NOVEMBER 2023.VOL. 23, NO. 11. PORTLAND, MAINE.
PORTLAND’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER. FREE!
Western Cemetery Uncovered
Another year of volunteer work in Portland's historic Western Cemetery uncovers the first family plot known to belong to a Black family and a rare table stone monument.
"With little interest
and effort, the Western Cemetery might be made a credit and an ornament to our city. Certainly our dead merit it and would cry out against the neglect.
Healing Together
-Nathan Gould, historian, 1913 By J. Peter Monro Another year of Stewards of the Western Cemetery’s extensive on-site A major obelisk in Western Cemetery belonging to the Nutter family before, during, volunteer work has drawn to a close with and after the restoration done by volunteers with professional guidance. -Photos courtesy of Peter Monro many achievements to look back on. For one thing, almost every grave marker along the path by the hillside tombs has at first only as a small white patch in the our volunteers have cleaned 73 gravebeen cleaned, repaired, and re-set upright. grass, a marble emerged that included a stones and repaired 33, including a major fully carved lamb fronting an infant’s small obelisk. The professional conservator Joe As a result, several massive marble gravestone. Ferrannini helped us for several days again tablets for the Poor family covered in dirt Meanwhile, the rough granite head this year with his expert skills and specialand grass in June now stand proudly three and foot stones of Joseph Dresser were ized equipment. to four feet high beside passersby. cleaned and straightened. He died in 1800 Kip deSerres organized a series of This summer and fall, volunteers also even though the first private burials of the tours in October as a trial for the comremoved most of the cemetery’s unwant- Vaughan family only began here twenty-six ing year. Behind the scenes, John Johnson, ed saplings and shrubs, perhaps the site’s years later! a public historian, continues his histormost visible change thus far. Stewards also Late in October, the four legs and ic research to build a nomination of the hired Davey Tree, Inc., to remove dead their apparent ledger tablet for a table cemetery to the National Register of trees and low-hanging branches throughstone monument were located. It is the Historic Places. Stewards’ president John out the grounds. first grave monument of that form discov- Funk readied our upcoming one-time capered in Western Cemetery and may prove ital campaign, while treasurer Sam Wilson Uncovering mysteries to be one of the few in Eastern or West- prepared grant applications. More discoveries and mysteries ern cemeteries that is intact, according After ground-penetrating radar rehave been unveiled. We uncovered and to Ron Romano, an expert on the area’s vealed only an abandoned water line, the restored the first family plot known to nearly gravestones. belong to a Black family. Markers for the These efforts complement last year’s city’s Historic Preservation staff approved descendants of Andrew Barnett and Mary cleaning and repairs to the more than a the construction of a tool shed and new Ann Barnett, originally Marianna de Remidozen grave markers along Vaughan Street. water line near the cemetery’s maintela from Dutch Guyana, included one of nance entry. Overall, in the past two years, 44 of Cont'd on Pg. 18 the most enthralling finds to date. Visible
Wondering how you can help? Maine Community Foundation has created a Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund with 100% of every dollar donated going to those impacted and organizations that will help. Learn more and find mental health resources on Pg. 3.
Stewards of the Western Cemetery Volunteer Work
2 years 44 volunteers 1,000 volunteer hrs 73 gravestones cleaned
33 gravestones repaired
VOTE Nov. 7
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