The gravestone of Zebelon Bryant, a veteran of the War of 1812, stands Oct. 25 at the Bryant-Record Cemetery on Back Street in Hebron. He was born in Hebron in 1782 and died at the age of 100. His headstone was recently preserved by Hebron Historical Society President Jim MacDonald, who received training from the Maine Old Cemetery Association. Nicole Carter/Advertiser Democrat
HEBRON — Hebron Historical Society President Jim MacDonald has set a lofty goal of preserving the gravestones of every veteran in the town’s 14 public cemeteries.
He began frequenting local cemeteries while preparing the society’s newsletter and documenting the graves of Hebron forefathers who fought in the Revolutionary War.
Many of Maine’s late 18th and early 19th century veterans were from Massachusetts and were awarded land grants in that state’s northern region for their military service to the new republic.
“I saw that many stones were in poor condition,” MacDonald said. “Many were fallen or leaning over.”
Inscriptions were impossible to read, covered with moss and lichen, darkened and caked with 200 years of grit. In some cases, stones were hidden by long-ago planted flowers and greenery.
The gravestone of David Briant stands Oct. 25 in the Bryant-Record Cemetery on Back Street in Hebron. It is among a number of headstones of veterans that Hebron Historical Society President Jim MacDonald is working to preserve in the town’s 14 cemeteries. A marker beside the stone signifies that Briant was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. Nicole Carter/Advertiser Democrat
MacDonald started by joining the Maine Old Cemetery Association, and when he saw a workshop on gravestone cleaning and preservation advertised in Gray he registered to participate.
The association hired Joe Ferrannini, who runs Grave Stone Matters in Hoosick Falls, New York, to lead its training. MacDonald said the first lesson of any association workshop is “do no harm.”
The four-day workshop involved tools such as a spray pump, the cleaning solution D/2, soft brushes, including toothbrushes, popsicle sticks or wooden skewers, and soft-edge scrapers to dislodged embedded lichen.
The work must be done carefully because old stones may be less sturdy than they appear, Macdonald said, and some could break or fall over.
After finishing the training, MacDonald approached selectmen to volunteer his services. Understandably, he said, officials were hesitant to allow an unofficial party such access to the resting places of the town’s revered citizens. He offered to start with just a few and limit those to veterans’ stones.
When MacDonald presented photographs showing stones before and after preservation, selectmen granted him permission restore all veterans’ stones in all its public cemeteries. He also plans to care for them in private graveyards, which requires landowner permission.
MacDonald said cleaning a stone in good condition takes up to 30 minutes or so. To repair a stone that has loosened or is separated or chipped at its base could take multiple days and extra hands. His son Andrew and grandson Drew have provided additional manpower at times.
Not every cemetery is easily accessed. One on Streaked Mountain is far in the woods and will require an all-terrain vehicle to access it. Other challenges are determining which headstones belong to a veteran. In most cases, it will include a holder for an American flag.
MacDonald began his preservation work this fall. According to federal law, stones can only be cleaned during mild weather, among other safeguards. He has tackled 10 over the past month or so and it is unlikely he will be able to do anymore before next spring.
He has found no comprehensive list of veterans buried in Hebron’s town cemeteries. Calls and trips to military agencies involved with veteran burials in Augusta and Bangor have not gotten the results hoped for, so MacDonald is establishing a record of the town.
The winter hiatus will give him time to continue verifying graves and town officials to publicize the project so any descendants who prefer to not have their family plots touched have the opportunity to opt out of the service.
The gravestone of Isaac Record Jr. stands Oct. 25 in the Bryant-Record Cemetery on Back Street in Hebron. The Hebron resident was a veteran of the War of 1812. His headstone was recently preserved by Hebron Historical Society President Jim MacDonald. Nicole Carter/Advertiser Democrat
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