Righting a wrong

A representation of the Camas community’s generosity was bolted into place on Friday.

A new granite monument at the grave site of Alexander Stuber was secured into place at the Camas Cemetery by employees from Vancouver Granite Works. The original one, more than 100 years old, was destroyed by vandalism in October 2013.

Vancouver Granite Works worked to replicate the original monument, which included an image of a rose and the Bible verse “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith,” from the second book of Timothy 4:7.

“We kept everything on the new headstone in the order that it was before, but changed the font around a little bit to give it more of an updated look,” said Vancouver Granite Works Owner Joey Fuerstenberg. To re-create the headstone, a rubbing was taken of the original.

Stuber was born in 1866 and died in 1908.

Vancouver Granite Works donated half of the $1,000 cost to replace the monument. The additional funds were donated by local citizens and businesses.

Eunice Abrahamsen, a longtime Camas resident and volunteer with the Friends of the Camas Cemetery, was on hand to watch the installation.

“It looks beautiful, just beautiful,” she said. “They did a great job.”

She gave credit to Camas Police Chief Mitch Lackey, who came up with the idea to reach out to the community for donations.

“None of this would have happened had he not suggested that,” she said.

Abrahamsen said she initially wasn’t sure how the community would respond when asked to step up and give.

“I know people care about this cemetery,” she said. “There were some donors who were anonymous—I have no idea who donated. I just want to thank those people. Those were contributions they made out of the goodness of their hearts and caring for our cemetery.”

The headstone at Stuber’s grave site was one of 15 discovered on Oct. 23 pushed off of their pedestals and onto the ground. Much of the damage took place in the southeast pioneer section of the cemetery. Stuber’s, however, was the only one destroyed.

On Oct. 24, Michael D. Garwood, 21, of Camas, was arrested on 15 counts of violating laws governing the protection of cemeteries and one count of second degree malicious mischief. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office later said it would not file charges against him, although Garwood could be charged in the future following additional investigation.