WEST PARIS — The Oxford County Sheriff’s Office is investigating how a large granite headstone in Wayside Cemetery on Main Street toppled from its base.

Harvey Lord, 86, of Paris contacted the Sheriff’s Office this week after he saw his father-in-law’s stone lying on the ground while cleaning up his wife’s plot nearby.

“I went over to mow the grass over my wife’s stone and looked up the street about 50 feet and saw the stone tipped over,” he said. “It’s a good solid granite stone.” It’s about 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall and marks the graves of Stanley Sturtevant and his wife, Vivien, who died in 1986 and 1956, respectively.

Roland Dunham, a member of the Wayside Cemetery Association, said he hasn’t seen any vandalism since last spring when several stones were toppled at once. When he saw the Sturtevants’ stone Wednesday, he discovered something unusual.

“I kind of question what went wrong. Usually there are pins through them to hold them together. This didn’t seem to have any,” he said.

And it seemed to have only minimal glue-type material holding the top from the base. “I was quite amazed,” Dunham said.

David Pratt, owner of Bolster Monumental Works in Oxford, which has been retained to repair the headstone, said very rarely are pins used in headstones now.

“They used to use them in the old days, but not anymore,” said Pratt, who has been in the business for 31 years and never used pins. He said the use of pins diminished over the years, because they were often made of iron which would rust and bleed and if the stone was toppled the pins could bend, making it difficult to reassemble the stone.

Now, a strong setting compound is often used. At times, a lawn mower could bump a stone and jar it off the base or water might get into the granite bases and cause cracking and weakening over time. Both incidences are rather rare, he said.

Deputy Anthony Rizzo, who is investigating the incident, was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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