Greenwich Time, Greenwich, Connecticut
April 5, 1987
When Jeffrey Mead was first given the deeded to his families 120-year-old burial ground in 1985, the grass was so high he couldn't see any of the tombstones.
Mead, the new owner of the Mead cemetery and Cos Cob, believes that old cemeteries are priceless heirlooms to be treasured and maintained.
A 13th generation descendent of John Mead, one of the town's 12 original proprietors, Mead acquired the deed to his family plot after convincing family members that he was the right man to see that it was properly restored.
For the last two Saturdays, Mead encouraged volunteers to help clean up many of the town's other 49 cemeteries. In addition to that, he says, about a dozen cemeteries appear on historical records but cannot be found. Mead says many cemeteries, like his family plot, have become overgrown with bushes.
Rainy weather has dogged both clean up attempts, but Mead is planning to reorganize his campaign later this week.
"I need to study a long-range weather forecast before trying again," he said yesterday. "But I've had a lot of interested phone calls, and I know people want to help."
The Mead cemetery, on the east shore of the Mill Pond in Cos Cob, is one of the towns newest burial sites, dating from the 1860s, Mead said, and has suffered years of neglect.
"The brush had grown so high you couldn't see any of the grave markers," said Mead, who cleared away most of it by himself. "The grass was 2 or 3 feet high."
Mead, a free-lance writer with an interest in history, has restored the family cemetery to a park-like condition. He has the grass cut regularly and has planted bulbs that will produce flowers the spring. He will add some bushes this year he said, and some time in the future wants to put a fence around the one-third-acre property near Relay Place.
Mead wants all the town cemeteries that have suffered from similar neglect to be restored and hopes to form neighborhood volunteer groups who would preserve them. The town's Department of Parks and Recreation continues to maintain many of the larger, more visible cemeteries, but Mead said the smaller ones, hidden from general view, need care.
He planned to kick off his campaign on March 28 at the Close family cemetery on Lake Avenue with a presentation by town historian William Finch and other members of the Historical Society of Greenwich, of which Mead is the youngest board member.
Yesterday, he hoped to organize volunteers to help clean up the Pecksland cemetery on Pecksland Road, the Bonnell-Ferris-Palmer cemetery on Cat Rock Road and the Burying Hill cemetery on Burying Hill Road.
Mead said there are only a handful of town cemeteries, possibly two or three, that are privately owned.
Finch, himself a descendant of several Greenwich families, has been compiling cemetery data for half a century.
"Anyone who could prove to be a descendent of the families buried there can apply for burial rights. The property cannot be disturbed or transferred to new owners until a quitclaim from all descendants has been obtained, something that is almost impossible to do," Finch said.
Occasionally property owners will find an old cemetery on a tract. Finch said they cannot own the plot without legal transfer from all family heirs and which they are, by law, restricted from disturbing. Descendants are also provided the right to get to the cemetery, even if that involves cross allowing them access to private land not part of the burial ground.
Town records indicate there should be 63 cemeteries in Greenwich and outlying areas, but only 50 have been identified. Mead said he has not located the grave of his original ancestor, John Mead whom he presumes is buried in one of the lost cemeteries.
"If we find him, that's fine," Mead said. "At this point not making an active search."
The Mead Cemetery in Cos Cob once belonged to William H. Mead, whose house stood on the site of the present Cos Cob School and whose property crossed over the Post Road and included Mead Avenue, where Jeffrey Mead lives, and the cemetery plot, where William Mead is buried.
The remaining town cemeteries are scattered throughout Greenwich, many containing the last remains of members of prominent families, with names such as Ferris, Lockwood, Finch, Husted and Davis.
"I suppose by now we're all inter-related," said Mead. "Over the years everyone married to someone else's cousin. It's impossible to keep it all straight."
Mead has proposed to the Greenwich Historical Society that it establish a Historic Cemetery Registry, which would identify all the cemeteries, record all the data on the tombstones, including the epitaphs and style of lettering, and research what facts or legends can be found about those buried there.
"The cemeteries are an important part of town history," said Mead. "It should all be documented before the grave markers have become illegible."
Automobile emissions, acid rain and the inevitable erosion of time have made many of the names and dates on the grave markers difficult to read.
Mead has recently become a member of the Association for Gravestone Studies in Needham, Mass., to learn more about preserving the markers.
The original gravestones were simple pieces of fieldstone implanted in the ground with no further identification, Mead said. In later years, a date or a name would be inscribed. By the end of the 18th century gravemarkers were finely chiseled slabs of sandstone, bearing symbols, such as a death's head or an hourglass as well as names, dates and often an epitaph. By the middle of the 19th century they had become elaborate, sometimes chiseled in slate or taking the form of an obelisk, such as can be seen in the Mead plot.
"A great deal can be learned by studying tombstones," Mead said, "how long people lived, when women died in childbirth and when epidemics hit the town.
Mead said the town cemeteries have inspired ideas for several stories he hopes to write. One will be a book about the epitaphs, which he says are interesting reading, telling us how people thought about life 200 years ago.
One of them could be a motto for his neighborhood campaign. It reads:
"Pray look at me as you pass by,
As you are now so once was I.
This is to let you see
What care my child has took for me."
When Jeffrey Mead was first given the deeded to his families 120-year-old burial ground in 1985, the grass was so high he couldn't see any of the tombstones.
Mead, the new owner of the Mead cemetery and Cos Cob, believes that old cemeteries are priceless heirlooms to be treasured and maintained.
A 13th generation descendent of John Mead, one of the town's 12 original proprietors, Mead acquired the deed to his family plot after convincing family members that he was the right man to see that it was properly restored.
For the last two Saturdays, Mead encouraged volunteers to help clean up many of the town's other 49 cemeteries. In addition to that, he says, about a dozen cemeteries appear on historical records but cannot be found. Mead says many cemeteries, like his family plot, have become overgrown with bushes.
Rainy weather has dogged both clean up attempts, but Mead is planning to reorganize his campaign later this week.
"I need to study a long-range weather forecast before trying again," he said yesterday. "But I've had a lot of interested phone calls, and I know people want to help."
The Mead cemetery, on the east shore of the Mill Pond in Cos Cob, is one of the towns newest burial sites, dating from the 1860s, Mead said, and has suffered years of neglect.
"The brush had grown so high you couldn't see any of the grave markers," said Mead, who cleared away most of it by himself. "The grass was 2 or 3 feet high."
Mead, a free-lance writer with an interest in history, has restored the family cemetery to a park-like condition. He has the grass cut regularly and has planted bulbs that will produce flowers the spring. He will add some bushes this year he said, and some time in the future wants to put a fence around the one-third-acre property near Relay Place.
Mead wants all the town cemeteries that have suffered from similar neglect to be restored and hopes to form neighborhood volunteer groups who would preserve them. The town's Department of Parks and Recreation continues to maintain many of the larger, more visible cemeteries, but Mead said the smaller ones, hidden from general view, need care.
He planned to kick off his campaign on March 28 at the Close family cemetery on Lake Avenue with a presentation by town historian William Finch and other members of the Historical Society of Greenwich, of which Mead is the youngest board member.
Yesterday, he hoped to organize volunteers to help clean up the Pecksland cemetery on Pecksland Road, the Bonnell-Ferris-Palmer cemetery on Cat Rock Road and the Burying Hill cemetery on Burying Hill Road.
Mead said there are only a handful of town cemeteries, possibly two or three, that are privately owned.
Finch, himself a descendant of several Greenwich families, has been compiling cemetery data for half a century.
"Anyone who could prove to be a descendent of the families buried there can apply for burial rights. The property cannot be disturbed or transferred to new owners until a quitclaim from all descendants has been obtained, something that is almost impossible to do," Finch said.
Occasionally property owners will find an old cemetery on a tract. Finch said they cannot own the plot without legal transfer from all family heirs and which they are, by law, restricted from disturbing. Descendants are also provided the right to get to the cemetery, even if that involves cross allowing them access to private land not part of the burial ground.
Town records indicate there should be 63 cemeteries in Greenwich and outlying areas, but only 50 have been identified. Mead said he has not located the grave of his original ancestor, John Mead whom he presumes is buried in one of the lost cemeteries.
"If we find him, that's fine," Mead said. "At this point not making an active search."
The Mead Cemetery in Cos Cob once belonged to William H. Mead, whose house stood on the site of the present Cos Cob School and whose property crossed over the Post Road and included Mead Avenue, where Jeffrey Mead lives, and the cemetery plot, where William Mead is buried.
The remaining town cemeteries are scattered throughout Greenwich, many containing the last remains of members of prominent families, with names such as Ferris, Lockwood, Finch, Husted and Davis.
"I suppose by now we're all inter-related," said Mead. "Over the years everyone married to someone else's cousin. It's impossible to keep it all straight."
Mead has proposed to the Greenwich Historical Society that it establish a Historic Cemetery Registry, which would identify all the cemeteries, record all the data on the tombstones, including the epitaphs and style of lettering, and research what facts or legends can be found about those buried there.
"The cemeteries are an important part of town history," said Mead. "It should all be documented before the grave markers have become illegible."
Automobile emissions, acid rain and the inevitable erosion of time have made many of the names and dates on the grave markers difficult to read.
Mead has recently become a member of the Association for Gravestone Studies in Needham, Mass., to learn more about preserving the markers.
The original gravestones were simple pieces of fieldstone implanted in the ground with no further identification, Mead said. In later years, a date or a name would be inscribed. By the end of the 18th century gravemarkers were finely chiseled slabs of sandstone, bearing symbols, such as a death's head or an hourglass as well as names, dates and often an epitaph. By the middle of the 19th century they had become elaborate, sometimes chiseled in slate or taking the form of an obelisk, such as can be seen in the Mead plot.
"A great deal can be learned by studying tombstones," Mead said, "how long people lived, when women died in childbirth and when epidemics hit the town.
Mead said the town cemeteries have inspired ideas for several stories he hopes to write. One will be a book about the epitaphs, which he says are interesting reading, telling us how people thought about life 200 years ago.
One of them could be a motto for his neighborhood campaign. It reads:
"Pray look at me as you pass by,
As you are now so once was I.
This is to let you see
What care my child has took for me."
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