A Graveyard Shift for History (June, 1988)

by Andre Thibault, Staff Writer
Greenwich Time, Greenwich, Connecticut
June, 1988

(Caption: Robbie Mackenzie rakes leaves yesterday from around tombstones at the Cherry Hill Cemetery. Staff photo by Mel Greer).

Lawrence Hutchison Douglas touched history and got his hands dirty yesterday.

Douglas, 14, a ninth-grader at Greenwich Country Day School, spent most 0f the day pulling weeds, hauling logs and scraping dirt off gravestones at Cherry Hill Cemetery off Stanwich Road.

This is an image of the cemetery captured by Ferris-descendant Suzanne Baetz, on June 14, 2015.

Douglas said he undertook the mission not only to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, but also out of respect for history and the dead. "I'd hate to be one of the forgotten stones in the cemetery and have a log pile on my stone," he said.

As the sounds of the rock group Def Leppard rang from a portable stereo through the wooded area that was once part of the Lockwood family farm, Douglas pointed to the tombstone of a Revolutionary War soldier, Ezekiel Reynolds, who lived from 1747 to 1833. Another stone, of Nathaniel Ferris, 1702-1764, was the oldest found yesterday. 

"I have fun reading the gravestones," Douglas said. "I mainly enjoy American history.

Others in the group of about 10 other Scouts, their leaders, and members of the Greenwich Historical Society, had a more personal stake in the work.

Mabie said the Lockwood Farm once took up more than 200 acres on both sides of Stanwich Road, before it was broken up in the 1850s.

"I sometimes come here to get away," said Mabie, holding a rake in his calloused hands. "To know that my family has been in Greenwich since the mid-1600s and that many of them are here gives me a sense of place."

He believes that his great-great-great-grandfather, Thaddeus Lockwood, is buried somewhere in the western corner of the cemetery. Lockwood, a farmer, lived from 1719 to 1812.

The cleanup project was organized by Jeffrey Mead, 29, of Cos Cob, a graduate student and cemetery caretaker.

Mead, a Historical Society member, noticed about three years ago that his family cemetery off Relay Place was turning into a wasteland. Chicken wire, glass and plastic bottles had been dumped nearby, and the grass was about two feet high. He spent the last three years cleaning up the mess, and he did such a good job, his family gave him the cemetery.

"Usually people start out getting a house," he said. "I guess Ive done it backwards."

The Society noticed his wrk, said the group's president, Claire Vanderbilt, and Mead was appointed chairman of the Burial Grounds Committee.

While working toward a master's degree in teaching at Manhattanville College, Mead is also compiling a book of epitaph poems. He said he hopes to have the book ready by Halloween.

He looked at one of the epitaphs yesterday, on the stone of Job Austin, who died Aug. 11, 1779, at the age of 46.

"Remember me as you pass by," it said. "For as you are now, so once was I. As I am, so you must be. Prepare for death, and follow me."

The letters of the last few words are smaller, Mead said, because space was running out on the stone.

"It's pretty morbid," he said, laughing.

In a more serious vein, Mead said the students doing more than just pushing dirty around and tidying up. "This is historic preservation," he said, "but we try to make it festive with the radio, music and pizza."

John Tracy, 13, an eighth grader at Greenwich Elementary School agreed.

In between bites of pizza, Tracy said he saw several dimensions to the project. "I'm killing three birds with one stone," he said, "my confirmation project, my Scout project and a school assignment."