TABLE OF CONTENTS Good News VOCA! · Headstones 2 Letter to the Editor 6 Logo Contest 3 Membership...

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County Representatives 2

Dues 8

Footstones 2

Headstones 2

Letter to the Editor 6

Logo Contest 3

Membership Update 1

Past VOCA Banners 4

Photo Gallery 7

TABLE OF CONTENTS

President’s Report 2

Spring Meeting Preview 1

Trivia 8

Vermont’s Hidden History 5

Volume 58, Issue 1 Winter 2018

Vermont Old Cemetery Association Founded by Prof Leon Dean (1899-1982) Oct 18th 1958

Good News VOCA!

Our active membership increased significantly in 2017. We

now have 407 active members.

New members this year: 56

Lifetime members: 111

Members who renewed in 2017: 87

Vermont members: 303

Out of State members: 104

Institutional members (towns, cemeteries, historical societies, businesses,

etc.): 52

Members whose membership expires on 1/1/2018: 84

As these numbers show, 84 members are up for renewal right now so

be sure to check your mailing label. The renewal form is on page 8.

Thank you all for your continued support and for the generous dona-

tions received last year. It is due to the members and their contribu-

tions that we are successful in providing grants and work projects.

The Spring meeting will be held in Northfield on May 6 at the Brown

Public Library. The program will be on the cemetery restoration pro-

jects conducted in the area. The Northfield Historical Society located

next to the Library has exhibits on cemetery restoration and we will

also take a tour of the cemeteries to see the completed projects for our-

selves. These projects were done with the help of VOCA grants.

Mark you calendar and look for the reservation form in the April news-

letter.

Over the years many methods have been tried to preserve grave markers. Some are more effective

and more attractive than others. The slate stone shown here was sheathed at the top in a metal

cladding. Without knowing the history behind this marker we cannot know when the cladding

was added. In any case the stone is whole and legible 196 years later.

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VOCA Officers President:Tom Giffin

[email protected]

802-773-3253

Vice President/Grants Manager:

Dianne Leary

[email protected]

802-881-2754

Treasurer: Chris Book

802-773-6252

Asst. Treasurer: Whit Mowry

[email protected]

Membership / Webmaster:

Barry Trutor

[email protected]

Secretary: Jeni Newman

[email protected]

802-999-6031

Newsletter Editor: Jane Fletcher

[email protected]

802-579-6903

FOOTSTONES

Ruth Barton: 802-254-1128

Richard Howrigan: 802-827-6513

Charles Marchant: 802 365-7937

Wesley Mowry: 802-436-3383

Clayton Trutor: 802-658-3273

Nicole Vecchi: 802-649-7117

COUNTY REPRESENTATIVES

Addison: Dianne Leary

Bennington: Vacant

Caledonia: Nicole Vecchi

Chittenden: Dianne Leary

Essex: Clayton Trutor

Franklin: Jeni Newman

Grand Isle: Clayton Trutor

Lamoille: Deanna French

[email protected]

802-522-2050

Orange: David Phillips

[email protected]

603-252-7363

Orleans: Wanda Webster

802-525-3550

Rutland: Vacant

Washington: Nicole Vecchi

[email protected]

Windham: Charles Marchant

Windsor: Ken Barrett

802-875-2941

VOCA website: voca58.org

President’s Report Winter 2017/2018

As I am writing my winter report the temperature in Rutland, Vermont is -18 and although the promised nor’easter is not headed our way by the end of the week, we are still looking at sub-zero weather for many days ahead. It is difficult to contemplate cemetery projects when looking out at the frozen tundra, but as I have reiterated many times in the winter report, now is the time to line up volunteers, put in for VOCA grants and schedule the time/date for your anticipated project(s). In 2017 we had more restora-tion events, from more VOCA members, than in the 34-year history that I have been associated with the organization. I will not be able to list all of them in this forum, but many are well-documented in our web and Face-book sites.

Personally, my first restoration project was in Danby in April and my last one was in Tinmouth the week before the Vermont November deer season. There were very few weekends last summer that I was not involved in an exciting community project. I have already committed to several towns for the 2018 season and looking forward to working with new volunteers and signing up more VOCA members. If you wish to help out on a project, please contact me once spring decides to come back to the Green Mountain State.

Unfortunately, we did have two cases of cemetery vandalism in burial grounds that were restored, but we already have volunteers committed to repairing the damage once spring arrives.

Thanks to everyone who updated their membership. The response was out-standing and special thanks to webmaster, Barry Trutor, who mailed out the reminder postcards and did the membership updates. We continue to have exceptional, unpaid volunteers that do all of the VOCA work. THANK YOU for everything you unselfishly do for the organization! Please check your expiration date on your newsletter and, if expired, please renew your membership.

If you have news items or events you would like to put in the newsletter, please contact VOCA Editor, Jane Fletcher. VOCA is always looking for new members to join our organization. If you could recruit one (or more) members for our organization that would be wonderful! I am also available for presentations on VOCA. If an organization is in need of a speaker, please call/email me.

We do have VOCA officer openings if you are interested in helping out the organization. The information on our spring 2018 meeting is in the news-letter. Our 60th year begins in 2018 and I am excited for the future of VOCA!

Tom Giffin VOCA President

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On the next page are examples of the logos that VOCA has had over the years.

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VERMONT’S HIDDEN HISTORY (Part 1)

By Laurie Jordan

We live in Essex along the river, between where I grew up in Essex Center and Joe in

Williston’s village. Since we already enjoyed the local history and scenic Vermont back

roads, we decided to explore all 251 towns. Like our own, most town centers developed at

the crossroads with a meeting house (or church), a schoolhouse, and a burial ground. We

chose to visit the cemeteries, which we most likely would find in each town. The steeples,

crossroads, and renovated schoolhouses helped; but we often needed to travel beyond to

discover the more hidden burial grounds along Vermont’s beautiful back roads lined with

tall maples and old stone walls.

We referred to the Vermont Atlas and GPS and searched for “Cemetery Road” or

“Church Road”. Later, the Vermont Historical Society Index to Known Cemetery Listings in

Vermont made it easier to locate a road named after the listing of a family named ceme-

tery. Thus we discovered Willis Cemetery at the end of Willis Road in Stratton.

Another time, I needed to ask a Brookline resident mowing his lawn for directions to

any local cemetery. He pointed and explained, “Down by the bridge, there’s a cement

wall. Go up that bank and on top you’ll see it. If you go past the round brick schoolhouse,

you’ve gone too far.” The Austin-Martin Cemetery was abandoned, but about twenty five

markers with dates and names were still standing. In Victory, Joe just could not find a

cemetery after driving in vain on the town’s only visible two long roads to nowhere. So we

parked at the abandoned schoolhouse at the crossroads and got out to search. There in

back of the school, a hidden bushy path up a steep bank led to the burial ground on a

stony slant of land that was caving in. (This story will continue in the April 2018 issue)

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First I would like to thank you and all of the volunteers of the VOCA. My name is Don Von

Nostrand and I recently became a member of VOCA. I am indebted to you and all of your

members for the incredible work you have done across your state. I have been a direct

beneficiary of your deeds and would like to tell you in what manner.

I grew up on the East End of Long Island, in the Hamptons to be precise, and I was aware

of many old cemeteries containing the remains of many Pre-Revolutionary war citizens and

soldiers. These old graveyards stoked my passion for the reverence and history of old

cemeteries. I distinctly remember a history professor in High School telling us how the East

End of Long Island has more in common with New England than with the rest of New York.

Some may be aware that in 1640 a group of Separatist left the colony of Lynn, MA an

landed in Southampton, NY at a place called Conscience Point. These founding fathers of

our town left an indelible ‘New England’ mark on the history and architecture of the East

End of Suffolk County.

Of course having never traveled to New England at the time I had no frame of reference to

draw upon. As fate would have it I was working for a company that was relocating to

Somersworth, NH and spent the next 8 years in the Southern New Hampshire/Seacoast

area. It was during this time frame that I truly understood the connection between my home

town and New England.

On random sunny days I would stop and stroll through the old graveyards that I found in the

Seacoast area and began to closely read the epitaphs carved into the headstones. This

was an incredible revelation to me that carved into these monuments was such incredibly

beautiful poetry and that yearly they are being lost to time and the elements. I resolved to

transcribe and photograph these headstones along with their epitaphs in order to preserve

them. At the time I had no idea what I was going to do with them when I had completed my

project but I knew that someone had to capture them in the race against time.

My endeavor was cut short when in 2000 I took a job with US Customs and was transferred

to the US Virgin Islands. 6 years later I was transferred to Vancouver, Canada. Another 6

years sent me to Key West, Florida and I began to wonder if I would ever complete my pro-

ject.

While in Key West I was fortunate to be offered a Temporary Duty Assignment (TDY) to

Burlington, VT in 2014 and again in 2015. While back in New England I was able to once

again explore the old cemeteries and graveyards in the Northeast Kingdom and all down

Western Vermont along with the Northeast NY area.

The result of my endeavors is my book: Stone Poets—Headstone Epitaphs: Ruminations,

Recollections & Farewells. It should be out by this Fall/Winter. In the introduction I gave a

nice word about the Vermont Old Cemetery Association for all the work that you folks do.

(Continued on next page)

Letter to the Editor received July 26, 2017

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I personally saw the care given to these headstones by the dedicated people or your or-

ganization and just wanted to let you folks know.

I now live in Washington State and have many other epitaphs that I collected in 2000 that I

must return to Southern New Hampshire and photograph. I really have no idea what condi-

tion these will be in after all these years but I can only hope that the caretakers and volun-

teers in the Seacoast areas of New Hampshire and down on Long Island have given the

same love and dedication to their charges that I witnessed in Vermont.

Thank you and all your volunteers for all that they have done and continue to do. They

have enabled me to capture these beautiful poems for posterity long after they have been

lost to time and the elements.

Respectfully,

Don Von Nostrand

Anacortes, WA

Photo Gallery Time and the elements wear away more than

the words on the stones. The stone to the

right is being eroded away. Documenting

stones while they are still relatively new will

help preserve their art as time takes its toll.

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Jane Fletcher

535 Sunset Lake Rd

Brattleboro VT 05301

Dues are for a calendar year: 1 year $10.00, 5 years $40.00, and lifetime is

$200.00 (individual members ONLY). A new member joining in Oct, Nov,

or Dec will have the dues paid applied to the following year.

I want to make a donation to the Leon Dean Permanent Fund in the

amount of $___________.

Make check payable to VOCA and mail to:

Barry Trutor

31 Matthew Avenue

Dues ReminderDues ReminderDues ReminderDues Reminder

TRIVIA

A well known English author spent some time in Vermont. His house and one of his

books in which you will find the quote below, share the same name.

“The end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased. And

the epitaph drear: ‘ A fool lies here who tried to hustle the east’.”

TABLE OF CONTENTS Good News VOCA! · Headstones 2 Letter to the Editor 6 Logo Contest 3 Membership...

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