Keeping history alive by caring for graveyards

CORNWALL — Cemeteries around here are mostly on private property and began as family plots that a volunteer association takes over, carrying on the task of selling plots, arranging for burials and keeping a cemetery maintained.

In Cornwall, it was recently brought to the attention of the selectmen that, under state statute, they may step in and take care of cemeteries, or sections of them, that are more than a century old. The aim is to preserve the historical aspect, especially where war veterans are interred.

At the Calhoun Cemetery on Route 7, across from the Route 45 intersection in Cornwall Bridge, there are graves of Revolutionary War and Civil War soldiers, and many of the town’s first settlers. Some of the old gravestones are so worn as to be unreadable.

Joanne Wojtusiak recently took over as secretary of the Calhoun Cemetery Association, not because she particularly wanted the job, but because she found herself in possession of its jumble of records.

In the small but prominent cemetery, in addition to broken and downed gravestones, there are dead perimeter trees threatening further harm. She has been trying to get funding for at least some of the needed tree and restoration work from state STEAP (Small Town Economic Assistance Program) grants the town applies for on a regular basis. The cemetery has not been a priority in light of the need for economic development and other historic restoration projects.

Wojtusiak said she understands the priorities, but pointed out that old cemeteries are a tourist attraction, especially those on main roads.

She and association treasurer Mary Ann Boughton met at the cemetery recently with the Board of Selectmen and Gary Heaney, of Cornwall Bridge Granite Company, to do an on-site assessment. 

Boughton explained that, from the little information she could find, the cemetery was established in 1773 for the Puffingham settlement. General Herman Swift, a Revolutionary War commander, is buried there. The northerly front portion was called Calhoun Corner, because that family owned those plots. 

While its name may have changed over the decades, what has not changed is driving its future.

Back in the 1930s, plot owners paid $50 each for perpetual care, Wojtusiak said. It may have been a hefty sum then, but it was a one-time assessment that was not going to last forever.

A rough estimate for needed repair work and tree removal is $50,000. 

The plan devised on a very cold morning among the gravestones was for the town to handle some grounds work, the priority being the removal of a dying maple that overhangs the cemetery’s oldest section. 

Heaney will come up with estimates and options for resetting and repairing stones. At the very least, he said, those that have fallen over should be righted to help preserve them. 

First Selectman Gordon Ridgway said his board will assess how it funds cemetery maintenance. It currently budgets $1,000 to mow the grass at five very small cemeteries that are all inactive, and another $1,000 to pay for a portion of mowing at Cornwall Cemetery on Cemetery Hill Road (Route 4). Financial support is not typically given to active cemeteries. The problem here is that Calhoun is not active enough to generate a maintenance fund. It takes just one burial within a 40-year period for a cemetery to be deemed active, but that will not pay the bills. 

The association, basically Wojtusiak and Boughton, will look into other funding sources, such as fundraisers and bequests. Donations are also accepted, and they are tax-deductible. 

Cornwall is not unique in its assortment of small cemeteries. Like other rural towns here, it was once very segmented. Burial grounds were among the first things established in its many village settlements. 

There are 14 here. They are designated by family names or locations, mostly. There is the Wilcox Cemetery at the corner of routes 43 and 63, Old Cornwall Hollow and New Cornwall Hollow, Christians, Allen and Wright cemeteries. The latter is on the old Wright Farm, where there is a separate smallpox cemetery.