Grounds control Attempts to preserve old cemeteries are sometimes a source of conflict

loading...

Cecil Dennison knows of a headstone buried in the trunk of a 30-inch-thick pine tree.

The stone, in an old family plot in Lincolnville, has long since been forgotten by the deceased’s descendants and by the town.

The tree grew up around the marker.

It’s a sad state of affairs, Dennison says, and one he is committed to changing.

Dennison, 59, chairman of the Lincolnville Cemetery Committee, is a relative newcomer to the patient effort to identify, research, maintain and protect the town’s 26 cemeteries.

“I’ve only been doing it about 10 years,” he said.

One of his group’s members is age 88, and several of the committee members have been raking, mowing and repairing markers for 40 to 60 years.

“They’re hard workers,” Dennison said.

They have to be, because it can take years to secure access to some of the old burial plots, some of which are located in old woodlots hundreds of yards behind farmhouses.

Lincolnville has nine abandoned cemeteries that are maintained neither by the town nor by the current property owners.

“Some of them we’ve been hunting down for years,” he said. “Some of them, there were no stones standing at all.”

What keeps Dennison focused on the mission, and what he thinks most clearly about near the end of May each year, are those who served in the military.

“It’s mostly because of the veterans,” he said, though he himself is not one, and “just general respect for our ancestors, and historical preservation. I think cemeteries have a story to tell.”

The town won a grant from MBNA to clean and restore some of the old cemeteries, and that work is under way.

Emily Quint, president of the Maine Old Cemetery Association, said laws support volunteers such as Dennison when there is a veteran buried in an abandoned cemetery.

But a Catch-22 can prevail as volunteers labor to find out just who is buried in an old cemetery.

Quint, who lives in North Anson, estimates there are hundreds of abandoned cemeteries in Somerset County alone. Her interest in cemeteries followed her interest in genealogy.

Dennison reported having some conflict with a landowner who has denied access to a cemetery on the property.

Such disputes are common, Quint said.

She has conferred with Dennison, and advises that a town committee proceed as diplomatically as possible, because state law allows a private landowner to block public access unless there is a veteran buried in the plot.

“Reason is the best way. If you force it, it can get nasty, with lawsuits,” Quint said.

She also recommends a town get easements to a cemetery if an old farm with a private burial ground is being purchased for residential development.

And a private landowner can choose to do the maintenance on an abandoned cemetery, Quint said.

Still, a landowner blocking access does raise red flags.

“When they say you can’t see it, it makes you suspicious,” she said.

Some of the problems Quint has learned about through the association are loggers stacking headstones in a pile so they can cut trees, landowners digging for artifacts, or treasure hunters combing a plot with a metal detector.

A recent state law allows towns to take ownership of abandoned cemeteries, but that is limited to cemeteries established before 1880 and those in which no one has been buried for 75 years.

Recently, Quint has learned of conflicts over cemeteries adjacent to where Freewill Baptist churches once stood.

The churches no longer maintain the cemeteries, but since there have been burials within the past 75 years, the towns are without recourse.

Among the laws supporting those who would preserve and care for old cemeteries are those that prohibit possession of stones or parts of stones, and prohibit possession of artifacts such as old buttons and markers such as those used to designate GAR and Rebekah members.

For information, see the Maine Old Cemetery Association Web site: rootsweb.com/~memoca/moca.htm