July 7–Panel Discussion of Gravesite Restoration

Friday, July 7, 4:00-5:30 p.m.

The Stonington Public Library will host a panel discussion on the restoration of gravesites and gravestones.

Robert Webster, membership secretary of the Maine Old Cemetery Association, will discuss his experiences restoring the Nathaniel and Elizabeth Farnham cemetery, a small, single-family cemetery in West Penobscot that involved a great deal of brush and tree clearing and stone re-setting. He and his wife continue to work on it as time allows.

Elizabeth Hotchkiss will present the work of the Majabigwaduce Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to reclaim and restore the cemetery at the West Brooksville Congregational Church. Lost stones have been located, others lifted and straightened, and all cleaned.

Travis Fifield will talk about his and his father’s labor of love to restore a neglected private cemetery surrounded by woods off the Fifield Point Road in Stonington, in which a trail was cut, land cleared, a fence built and stones cleaned.

Admission to the discussion is free and will serve as a prelude to the Stonington Public Library’s second annual cemetery tour to be held Saturday, July 8, from 1-4 p.m.

For questions or more details, please call the Stonington Public Library at 367-5926 during our regular hours on Saturday, July 1 or Thursday, July 6.