Eldred cemetery documented

Volunteers sought to complete community project

By SANDY LONG

ELDRED, NY — Two devoted Town of Highland elders have spent the better part of the past year carefully cataloguing the gravesites that dot the old Eldred Cemetery on Route 55. Town historian Peter Barnes and deputy town clerk Christene Myers have made it their mission to identify graves and to create maps of the neglected community resting place.

“It breaks your heart to see it because these are the founders of our town,” said Myers, who noted that time, vandalism and natural damage inflicted by falling tree limbs have all taken their toll. “It’s so sad to see the condition of the stones.”

The painstaking process involved countless hours of research as the pair worked with an old map that applied to only one section of the cemetery. Other sections had to be mapped from scratch, as those original documents had burned in a fire years ago.

In puzzling it out, the pair went through burial permits and death notices to find names for unidentified gravesites. They cleaned and photographed the markers and headstones, then organized those photos in binders. Each photo was then numbered to correspond with sites on the new maps they created.

Now, if someone comes looking for a family member, their search will be much more fruitful as the new maps and photo albums have been placed at the town clerk’s office in Eldred.

Barnes and Myers spent a great deal of time in the cemetery, unearthing fallen headstones and making impressions of nearly invisible names with chalk rubbings. “We hiked up there many times,” mused Myers, “and found many interesting things.”

One stone, all in French, dates back to 1883. Another notes the final resting place of John Davis, a “colored” civil war veteran. The oldest is from 1814.

Despite the challenges, the pair pushed forward. “I was very anxious to do this,” said Myers. “It brought back a lot of memories.” Next year, they’ll tackle the old cemetery in Barryville. “We’re looking forward to it,” said Myers.

In order to complete the endeavor, the pair is calling upon the community to assist with the remaining cleanup of sections that are overwhelmed with heavy debris. Some tombstones remain hidden and there are large dead trees that must be removed before they fall and break the old tombstones. “One just destroyed part of the fence in the older part of the cemetery,” said Barnes.

What lies beneath the remaining rubble is anyone’s guess. “We know there are other sites still there, but we can’t get to them,” said Myers. To help with the project, contact Barnes at 845/557-6331 or Myers at 845/557-8027.

At the town’s recent meeting on November 10, supervisor Tina Palecek thanked the pair for their commitment. “We’re very proud to have these two individuals contributing to the town with this important project,” she said. “The meticulous work that has been done for our town and its cemetery is of great value.”