FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP): An honor guard fired a salute to a Civil War veteran as a rural cemetery near Fort Wayne was rededicated after a cleanup project.
 
The ceremony was held Tuesday near the grave of James McConaughy, who died in 1895 and was buried near his parents in the Pleasant Valley Cemetery outside the community of Hoagland.
 
Daughters of the American Revolution member Cindy Gravatt says the cemetery is now in amazing shape. The group's survey of Allen County cemeteries had found Pleasant Valley a “disgrace” with broken gravestones, untrimmed trees and litter.
 
Madison Township Trustee Troy McDonald says he didn't know until a year ago that the cemetery was the township's responsibility. He says some longtime residents told him the cemetery had looked bad for many years.