeping their legacies alive, recognizing the mortality of us all. Td like someone to remember me 100 years from now," he says. in Rild Alia NL WtUrntr it tfmUmct writ m Mimmptlu. |