Cemetery cleanup July 15

NORTH EAST— Spencer’s Corners Cemetery on Merwin Road has a rich past, but residents are worried about its future. That’s why a group is organizing to conduct a restoration project on Saturday, July 15, starting at 8:30 a.m.

The project will include uprighting and leveling monuments, repairing and cleaning markers and tidying up where it’s needed most. Volunteers are being sought, to come with gloves and shovels in hand. Plans are for the cleanup to last all day long.

“We’ll see how it goes,” said volunteer organizer and town Councilman Jim Campbell. 

Campbell said Scott Conklin, who owns the funeral home in Millerton, will offer his expertise — not to mention his tractor. 

“He’s done this sort of thing before, down in Dover,” Campbell said. “We’re  trying to either straighten some of the stones that are now leaning, or in some places, possibly even upright some stones that have toppled.”

Volunteer Al Andrews is also lending a hand. Andrews is likewise going to bring a tractor, and some of his chums from the American Legion, to help with the work.

Then, with the aid of Bruce Valentine, of Valentine Monument Workers in Millerton, the group will try to clean some of the stones. 

Campbell said there’s one in particular, of white marble, that’s been in the cemetery since the Revolutionary War. The stone marks the death of Bezaleel Rudd, a lieutenant, who lived in Millerton until his death.

There are other markers in the cemetery from many years ago. The oldest stone at Spencer’s Corners is from 1701.

“We feel the cemetery is historically significant to the town of North East and the village of Millerton,” said Campbell. “It’s something we should be proud of. There are people who go around just to look at cemeteries, and I think it makes sense to promote it a little bit.”

To really help showcase the cemetery, though, cleanup is needed. Because the cemetery is on a hillside, a lot of the older stones — which were set with  crushed stone or sand and no mortar — have tilted or fallen over. In many instances, said Campbell, the stones are showing their age.

Spencer’s Corners Cemetery is no longer an active cemetery. The town placed a moratorium on it years ago. Now, the town maintains the property, mainly mowing its lawn regularly. 

“They mow it,” said Campbell. “They’re not there to repair gravestones or repair the fence, which should be done and needs to be done, but all that is terribly expensive. What we have here is just a group of volunteers taking it upon themselves to make it better and to enhance what we have there.”

The councilman added that the cemetery is popular, and many still want to be buried there. Unless a “friends of the cemetery” group gets established, though, he said, that is extremely unlikely.

“They have to be willing to take it over, and to take over maintenance, and go through everything with New York state allowing burials,” he said. “It’s a big deal.”

Until that day comes — if it comes — residents are just hoping to keep the cemetery looking its best. If all goes well, Campbell said, the restoration work may become an annual affair.

For more information on the cleanup, call Campbell at 518-789-3138 or the Scott D. Conklin Funeral Home at 518-789-4888.