Revealing gravestones … and then a plan
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — Reveal.
Gentle chemicals, some muscle, some sunlight and a “touch” more muscle.
Members of the Veterans Advisory Committee (VAC), the Albert Breault VFW Post 1523, a couple Boy Scouts and Mayor Barney Seney joined grave conservation specialist Jonathan Appell of Atlas Preservation in Aspinwall cemetery Aug. 4.
Charles M. Pickett, commander of the VFW Department of Connecticut, was also there and said he thought this was the perfect project with the country’s 250th anniversary coming up. “Great stuff.”
VFW Commander Hans Lowell has had his sights set on restoring and repairing veterans’ gravestones townwide. He’s on a mission and so is the VAC.
Just before the post put flags on veterans’ graves for Memorial Day, in 2020, Lowell was looking for veterans graves in St. Mary’s. He was using a probing stick because many gravestones had fallen over and were difficult to find. Probably for every six or seven gravestones he found, one of them was a veteran.
The need for honoring veterans’ gravestones was obvious. Lowell wanted to start restoring veterans’ gravestones. “I asked myself, ‘do we want to keep having to get somebody to come out?’ I was doing all this myself, with my own supplies and the VAC said ‘We gotta do this.’”
Robert Challinor Jr., chairman of the VAC, said about $6,000 went toward all the supplies and tools needed to restore and repair gravestones, including a 1-ton tripod. Mayor Seney, a life member of the VFW, assured the group that if more supplies/services are needed “We will get them.”
Challenges that became apparent were having fine gravel, sand and topsoil piles placed at the cemetery to be worked on and finding a way to transport a serious amount of water to help with the restoration work.
Appell came for the whole day, first describing the composition and the challenges of old gravestones. He also gave an overview of the traditions, superstitions and markings starting in the 1600s and bringing it forward.
The biggest challenge is biological, he said — mold, mildew, and lichen and more. Marble and slate were the materials of choice for most of the local gravestones as they were more plentiful/cheaper. Sandstone was not common in this area because it was quarried in western Connecticut.
Appell said the marble gravestones were white and polished. Not a century-plus down the line, though. Most of the gravestones the volunteers treated were almost black, not white. Appell said the amount of staining was “profound.” The stains are under the surface of the stone. He added that lichen “eats the stone, digests the stone.”
He coached the group on using a product called Endurance. Volunteers moved along the rows, spraying all sides of perhaps a quarter of the headstones in the cemetery, veterans or not. Appell said they could let it sit 10 minutes and wet scrub (and never using metal) or leave it on. Each time it rains, the cleaner would be reactivated. In the few hours spent in the Aspinwall sun, treated gravestones began to reveal themselves. Dramatically.
Appell also trained some of the volunteers on straightening a gravestone and repairing them.
The key is a gentle investigation. He gently pushes on the gravestone from the side to see if it is sunken in one piece or broken away from its bottom. “A lot of it is investigation, finding out what the pieces are. It’s like we can’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again unless we have all the Humpty Dumpty’s pieces.”
Volunteers helped “Mr. Warren” stand up again. The gravestone had fallen over out of its broken “keyway” base. The keyway looks like a large groove with a ridge all the way around that the gravestone base fits into tightly.
They pulled the gravestone out of the way, dug out the broken keyway base and reinstalled it, level. Then they cleaned it and the ridge piece that had broken away (in one piece, thankfully) and then used a quick-set epoxy to put the ridge back together. Then historic repointing mortar was placed in the keyway.
Mr. Warren’s stone weighed about 400 pounds so they used the tripod to lift, turn and then lower the gravestone onto the keyway base and then used more mortar to seal around the edges.
One of the important veterans buried in Aspinwall, which inspired Lowell to start with that cemetery, was Capt. Joseph Cady. In the early 1700s he moved to Aspinock (later Killingly. Later East Putnam), buying 150 acres. He served in the militia. Lowell found his stone, in need of repair, in the back corner of the cemetery, along with other family members’ stones. The stones had been standing under a very tall, very dead rotted pine tree. The town recently had it removed. It’s still in a thicket so he’ll have to be done later.
Lowell said his goal is to have each veteran’s grave, in every cemetery in town, accounted for and marked with longitude and latitude so they can be precisely located in the future. He’d like to devise a plan going forward where there is a rotation for cleaning and maintenance of the graves.
Each one accounted for and honored.
.
captions:
page 1:
Scraping off centuries of mold and lichen. Expanded photo array Wed. night on our FB page. More photos on page 4. Linda Lemmon photo.
page 4, clockwise from top left:
From left: Hans Lowell, Robert Challinor Jr. and Jon Appell about to lower Mr. Warren into place.
Mr. Warren's keyway back together.
Straightening a gravestone
From left: Matthew, Nathan and Dave Carter, Mayor Barney Seney, Hans Lowell, VFW Dept. of CT Commander Charles Pickett, Robert Challinor Jr.