GRAVE CONCERNS - Historic Cemetery News

Cemeteries as an Eagle Scout project

It has been a while since the last column, but that doesn't mean nothing is happening, cemeterially speaking. Boy Scout Harrison Timperley has chosen a cemetery to clean up and repair as an Eagle Scout project. A week ago last Friday he and the rest of Troop 2, East Greenwich, along with many parents and friends, attacked that poor old burying ground and now it is cleared and ready to seed for grass. Four gravestones were found under the soil and they will be raised upright as they should be and cleaned. How much of this project stays with Harrison and when the town commission takes over and finds someone to adopt it is unknown. Who knows, perhaps Harrison will stay on it for several years. At any rate, thanks go out to Troop 2 Scouts and parents for a job well done. It was fitting that the cemetery in question did not have a sign but on the day of cleanup, I was able to bring a new one over and now it has an historical cemetery sign.

Cleaning cemeteries is a wonderful civic activity perfectly suitable for Scouting projects. We offer any assistance we can from helping to select a cemetery to clean to actually helping to clean it. Anyone looking to adopt a cemetery for a cleanup or just to maintain it once it is cleaned up, get in touch with me or someone on the town commission. It really is not a lot of work and it's just a nice thing to do. I plan on going out and mowing a few cemeteries myself each summer morning for old man exercise.

Glenwood Cemetery

... is well along the way to re-organization after having a dormant board of directors for several years. Meetings have been held and the board and slate of officers is filling up. Everyone now is interim as elections will be held for all positions at the annual meeting in the Spring. Anyone with a deed to a plot and/or having family members interred at Glenwood is welcome to attend meetings and we really do want everyone to participate in running this beautiful old New England burial ground. Neighbors and friends of the cemetery are also invited to attend meeting and speak. Vote? No! Speak, yes. All voices will be heard.

The new East Greenwich Cemetery Commission

... has been officially sanctioned by the Town Council and the members have been sworn in. They are: Gene Dumas, Chris Feisthamel, Mary Louise Formisano, Deron Murphy, and Jason Baumier. We are pleased that the commission has filled all the seats and we look forward to working with them. The commission will work with the town's planning department dealing with cemetery issues. The number one role of the commission will be to advise the Town Council on possible legislation as regards to any issues or problems with the town's ancient burial grounds. The number two mission should be to find novel approaches to getting all of them cleaned up and presentable, as they should be. No less historic than the buildings we protect are the cemeteries of those who lived here before us and built those buildings. They are why East Greenwich is historic. It isn't just another loosely tossed adjective.

As East Greenwich representative

...to the R. I. Advisory Commission on Historic Cemeteries (RIACHC) I have walked into just about every known cemetery in town. There are no less than 91 of them. They range from having one or two graves to interments into the hundreds. This old town has been here a long time and it has sent its children out to explore the country and the world for several centuries, leaving some family members behind to spend their eternities in East Greenwich. We owe these people our respect and we owe them our ability to keep their final resting places in good order. For too long, town cemeteries have been vandalized and neglected. Neglect we can fix, vandalism is much harder to deal with. If I have my way, anyone caught vandalizing a cemetery will not get off with a fine, he will be made to put it back better than the way it was.

In my travels in search of elusive burial grounds, I have run across people new to the area who have purchased houses and in some cases their land will with an old cemetery on it. Often there's a big question mark over their heads when I tell them why I am visiting. Two families did not even know there were cemeteries on their property. Most deeds have been updated to show them but it has been a long time coming.

The cans and can't of historic cemeteries

If you have a cemetery on your property, it has to stay a cemetery. You cannot put a pool atop it. You cannot erect a garden shed over it. It is a cemetery and must remain so. However, you do have rights too. You can neglect it. You should not be paying property taxes on the square footage that it takes up. You do not have to put up with people traipsing all over your property to get to it. You should expect visitors to ask if they might visit it and it's the right thing to do to let them. The only people who should be looking at it beside commission members would be descendants of those interred there, family members, genealogical researchers, and the occasional Find-A-Grave photographer. Usually once a gravestone has been photographed, it will be on the internet and need not be photographed again. And depending upon who is buried there, flags might be placed on veterans graves and an occasional Memorial Day or Veterans Day ceremony might take place.

If a visitor is rude, insists they have to right to pass, you do not have to let them pass on your property. You may deny them access.

On the other hand, if they have been respectful and courteous, engage them in conversation. Often they have interesting stories to tell about their ancestors resting below the sod. Proper respect for a cemetery on your property should include a bit of folklore that you might find interesting conversation for your own visiting relatives and guests.

And finally, for now, you may landscape the cemetery. You certainly may keep it mowed along with your lawn. You may also improve it with approved fencing, you may clean the stones (please ask for the proper procedures, do not use chemicals, bleach, etc.) There are proper ways to clean and maintain gravestones. Speak to either a town commission member or email me (bozone@mac.com). I'd be glad to visit and explain the way it should be done.

Do not cut trees or stand fallen gravestones up. Trees can fall on stones and break them. Use professional tree men if it is likely to cause harm. Unsecured upright stones can fall and seriously injure someone. Upright gravestones need to have a proper base and footing. Every effort should be made to have professionals properly upright these stones when they are laying down. Laying down stones that are standing upright is not allowed as wear and tear by the weather and acid rain will erode the lettering. Both the town and state commissions will be glad to help you in such projects.

All town cemeteries are registered and have been assigned a number and that number should be affixed there somehow. But if a standard white sign is too too close to your house and too imposing for your yard decor, there are alternatives. I'm looking into having granite markers with the number engraved into them set in at ground level for those special cases where a state-issued sign is much too imposing.

You can be rightfully proud to have a small family lot in your yard. Make it an asset, not something to hide. Any improvements you want to make should be reviewed and approved by the town commission, but given the condition these poor old cemeteries are in, improvements will probably be allowed. And there often are tax advantages in doing so. But I'm not talking for the town.

In most cases, no new small family graveyards are allowed any longer. The procedures for getting approval rest with the town cemetery commission and ultimately the town council, but unless the property has been in your family's ownership for several decades and is likely to be so for several more, eternity perhaps, approval will probably not be given. It certainly will not be given without a proper perpetual care fund being set up. Adding family members to an already existing cemetery on your property probably will not be approved nor should you introduce deceased family pets to an historic cemetery. Questions on any such innovations can be answered by town commission members when they meet. Doesn't hurt to ask, but don't get your hopes up.  

Thank you for your interest in our cemeteries.