News

Prisoners to patch up old gravestones

October 9, 2007 By Alan J. Keays Rutland Herald Staff

Prison work crews around the state may soon be taking part in a new initiative that won't involve breaking rocks. Instead it involves putting old stones back together, and that could be a boon for the state's old cemeteries.

Thomas Giffin, president of the nonprofit Vermont Old Cemetery Association, held a training recently at the West Street Cemetery in Rutland for about 10 state Department of Corrections prison work-crew leaders to teach them the ins and outs of repairing broken grave markers and cemetery stones.

"I'm training them on how to repair cemeteries. Then they can go out with their work crews around the state and help repair stones in cemeteries," said Giffin, who also works for the department as a casework supervisor at the Rutland jail and serves as a Rutland City Cemetery commissioner.

"It allows the work crews to give back to the community," Griffin said. "It also helps with the mission of the Old Cemetery Association to repair the stones so that the history is still here."Work-crew supervisors from around the state, including Rutland, St. Johnsbury, Burlington, Barre, and Bennington, took place in the training session. They learned about the importance of treating the heavy stones delicately, and making sure the stones are level when they are put back in place.

John Cook, a Corrections work-crew supervisor from Bennington County, said the offenders he supervises do work, such as mowing, in cemeteries already.

"Down in Bennington County we have a lot of old cemeteries," Cook said during a break in the training session. "The gravestones that we can fix we do fix, but this training is going to bring our skills along that much further."

People are assigned to the work crew as part of their sentence for minor criminal offenses, such as drug possession, retail theft, driving with a suspended license or disorderly conduct.

In the West Street Cemetery, Giffin said, several marble stones had been overturned through the years by vandals and storms. In some cases, the stones need to be placed back on their pedestals. In others, the only way to right the stones is dig new holes to put them in.

In both cases, one of the key ingredients is the muscle needed to lift and move the heavy marble stones back into place. And that's one of the ingredients that the prison crews are expected to provide.

"The work involves a lot of labor and a lot of epoxying," Giffin said.

Charles Marchant of Townshend, secretary of the Vermont Old Cemetery Association, assisted Giffin in providing some of the technical expertise during the training session, offering tips he has learned over the years in repairing gravestones.

"We try to use as little cement as possible," said Marchant, who travels around New England putting on training workshop in cemetery restorations. "Once you use cement, it's kind of permanent. A lot of times cement fails. Our climate is not good for preservation of stones."

One of the stones fixed by the work crew team leaders this week marked the grave of Ellen Thompson, who died Dec. 22, 1865. A more than 500-pound marble stone had fallen off its pedestal, most likely a result of vandalism.

"We put the stone back on and epoxyed it and made sure it was level," Giffin said.

"You have to level everything," Marchant added. "If you don't make sure it's level you're just wasting your time."

Another smaller stone, marking the grave of Joseph Langley, who died Jan. 7, 1824, at age 27, was also repaired. The stone was reset in the ground after a little digging.

The top of the marker included the words, "Memento Mori."

"It means remember death," Giffin said of the phrase.

Giffin said the prison program is designed for municipally owned cemeteries, adding that prison work crews already do lawn maintenance and brush removal at some municipal cemeteries. Now, the goal is to have the work crews do a bit more.

Giffin said the outdoor work the crews typically do, such as mowing and removing brush, isn't as much in demand come fall, possibly leaving time for fixing gravestones.

"Maybe this program can help fill some of the dead time, pardon the pun," Giffin said.

"The goal is for these work crews around the state, from Brattleboro to Newport or wherever, to do this kind of work and repair cemeteries," he added. "Here the communities get something back. Cemeteries are always big parts of towns. They are the history of Vermont."

Contact Alan J. Keays at alan.keays@rutlandherald.com.