Grave Concerns

News Concerning East Greenwich's Historic Cemeteries

At last evening's Town Council meeting, East Greenwich took the first step to try to get the sadly neglected cemeteries in town cleaned up and into the condition they deserve. The town has approved the formation of a commission to deal with them and now we need five able and active people to volunteer to be on that commission. Notices will soon be appearing describing the process of getting appointed to the commission. As soon as I see something, I'll post it here too.

Yesterday I was sitting in a coffee shop on Main Street watching a fellow taking pictures of our historic town and I thought how much more historic it would be if we gave more than lip service to our past. Year's back I described Main Street as Disney World North but have since admitted that we can never make it look as it did even 50 years ago. We have had to modernize our buildings even as we try to keep them “historic.”

The some 85 family cemeteries in town cannot be modernized. They are what they are, direct and visual ties to the town's history. People come here all the time seeking to connect to their familial roots. Every day people ask for pictures of their ancestor's gravestones on such internet sites as Find-A-Grave. East Greenwich descendants, wherever they live today, are coming home one way or another. What a sad disappointment it is when I have to say on Find-A-Grave that we cannot get to their ancestor's stone because it is laying face down half buried in the ground in a badly overgrown and neglected cemetery I couldn't even get into for the briars and vines.

As the East Greenwich adviser from the state Advisory Commission on Historic Cemeteries, I have all that anyone needs to know about these sacred places. I know what needs to be done and I will gladly pass it all on to the the new Cemetery Commission when it is duly formed and in business. I will work with them as long as I am on the state board and as an “average Joe” even afterward. I can't be on the commission because I do not live and vote in East Greenwich, but I plead with you that if you are even mildly interested in reconnecting with our historical past and its people, get on the commission and see how this interesting historical adventure will excite your interests. It did me.

In other cemetery news, the Friends of Glenwood Cemetery Corporation held a first “informal” meeting at the EG Free Library last Thursday and it was decided to hold an “official first” annual meeting for the election of officers and trustees, since all terms have expired from the previous election. I was nominated acting president for one year to get the thing going, after which presidents will be elected by members of the corporation. If you own a lot in the cemetery, you are a member of the corporation. Everyone interested in the cemetery, including neighbors and the general public, is urged to attend the meeting on Tuesday, October 1st, 7:00PM, at Urquhart-Murphy Funeral Home, 800 Greenwich Avenue, Warwick, RI. For those lot owners not able to attend but interested, proxies are available for me to cast a vote as you wish in your name. Contact me by emailing bozone@me.com. Hope to see you October First.