A bid to better honor the dead

A small band of Georgetown volunteers is planning to ask voters at this spring's annual Town Meeting to support their efforts to refurbish the old Union Cemetery, a historic 18th-century burying ground on the Georgetown-Rowley line that is the final resting place for several Revolutionary War soldiers.

Over the years, thousands of volunteer hours and some $50,000 have been dedicated to the preservation of this parcel, where many of Georgetown's early leaders are buried. But the cemetery is in dire need of more work. Members of the Georgetown Historical Commission and the Georgetown Historical Society want to replace the last remnant of rusting chain-link fence with one made of more durable -- and historically accurate -- wrought iron.

The cost: $30,000.

If Town Meeting members approve the expenditure, the new fence would be installed with existing community preservation funds. Under the Community Preservation Act, Georgetown homeowners pay a 3 percent surcharge on their property tax bills, an amount that is matched by the state to fund such projects.

"We want to recapture the charm and elegance of the original iron fence," said Edward Des Jardins, who serves as chairman of the Historical Commission. He noted that the cemetery grounds had been protected by a cast-iron fence for more than 125 years, from 1845 until a car crash destroyed it in the 1970s, prompting the installation of the chain-link fence. "We want to preserve this place -- this symbol of the heritage of our town -- for future generations."

Several soldiers who served in the Revolutionary War are buried in Union Cemetery, as is Cuffee Dole, a slave who died in 1816 and was the first black man to be buried at the cemetery -- over the objections of some of his white neighbors. In a spirit of compromise, they allowed him to be interred just outside the cemetery wall, according to local historians. But over the years, records show, the burying ground was expanded -- so much that Dole's gravesite is now in the center of the cemetery.

Each year, wide-eyed schoolchildren, fascinated with the story of Dole's life, take a field trip to Union Cemetery to see his final resting place and read the epitaph engraved on his headstone: "White man turn not away in disgust. Thou art my brother, like me akin to earth and worms."

"Having read most of the detailed historical accounts of our town, I and others who have become involved in this project still feel somewhat awestruck as we walk among the gravesites bearing so many of the names of our early townspeople," said Joe Knapp, speaking of Dole and Georgetown's early ancestors. Knapp, who serves on both the Historical Commission and Historical Society, feels so strongly about Union Cemetery, he has devoted countless hours to researching its history in hopes of preserving it.

In 2004, voters at Town Meeting approved the expenditure of $45,000 to replace the chain-link fence with one crafted of wrought iron. But town leaders quickly hit a snag: They couldn't move forward with the project until they secured the cemetery owner's permission. Trouble was, the owner -- a private entity known as Union Cemetery Corp. -- had gone inactive in the 1970s, shortly after installing the chain-link fence.

For more than 30 years, a corps of volunteers had maintained the cemetery. By 2005, there was just one volunteer caretaker left -- Richard "Dick" Elliott, who was planning to retire and move out of town. Union Cemetery once again faced the prospect of being abandoned for a second time.

The project stalled. What had started as a simple matter -- the replacement of a tattered fence -- quickly evolved into a crisis. Publicity about the cemetery's plight captured the attention of the local Historical Society, which volunteered its services to the town via the Historical Commission.

The volunteers were more than happy to reactivate the old cemetery corporation so the fence project could press on, but their efforts were stymied by a lack of official corporate records. The cemetery corporation had been formed in 1844, long before the state began maintaining a database of corporate records. There was no paper trail to follow, no documents to prove that the cemetery organization had ever been properly incorporated.

In search of the elusive proof, Knapp combed through stacks of town meeting records and piles of dog-eared papers at the Salem Registry of Deeds. Finally, he stumbled across old corporation records and deeds that documented the cemetery's expansion in the 1890s, proving the Union Cemetery Corp. had existed at the turn of the 20th century.

In July 2006, the Union Cemetery Corp. was reactivated. Work could begin on the long-awaited fence. But by this time, the cost of the project had skyrocketed. After new estimates were submitted, voters last year approved an additional expenditure of $5,000 in community preservation funds. In all, roughly $50,000 was spent to replace about two-thirds of the deteriorating chain-link fence. The last one-third is all that remains. Then, ownership of the cemetery can be transferred to the town.

Local leaders and members of the corporation -- including Knapp and Des Jardins -- hope voters at Town Meeting will approve the town's plans to take over care and maintenance of the property so that control of the site can be turned over to the town before the summer season, when heavy maintenance is required to keep the cemetery manicured.

"It's been a long process, but these volunteers are phenomenal," said Georgetown Selectman Lonnie Brennan. "You couldn't ask for a better bunch. Every time a new stumbling block got in the way, they just kept poking at it and poking at it and doing the work.

"Because of their efforts, we will be able to meet our legal obligation to take care of the cemetery, and our moral obligation to care for the remains of the departed souls who are buried there."

Brenda J. Buote may be reached at bbuote@globe.com.