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Historical headstones preserved by team of volunteers

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Dorothy Craig’s 1820 footstone is reset after being located buried behind her gravestone.

FARMINGTON – Volunteers, led by a trained professional, worked to restore gravestones in the Center Meeting House Burying Ground recently. Many of the headstones were uprighted as well as cleaned for preservation, while some had to be dug out of the ground from years of facing overgrown grass.

Among those were the headstones of Farmington’s first white settlers- Enoch Craig and his wife, Dorothy and daughter Margaret. The headstones dated back to the 1800s, when it was popular to purchase stones of slate or marble. Families of the deceased would purchase not just a headstone, but a foot stone as well, with the engraved initials of their loved one. Footstones typically faced the row behind the plot, making it easier for family members to locate the site.

“Footstones are valuable historic artifacts as marble headstone engravings erode after years of standing in Maine’s acidic rain and snow,” Maine Old Cemetery Association volunteer Deborah Tripp Probert said.

Margaret Craig’s footstone with her initials and death date was preserved last month by a team of volunteers.

Margaret Craig’s headstone was so significantly eroded that it had been indecipherable until last month’s cleaning. The footsore of her grave was the only clear marking with her initials. After cleaning with a mild D2- a biocide approved by the National Park Service to deter lichen and moss growth on memorials- the script on her headstone became clear- “Her days on earth were few. She early sought her God. He took her from this life of woe up to his blessed abode. Margaret passed at the age of 20 in 1813.

Enoch Craig’s white marble headstone was broken and rapidly eroding, so the break area was sawed off and a new base was made. His stone was reset in archival approved Natural Hydraulic Lime mortar and is now protected by plastic while the mortar cures.

Many other headstones that were leaning or broken were preserved by Albert Stehle. The group of local volunteers including Beth Myers, Jane Stinchfield and Deborah Tripp Probert are now working on other local gravestones in the area.

A team of volunteers worked to preserve the Craig family headstones.
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