WILTON — A total of 171 grave stones were cleaned with more than half of those also repaired during the four-day Maine Old Cemeteries Association (MOCA) workshop recently held at the Weld Street Cemetery.
Led by gravestone professional, Joe Ferrannini of Grave Stone Matters, 94 stones of that number were repaired and cleaned, Deb Probert, MOCA workshop committee member, said.
The count includes 12 stones where bases were re-leveled and the die reset; 15 stones needed one to three horizontal-diagonal breaks epoxied and reset then re-pinned in the base.
Workshop volunteers poured two new above-ground bases and reset the die. Twelve multi-part monuments were re-pinned, reset, re-mortared. Thirteen tablets were leveled and reset; 28 foot-stones were lifted, leveled and reset; eight foot-stones required epoxy as well as lifting, leveling and resetting, she said.
Of the total number, there were 76 headstones that were only cleaned, she said.
The cemetery has a total of 200 gravestones.
The 35 workshop participants came to learn how to safely clean and repair stones long forgotten in the Weld Street Cemetery, the burial site of some of Wilton’s first settlers.
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