Burial grounds get new lease on life

By VALERIE TUCKER
Correspondent

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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NEW VINEYARD -- A caravan of cars and trucks snaked slowly along the Anson Valley Road on the sunny fall Saturday afternoon, turning into a large barnyard with a sign advertising pumpkins for sale.

A casual observer might presume that this older crowd was on a fall foliage tour and had stopped to buy some produce and take pictures. A young man was working on a tractor, and an elderly but sociable family dog greeted the visitors with a stick in his mouth. After greeting farm owner Jill Bates, the Maine Old Cemetery Society president Emily Quint led the 25- member group across the field to a small cemetery bordered by a mossy stone wall. "Watch your step, everyone," she cautioned. "This is a working farm."

Her group of followers was on its first stop on a tour of three graveyards in the town. The Friends of New Vineyard Cemeteries have spent countless volunteer hours restoring these pieces of history, documenting the information for state and local records.

Earlier in the day, the group listened to Historical Society members Elaine Wells and Carolee Merrill explain practical advice for hands-on restoration of older burial grounds. The afternoon tour would show the results of some of their hard work.

Although many tour members belong to both groups, each organization has different goals. Both have an interest in genealogy, but the cemetery volunteers track down the older neglected or overgrown graveyards which may have been part of family farms or in a section of the town which burned or simply ceased to exist.

Allison Bates, 18, and a senior at the local Open Bible Christian School, explained to the group that she helped restore the old stones and had developed an interest in history and the family genealogy of early settlers the area. She admitted having a favorite, patting a newly cleaned headstone.

"This is my buddy," she joked. "Everyone say, 'Hi'."

Allison, her family, and other volunteers painstakingly cleared and restored the tiny cemetery on the border of their farm, removing trees, brush, and cleaning the old stones, dating back to the early 1820's. She located the children and mother with the same family surname. "She didn't quit until she had the whole family back together," volunteer William Hargreaves said.

Earlier in the day, the Cemetery Society had presented an award to Pam Partridge's fourth grade elementary class in Anson. The class used global positioning systems and satellite imagery to locate and map cemeteries in their communities.

"This is something that students enjoy doing," Quint said. "They use technology, they go outdoors, and they learn about history and their community."

She suggested the less sure-footed of the group continue to the Daggett cemetery, while the rest carpooled down a mile-long woods road to a gravel pit owned by area logging contractor Peter Tyler.

Embden resident Robert Lane told the story of a long search for this tiny cemetery uncovered in the woods by hunters several years ago. He and his wife, Sandra, began a search 15 years ago for the burial site of his great-great grandparents, Eliza and Samuel Stowell. Lane remembered his great uncle's stories about ancestors in New Vineyard, but the Historical Society and town records did not contain Stowell cemetery records.

State law requires any property owner to report these abandoned burial sites, so the Historical Society hoped loggers or hunters would stumble upon the remains.

Two years ago, hunters saw glimpses of white stone deep in the woods on property which would eventually be logged by Tyler. The Lanes were contacted and learned their search was over. Tyler cleared a small path from his landing into the woods for the Lanes to visit the site, and they began cleaning and restoring the stones. Samuel and Eliza Stowell, their daughter, Alma Etta, and their son, Thaddeus, and his wife, Betsy, were buried here. Alma's headstone revealed that she was only 24 years old when she died in 1888.

"This means a lot to me," Lane said. "This is a link in my family history, and we are happy to know this cemetery really existed."

On this warm sunny Saturday, the respectful guests from as far away as Maryland stood in a small group deep in the silent woods of New Vineyard, sharing a bond of satisfaction that another ancestral resting place would be preserved.