April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION PARISH
Volunteers unearth history while preserving New Lebanon cemetery
Volunteers unearth history while preserving New Lebanon cemetery
Afterward, the group hops in trucks -- or sometimes tractors -- and drives a few miles down the road, parking in a small lot behind a house on a hill. They unpack chainsaws, grab rakes and start hacking at trees and brush between the gravestones of the "Old Mountain Road Cemetery."
The cemetery was originally part of St. Joseph's in Stephentown, a mission of Immaculate Conception parish in New Lebanon. St. Joseph's Church itself was moved from Old Mountain Road over to Stephentown in 1871.
The final resting place of hundreds of men, women and children who passed away between 1852 and 1947, the cemetery became inactive and consequently went untouched for years.
The couple who live next to the cemetery, parishioners of Immaculate Conception, had been slowly removing brush so they could mow a section of the property -- but they couldn't tell where the cemetery's boundaries were.
So many stories
This spring, local historian Sharon Moon, a former town historian for New Lebanon, got involved in preserving the cemetery. Along with a group of volunteers, she's been uncovering gravestones and identifying those buried there.
"There's a story with almost every one of these guys," Ms. Moon said: Most of the people buried in the cemetery were Irish immigrants who came to America to help build Columbia Hall, a former local hotel.
In cleaning up cemeteries -- religious and secular -- Ms. Moon's goal is to find and honor the graves of area veterans. She started in a cemetery where most of the graves housed Revolutionary War and Civil War soldiers.
Friends and neighbors who helped with that project are pitching in with the Old Mountain Road Cemetery. Some of the volunteers are parishioners of Immaculate Conception, giving the project some extra meaning.
"It's kind of like recovering forgotten souls," remarked David Schwartz of Immaculate Conception. "It's gratifying. The more [trees] we cut, the more cemetery we found."
Among the people buried in the Old Mountain Road cemetery is a veteran who was murdered by his brother, as well as another man who died in 1863 by way of a falling tree -- an event illustrated with an intricate carving on his headstone.
According to the gravestone, Edmond's son died that year, as well.
If a tree falls...
Mr. Schwartz has only lived in the area for about three years; Ms. Moon, who is his neighbor, "asked if I could use a chainsaw," and Mr. Schwartz ended up taking down hundreds of trees at another cemetery for her.
For Larry Benson, the project hits close to home: The parishioners buried at Old Mountain Road are, in a way, ancestors. "I've been going to Immaculate Conception since 1953," he said.
On the day The Evangelist visited, the volunteers were burning brush they had cleared.
"There's still a lot of trees to be taken down," Ms. Moon told The Evangelist, noting that any pine tree in a cemetery is a bad idea: They are prone to snapping and falling on gravestones.
The project isn't just about the beautification of the property, but finding the stories behind the stones. Ms. Moon does this research on her own, spending at least two hours each night on it.
Parishioners' project
Pat Cochrane, another volunteer, said people contact the team and the parish to try to find relatives who may be buried at Old Mountain Road. There are still some locals who have distant relations in the cemetery, she said.
Almost all of the volunteers are retirees. Mr. Benson is in his 80s; Ms. Moon recalled working last summer the day before a medical procedure on her back, then returning to the cemetery the next week to help with the progress.
Immaculate Conception parish has supported the project from the beginning, even taking up a special collection to help fund a visiting expert on restoration to help the volunteers with some of the gravestone restorations.
Eventually, the group hopes the cemetery will be clear enough to be mowed regularly. They also hope to put flags and markers on all the graves of veterans.
For Ms. Moon and the rest of the volunteers, however, the project will be far from over when they leave Old Mountain Road: They hope to rehabilitate all of the old cemeteries in the area, bringing those forgotten stories alive again.[[In-content Ad]]
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