Cemetery Care

Memorial Day is upon us for another year. If you made your annual pilgrimage to the cemetery and found it well-trimmed and groomed, it was one of a minority. Someone recently quoted an anonymous writer’s gem. “You can judge a civilization by the way it cares for its dead!”

A country ride reveals many a neglected graveyard, lost among the bushes, briers, and hay. One cemetery is in a growth of trees in Belmont, where only a hunter or stray stroller may come across the gravestone of a man who died in 1838, aged forty-seven years. His inscription reads: “Long shall thy memory be revered By those who knew thy worth; By those who whom thou wast endeared, By strongest ties on earth.” Many read, “Gone but not forgotten!” No one recalls the name of John Hall, though the area is named after him, nor knows that he is entombed there.

In June 1993 an old book of the minutes of Union Cemetery Association, Inc. in the Millertown section of Lincolnville was brought to light, containing some interesting information.

Among the oldest gravestones in Union Cemetery were Nalor Mariner who died April 30, 1820, aged 76 years; Westbrook Knight who died May 8, 1818, aged 47 years; Sarah Wadsworth, who died Oct. 27, 1826. Perhaps the first one buried in the yard was Benjamin Stetson, who died August 29, 1812. In the early days, the cemeteries were called “the burying ground.”

The cemetery holds many memories. We have five generations of ancestors and relatives buried there. It is a place of sorrow for some, a place of peace and solitude for others. Sarah Mariner’s epitaph reads: “Religion filled her soul with peace Upon a dying bed; Let faith look up, let sorrow cease, She lives with Christ o’er head.”

In Lincolnville on August 11, 1925, a group of people met to incorporate a Union Cemetery Association. Among the names included were Earl C. Young, Ernest Dickey, Hollis Dean, Horace A. Miller, A. H. Miller, Carrie E. Hall, and Melvin F. Dickey. A list of by-laws was enacted and an entertainment committee named, who were: Mrs. H.A. [Annie] Miller, Carrie A. Hall, Bertha E. Deane, Annie M. Lermond, Arne Knight, sisters, Myra Belle Russ and Effie N. Gray. Hazel M. (Miller) Pottle was Secretary.

Each year the Association met at the residence of one of the duly elected officers and reported on how much money had been taken in, and how it had been spent. Today we discuss mowing and trimming the cemetery. In the 1920s, it probably was done once a year, as someone was paid to do the haying in the yard.

In 1927, the meeting was held in the “Red Cross Room” at Miller’s Corner. In 1928, it was voted to assess lot owners 50 cents each to help care for the cemetery, though many only paid 25 cents. Times were hard. In 1932, it was suggested that “we send out cards asking people having lots to give whatever they felt they could toward the general upkeep of cemetery and fence.” A haying bee was held in 1933. “Percy Wellman took Ernest Mahoney’s place in the afternoon for $1, and gave time for himself in the forenoon.”

I found it humorous that a cemetery committee had an “entertainment committee”, but that was explained in the 1933 report. Most, if not all of the Union Cemetery Association Inc. were members of Tranquility Grange. That year “Another suggestion was that we have card parties and sell ice cream and cake having those donated or other refreshments.” Apparently, that didn’t work, as the next year it was voted to have a committee of four collect instead of a social, including Grace Mahoney, Beach; Elsie Nickerson to Grange Hall; Carrie Hall over Road and up to Earl Young’s and Annie Lermond, as far as Grange.

Over the years, money had been left to the association or to the town, the interest to be used for the upkeep of the cemetery. As in the early days, the funds are harder and harder to come by. You cannot now hire someone to mow for $1. a day. These days the Cemetery Association looks to the descendants to those buried in the cemetery to give donations to help with the mowing, keeping the driveway up, and make repairs to many of the gravestones that are suffering from the environment. Help your local cemetery. There is always a need for money for expenses.