Northside Cemetery workers Ronald Ealy (front) and his brother Merle fix a headstone at the cemetery in Butler.

Backhoes may have replaced shovels for grave digging, but there are still workers who care for the 55-acre North Side Cemetery.

Merle Ealy of New Castle and his brother, Ron Ealy of Butler, are longtime employees. Their duties include the maintenance of more than 9,000 graves.

Merle said he has worked at North Side for 44 years. “I started three days after I graduated from high school,” he said. Ron has been at the cemetery 22 years.

The brothers say it's steady work. In the summer, they mow the grass and trim the weeds, doing the cemetery in sections and then starting over. In the fall, the Ealys use leaf blowers to gather the fallen leaves together and, if they're dry, burn them, or if they're wet, haul them away.

In the winter, there's snow to shovel and walkways to clear. Always there are tombstones to straighten.

And there are burials to attend to. The Ealys don't dig graves by hand; the cemetery contracts out to a backhoe operator for that, but they do square up the gravesite, haul the dirt away before the funeral and fill and seed the grave after a funeral.

“We used to have to fill them by hand, said Ron Ealy. “George (Olenic, North Side's superintendent) told the board 'Those guys aren't getting any younger, it's too hard to shovel by hand.' Now we use a tractor.”

Merle said in the winter, when the ground is too wet to drive the tractor to a gravesite, the brothers still have to fill in a grave by the shovelful.

In addition, they dig the footers for headstones and keep an eye on things.

“We've chased a lot of people out of here,” said Ron, who recalled having to unlock the cemetery gates at 1:30 a.m. for the police to roust a party taking place in the cemetery.

The Ealys added that one time they surprised intruders in the cemetery office, a man and a woman who leapt out the window.

“The woman left the heels of her shoes in the mud,”said Merle.

Just recently a 19-year old fleeing police drove his car through the cemetery gates, damaging both his car and the gates.

“I love working here,” said Merle. “I like it because no one yells at you, only George. He's my fourth boss. The other three are dead and gone.”