by David Flint
“There’s so much Stephentown history here,” commented Town Supervisor Larry Eckhardt. He was with the Federated Church Men’s Group and other historical-minded people who turned out on Saturday, May 5, for a work party in the old Presbyterian Cemetery on Presbyterian Hill Road. George Holcomb is buried here along with his wife Lucinda and a number of others from his family. [private]Holcomb notes in his diary on June 12, 1820, that he used his oxen and Ephraim Pierce’s cart to draw stone
for fencing in the burying ground. That stone wall is still in pretty good shape.
Buried here, too, is General Hosea Moffit who served as a Lieutenant in Killian Van Rensselaer’s regiment in the Revolutionary War and later became Brigadier General of Militia, Justice of the Peace, Town Supervisor, County Sheriff, New York State Assemblyman and Member of Congress. Other notables include Captain Abner Bull (1774-1844) who trained Militia soldiers and is mentioned often in Holcomb’s diary. Then there are the graves of Revolutionary War Militia veteran Captain Elemander Cone, Civil War veterans Edwin Rogers, a Corporal in the 125th NY Infantry, and Private John Rollo, 5th Light Artillery Regiment, who survived imprisonment at Andersonville. At least one veteran of the Spanish-American War, William S. White, is here too. Dr. Antoinette Russell is buried here, the extraordinary woman born on the family farm just down the road who became one of the first medical doctors in this country and served not only Stephentown but also established medical centers in post-World War I Serbia and Kosovo. Interred in 1928 at the age of 66, Russell was one of the last buried in this graveyard.
The Federated Church Men’s Group some time ago took on the responsibility of keeping the Cemetery mowed and clear of brush. A bad storm last year that brought down trees all around and on top of the graveyard prevented the annual maintenance and quickly the Cemetery became seriously overgrown. A lot of hard work in past months by John Scott and his son John Scott, Jr., assisted by David Cummings resulted in the Cemetery looking in pretty good condition when the work party arrived. But the Scotts and Cummings along with the Men’s Group and the Stephentown Historical Society Cemetery Committee are eager to take on the task of mapping the Cemetery, finding lost stones, cleaning monuments, re-erecting some fallen stones and making simple repairs. At the request of the Historical Society, Joe Ferrannini of Gravestone Matters, Inc. was on hand to provide a preliminary tutorial. Ferrannini recommended that the Cemetery be plotted, photographed and documented first and a basic condition assessment of the stones made. Then it’s time to prioritize what needs to be done. First priority would go to alleviating dangerous conditions. Fixing stones of important people would be a secondary priority, though of course all people are important.
Betty McClave and the Historical Society put together a rudimentary plot of the Cemetery back in the 1970s under adverse conditions when the site was badly overgrown. Warren Broderick also compiled a listing of burials in the 80s. But Ferrannini believes there could be many gravesites that were not accounted for and some that have gone
missing since then. For one example, the stone for the earliest burial recorded by McClave, that of two-year-old Mehetebelle Jolls in 1776, could not be found. In demonstrating the use of a probe to detect buried stones, Ferrannini uncovered a stone for Nancy Moffit who died in February 1858, the wife of Eber Moffit. He also demonstrated the use of a mirror to light up a stone so that the inscriptions can be read and photographed more easily.
Ferrannini recommended that restorers do what can be done inexpensively. If a stone is too badly damaged, leave it alone. In some cases when a stone has fallen a replacement mortise and tenon base can be cast in concrete and the stone mortared into it. It’s important to keep heavy equipment out of the graveyard especially when it’s not clear where there might be gravestones lying below the surface of the ground.
Ferrannini said he would be willing to come back for a workshop session at which he would train volunteers in proper stone cleaning procedures, show them how to straighten a few stones and do some simple repairs. Saturday, June 2 was set as a tentative date for this workshop.
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