Volunteers clean gravestones

#Middelbury #Cemetery #Gravestones

Tom Cunningham, far right, head of the gravestone cleaning project is shown in Middlebury Cemetery with gravestone cleaning volunteers, left to right, Dana Shepard, Bill Giuditta, Sean Coughlin, and Suzanne Meyers in September. That’s when they met to learn how to clean stones and then work on them. (Robert Rafford photos)

By Dr. ROBERT L. RAFFORD

Visitors to Middlebury Cemetery on Cemetery Road may notice the oldest gravestones there have recently received some tender loving care. They no longer are covered with algae and lichen almost to the point of obscurity. Instead, the unwanted growths are gone, and the stones look more like they did when they were first put in place as long ago as 1773.

The Middlebury Historical Society (MHS) and the Middlebury Cemetery Association (MCA) are working together, along with a small core of dedicated volunteers, to restore the gravestones. Heading up the project is Tom Cunningham, an MCA board member who trains new volunteers and joins them on work days in the cemetery.

Cunningham said, “I think it’s really important to preserve these stones because they represent those who came before us and founded our town and our nation.” He and his wife, Ann (Crutcher) Cunningham, moved here from Alabama in May 2020, and Tom immediately went looking for projects that needed volunteers.

“I was looking for something to do and dropped by the Historical Society one day and asked what I could do for them. Bob (Rafford) told me about the headstone cleaning project,” he said. Tom said the cemetery is literally where the town’s history is cast in stone. And he has a great interest in history, particularly that of the American Revolution. “These are the people who founded the nation,” he said of those buried in Middlebury Cemetery.

Cunningham said cleaning began in the oldest of five sections in the cemetery. To date, about 420 of the 450 gravestones in that section have been cleaned. The plan is to move section by section from the oldest gravestones to the newest.

He said core volunteers number four or five, and eight to 10 additional volunteers join them on occasion. Volunteers are welcome regardless of where they live; current volunteers include people from Bethlehem, Danbury, Woodbury and Waterbury.

Cunningham trains new volunteers, showing them the products to use and how to properly clean the gravestones. The goal is to clean a stone but take care not to damage it. “It’s important to do it correctly,” he said, noting that some stones are more susceptible to abrasion than others and too vigorous a cleaning can be harmful.

This photo shows a Clark family stone before (left) and after (right) cleaning. The before shot shows the back and side and the after shot the front, but all sides were encrusted with lichen and algae.

MHS President Bob Rafford said family members can contact him if they would like their family stones cleaned. They just need to identify the stones for him. In return, Rafford said, a donation to the historical society would be appreciated.

Rafford, also an MCA board member, got this project started in 2019, when he contacted Ruth Shapleigh-Brown, head of the Connecticut Gravestone Network and an expert in cleaning, preserving and protecting cemeteries. Rafford said he was concerned about the gravestones and felt they needed care.

In June 2019, Rafford, Shapleigh-Brown and 10 volunteers met at the Middlebury Cemetery. She showed the group how to carefully clean headstones that had been ravaged through time with lichen, algae, airborne pollutants and soil.

The summer of 2020, volunteers began cleaning gravestones. In September 2021, 15 more volunteers signed up to meet for instructions and cleaning. MHS supplies the cleaning products and most of the tools needed for the project. The MCA pays for them and also sponsored and paid for the 2019 workshop.

Rafford said Middlebury Cemetery is the older of the two cemeteries in town, the other being Lake Elise Cemetery. The headstones in the older cemetery date to the 1770s. The town’s original cemetery at the intersection of Tyler Crossing and Breakneck Hill Road, was discontinued, and stones were brought to the “new” cemetery in 1796.

He said Middlebury Cemetery has more than 2,000 gravestones, including those of many founders. Weather permitting, work will continue for a while this year and then resume next spring. Those interested in joining the project will find contact information at the end of this article. Volunteers are notified of cleaning events by email.

Rafford said cleaning the stones gives one the opportunity to become familiar with our local history, and to let our veterans know they are not forgotten and will continue to be honored in as many ways as is possible.

To volunteer, contact the historical society at 203-206-4717 or robraff@comcast.net. See the historical society’s website at MiddleburyHistoricalSociety.org for more details.

Marjorie Needham contributed to this article.