Mark Twain gets his plaque back in Elmira cemetery

Mark Twain has been put back into his place.

The bronze plaque of the author and humorist, stolen from Elmira’s Woodlawn Cemetery last winter, has been reinstalled.

“I drove by there (Sunday). It looks like it had never been removed, which is a good thing," said Bryce Cuyle, superintendent of the city-owned cemetery. "We are happy the plaque is back in place.”

The 15-pound, bronze, bas relief bust of Twain, who wrote many of his famous works during 20 summers in Elmira, was stolen between late December and early January, and recovered Feb. 6.

The bottom edge and two mounting posts were damaged when it was pried off a 12-foot-tall granite monument in the plot where the families of Twain and of his wife, the Langdons, are buried.

Fred Crusade, of Deep Lake Industries in Dundee, repaired and reinstalled the plaque created and installed by his grandfather, Elmira artist Ernfred Anderson, in 1937.

No ceremony or announcement marked the reinstallation of the plaque of the cemetery’s most famous resident.

“It has been a private thing because it is a private lot,” Cuyle said. “Fred Crusade came up a week before to say he would be by. It was no different than somebody coming up here and changing the flowers on their plot.”

The plaque, 17½ inches in length and width, was one of two commissioned by Twain’s daughter, Clara, after his death in 1910. The other, which was untouched, was of her late husband, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, classical musician and founding member of the Detroit Symphony.

“It was bent. It didn’t sit flat in one corner. He had to massage it, work it and get it down so it was flush. He did a real nice job,” Cuyle said.

In a plea agreement, Daniel M. Ruland, 33, of Elmira, was sentenced Aug. 7 to six months in the Chemung County Jail, five years’ probation and $1,575 restitution for stealing and damaging the plaque.

Police have said they don’t know Ruland’s motive and had no evidence he tried to sell it. Court documents say Ruland showed the plaque to a friend, Glen Hunt, and Hunt and his girlfriend worked with police to recover it.

The plaque was appraised at $3,000. The cost to repair it and the source of funds was not immediately known, though Ruland was ordered to make restitution.

The Community Foundation of Elmira-Corning and the Finger Lakes made a $10,000 grant available for the work, but the money has not been used, said Jack Humphries, of West Elmira, president of the Friends of Woodlawn Cemetery, a preservation group.

“We are hoping that the community will continue to respect the final resting places of each and every individual who is encrypted or interred at Woodlawn,” Humphries said.

The cemetery receives daily inquiries about the location of Twain’s grave. Cuyle said the cemetery decided to explain to visitors, many from out of town, what happened to the missing plaque, especially since they hand out a brochure showing both plaques on the monument.

“We wanted to let them know before they went up there,” Cuyler said. “Folks would ask, ‘Why would someone do that?’”

Cuyle doesn’t believe extra security is warranted at the cemetery, especially after the stir the incident caused, and said major vandalism has not been an issue.

Still, Cuyle, whose office and home are within the cemetery, keeps an eye on the Twain-Langdon plot.

“I drive by there a lot, even at night,” he said.

Follow Bob Jamieson on Twitter @SGBob