A successful effort to get recognition for a Sidney landmark was completed Friday with the placement of a historic marker.
"It's a feeling of accomplishment," said Evy Avery, Sidney Historical Association past president, in discussing what was involved in getting the Pioneer Cemetery on Sidney's Main Street placed on both the state and national Registers of Historic Places.
It is the first property in either the town or village to receive such recognition, Avery said.
The first recorded burial at the site, which now stands between the Sidney Memorial Public Library and the Susquehanna River, was in 1787, she said. The last was in 1890. Among those buried there are nine Revolutionary War veterans, she said.
There were often about five people working on the project that started in early 2006 and was submitted before the end of that year, she said. It received state acceptance in July 2007 and federal approval a couple of months later.
There are about 200 members of the Sidney Historical Association, Avery said.
Among those involved with the work was association secretary Bonnie Curtis. The project included mapping the cemetery and recording the inscriptions on the headstones, she said.
Association records were helpful in the work, but site work was required to make sure the information was right, she said.
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The flooding in 2006 that hit the village damaged the cemetery, Avery said, and slowed the project as the stones had to be checked and pictures of the headstones had to be retaken, she said.
It took the group a while to decide to order the sign that was installed on Friday, from a foundry in Bloomville, Avery said. The more than $800 cost was raised by regular fundraisers, she said.
Besides the recognition, the listing will allow the nonprofit history group to apply for grants to help preserve and restore the town-owned property.
"It's the end of the project," Avery said. But she was hopeful that people in the community would see the sign and become interested in helping preserving local history.
