MARBLEHEAD — Nothing lasts forever, not even a graveyard.
All the same, officials here would like historic Old Burial Hill to last as long as possible. And why not? It was the final resting place for people who died in 1638 and, very soon, it will accommodate someone who died in 2009, nearly 400 years later.
"A funeral is something that maybe happens there every 20 years," says town historian Bette Hunt. A member of the Peach family, one of the oldest names in town, will soon be laid to rest in the family plot. Rosamond (Peach) Merrill, 86, died June 25 and will be buried in a setting dangerously close to disrepair.
"It's almost beyond the point of no return," says Hunt. "This is a fragile place, and it needs lots of conservation."
Grave markers are the most obvious focus of concern. Ancient headstones have fallen prey to weather, including erosion, and vandalism. Now town officials are ready to produce funds to inventory the site and take steps at conservation.
A $10,000 matching grant from the Massachusetts Historical Commission's Preservation Projects Fund will help, says Town Planner Becky Curran.
Bidders for the project will be selected on the basis of quality work, she adds, with the final cost determined via a quick survey of similar work done in other towns.
Yet, Old Burial Hill is a singular spot, in any condition, with a sweeping view of the rooftops crowded around Little Harbor, the bay, Marblehead Light and the ocean beyond. It includes impressive monuments to people like Revolutionary War Naval hero James Mugford and to the 65 "men and boys," Marblehead fishermen, lost in the 1846 gale on the Grand Banks.
Markers lost, stolen
Numbers of Revolutionary War soldiers are buried here, but their locations have been lost. Some original markers, says Hunt, were made of wood and are long gone. But latter-day vandals have targeted the stone ones, sometimes breaking off the priceless engravings, depictions going back to the Witch Trial era, of skulls, bats and snakes as well as suns, moons and even cherubs.
Sometimes the pieces can be found nearby and repaired. In the past, according to Hunt, historian Virginia Gamage sent a diver to the bottom of nearby Redd's Pond where more pieces were found.
A rare headstone of a slave was part of the cemetery, "but someone stole that," Hunt laments.
Curran has already prepared the outline of what a conservationist would be expected to do, including looking at documents, landscaping and conserving the headstones. Among those who have long lobbied for remedial steps are Judy Anderson of the Marblehead Museum and Historical Society and former Abbot Library trustee Judy Gates.
The Peach family funeral was arranged through the Cemetery Commission. "You have to have family," explains commissioner Dexter Gillis, noting that no one else is eligible to get permission for burial on the hill. "There are very few families left in Marblehead that have anyone up there."
In his 11 years as commissioner Gillis has never seen a funeral on Burial Hill. In this case, the town will dig the grave.
Cemetery Superintendent Bill James notes that the Peach plot was established two centuries ago after a family member used a wheelbarrow to deliver layers of soil to the site. "It's ledge up there," he adds. Digging graves was never easy.
Where Marblehead began
The site was chosen because this is where Marblehead began, with the meeting house, or church, at the high point. Graves sprung up around it "in the English fashion," says Hunt.
If visitors can linger long enough to discern the faded words on the stones, they find a revealing glimpse of the town's early history with often poignant stories of loss, women lost in childbirth, men lost at sea, children lost to illness.
The early residents had, not surprisingly, an often fatalistic view of all this. That can be witnessed on the grave of Mrs. Hannah Nowland who died in 1793 at age 21, only months before her daughter died at age 12.
"All you that doth my grave pass by,
As you are now so once was I,
As I am now so you must be,
Prepare for death & follow me."
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