NEWPORT – In true Memorial Day spirit, the Newport Historical Society, community members, area businesses and a group of local students have come together to properly memorialize four young children who were left behind more than 150 years ago by their parents in a small cemetery in town.
“We’re just trying to do our part,” Newport Historical Society President Ron Hopkins said on May 20.
Sometime in the early 1850s, Justus and Mary (Chapin) Kirby sold their family farm on what now is Elm Street, packed their belongings and headed west for Milwaukee. Their reason for leaving is unclear, but they left behind four of their nine children in a small cemetery to the west of the homestead, fenced in by six granite posts linked by metal rails.
After being neglected for more than 150 years, the family cemetery that’s the resting place for four of the Kirby children has been restored and a new headstone memorializing the youngsters has been erected.
Over the years, the cemetery became overgrown and the headstones were broken in pieces or missing altogether. Few knew it was there – likely not the way the Kirbys had hoped their children would be memorialized. This is especially so since the deed stated that they would sell their land except for the cemetery parcel, Hopkins said.
The property has changed hands at least nine times since the original family sold it in the early 1850s, and each deed reads the same – selling all the land but the cemetery site.
The only problem was, more than 150 years of brush and trees grew up around the little cemetery, rocks were dumped in the area, and the four small headstones were forced out of sight or destroyed.
“We thought that the cemetery should be open and have a little more respect,” Hopkins said standing in front of the site that the society has cleaned up. “This was all bushes. There were no stones visible.”
But after poking with a pitchfork while cleaning up the plots, they found the broken stone of Sarah Augusta Kirby buried under 6 inches of soil and propped against one of the granite posts.
“The others, we only found little pieces,” Hopkins said.
The Kirbys’ land now is owned by the Newport School District. A parking lot and the Newport Elementary School have replaced the old family farmhouse. The cemetery sits just past what now is third base for the elementary school’s ball field and to the right of a large lilac bush.
While he was cleaning the site, Hopkins said, fourth-grade teacher Sheila Cochrane approached him and asked if she could bring her class out to talk with him about what he was doing.
He asked what to tell them, and she said, “Just tell them the truth.”
“They were just so curious,” Cochrane said. “One of the boys, they always thought this was a wrestling ring.”
The children soon learned otherwise and the class decided to raise money to help pay for a new headstone for the Kirby children. A couple of weeks later, Cochrane presented Hopkins with a check for $42, representing bottles the students had collected and redeemed to put toward the marker.
The headstone was put in place recently, donated at a much-reduced cost by Newport Monument and engraved with each child’s name – Sarah Augusta, Sarah Maria, Edward Justus and Frederick Henry.
When a portion of Sarah Augusta’s headstone was uncovered during the cleanup, Cochrane’s students did a rubbing of the stone dated Dec. 26, 1836.
“It was neat,” Bailey Ayer, 10, of Newport said last Tuesday.
“We never noticed it before,” Judy Yau, 11, of Newport said.
She added that Memorial Day is about “being grateful for the ones who died.”
Both girls said they intend to do as Hopkins and others have suggested and act as stewards of the Kirby family cemetery to ensure that the children’s graves are properly and respectfully cared for.
Not only did Hopkins and the historical society want to ensure that the grave site was properly restored, they also became curious about the family and its history. After extensive research, they discovered that Justus Kirby and his wife, Mary Chapin, came to Newport in 1827 from Norridgewock. Justus was born Dec. 6, 1805, in Starks and Mary three years later on Aug. 23, likely in Skowhegan.
In 1830, Justus Kirby was a wagon maker in Newport and operated one of only two stores in town. Kirby’s store had a value of $800 and $1,000 worth of stock in trade, according to historic documents.
It’s unclear how the Kirby children died, but it’s speculated that there may have been complications during childbirth or some type of epidemic, Hopkins said.
Why the couple decided to uproot their family and move West is a mystery, but at the time Justus Kirby’s real estate was worth $40,000 and his personal worth was $14,000. In today’s market, that would be slightly more than $616,000 and $215,000, respectively.
“How hard it must have been for Justus and Mary to leave the four little ones behind,” Hopkins said during the ceremony to dedicate the new stone.
“I’m sure they hoped that someone would look after their babies. After over 150 years, I hope they are pleased.”
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