Tucked behind a stand of overgrown cedar sits the Old Mill Burying Ground, in use from roughly 1791 to the 1880s. When we first surveyed it this spring, fewer than a third of the markers were still standing upright, and several had been completely swallowed by sod.
Over the coming year our plan is straightforward but painstaking: clear invasive growth by hand, gently reset and re-level fallen stones, clean biological staining with conservation-safe D/2 solution, and photograph and transcribe every legible marker into a public record.
We will not use power washers, wire brushes, or harsh chemicals — the techniques that have quietly destroyed so many historic stones. Every step follows the standards used by professional cemetery conservators. Progress will be slow, and that is the point.