Although Turner Graveyard is one of the city's oldest and is located on one of the East End's busiest streets, it has suffered from obscurity and neglect.

Mark Pearson and a small band of like-minded preservationists hope to change that, beginning with a tour of the Squirrel Hill graveyard from 1 to 3 p.m. today.

Pearson, a Sam's Club meat-cutter by day, is a family historian who also has been researching the Turner family and the graveyard's other known inhabitants for several years. It seems to be the last remnant of John Turner's original 1788 land patent, Federal Hill, now the name of the short street that runs alongside the burial ground.

Turner, born in 1755, was a farmer who sold crops to the garrison at Fort Pitt. His home was near the corner of Loretta and Frank streets. As a child he had been captured by Senecas, who adopted him and his half-brother, Simon Girty.

There are about 60 tombstones or pieces of tombstones in the burial ground, thought to be the city's second oldest after the one associated with Trinity Cathedral, Downtown. Turner is thought to include many more unmarked graves, although some remains later were moved to Allegheny and Homewood cemeteries.

The first burial is thought to have been Turner's mother, Mary Newton Girty, in 1785; the last burial, of Jennifer Sutch, came in 1883. Both Turner and his wife Susanna also are interred there.

Pearson is not related to anyone buried in the graveyard; his interest was sparked when he was married at the adjacent Mary S. Brown/Ames Memorial United Methodist Church. The church organizes maintenance for the graveyard but does not own it.

The self-guided, rain-or-shine tour begins in the church at 3424 Beechwood Blvd., where its pastor, the Rev. James Cannistraci, and Pearson will speak about it. The free tour includes a new guide booklet identifying graves and their significance, although supporters are hoping for donations for marker maintenance and restoration. A fund has been established under the auspices of the church.

Doug Oster writes a blog, "Growing With Doug," exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.