Cemetery Update

We made some interesting discoveries at the cemetery today. You may remember the giant cross made out of footstones that was laid across the foundation of the nineteenth-century church sometime in the 1960s. Well, today we discovered that the cross includes a few headstones, too. Above is the headstone of Amy Myers, who died April 16, 1842 at the age of 88, before and after I cleaned it. We are trying to figure out where she belongs.

We also discovered this fragment of a headstone, with the letters "LUC" and "Sam." Our best guess is that this is Lucinda, or Lucretia, or possibly Lucy, the wife of Samuel.



Below, you can see Susan holding the broken piece of Almira Gilbert's gravestone in place. The piece was sitting right beside the gravestone. As you can tell by the difference in color, it's been a long time since these pieces were whole. You can also see the remains of the cement that were used to fix the stone in the mid-20th century. While well-intentioned, the 20th-century restorers generally didn't do a very good job, using materials that broke down just a few decades later.

Lastly, here is the work I did on the grave of Hester Baker. I wasn't able to remove the ugly black stuff at the bottom, but the grave is a lot brighter now. The base of this stone is not original, but was used to cement the stone upright sometime in the mid-20th century. The base wasn't very well designed - as I was washing the stone, water kept collecting at the foot of the stone on top of the base. If water is allowed to sit on the base like that, the cement keeping the stone in place will probably break down sooner rather than later.