Dorton Cemetery

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Cemetery Photo Diary

 

April 26, 2003

We first discovered the cemetery with a neighbor's help.  He took this photo of my husband and me with Harriet's tombstone.  Look at the condition of the cemetery.  We never would have found it without help!

 

 

                    

Summer 2003

After contacting the local ranger it was determined that it was fine for us to maintain the cemetery.  There was so much debris and underbrush (and ticks!!) we decided to let it all die down and start fresh in the spring.

 

April 3, 2004

My brother Ken and I went out to New Bloomfield to begin the cleanup.  The initial count of 9 very visible field stones and 1 tombstone soon gave way to 29 visible markers after a thorough search of the area.  Several fallen trees were removed along with some of the debris.  I discovered a field stone with the letters L. A. D. engraved on it buried under a deep layer of dirt.  I marked the stones we found with a flower in order to locate them more easily the next time.  This is how the cemetery looked that day.

 

*NOTE:  I forgot to set the date on my new camera.  This is not the correct date!  OOPS!

 

April 9, 2004

My son Matt and I returned to remove brambles and continue the cleanup.  Using rakes, we combed the ground, removing probably one hundred years of decaying plant life.  It was while using the rakes we began to find many more field stones.  Matt uncovered the headstone of Bedford R. Clatterbuck buried under about 4 inches of dirt.  Many of the field stones were buried under the fallen tree that had started decaying.  We did not finish the clean up, but plan to return to get it done SOON!  I placed a flower at each stone to mark it and took a photo of each one to document what we had found.  The count was 43 graves after this trip.  When we left this is how the cemetery looked.

 

                  

May 8, 2004

My husband and I returned to the cemetery today to finish some of the clean up.  We had to cut down weeds, AGAIN!!  They really grow fast!  My husband cut up the big tree in the picture from last time and moved it to the fence line.  We'll need to unwire the fence in order to get the large pieces out.  That will need to wait until next time.  We discovered 6 more stones after removing the tree.  Apparently the force of the tree coming down pounded the fieldstones into the ground!  They were buried under a layer of dirt.  One of the stones was snapped off and was discovered in a pile of weed clippings that was being raked.  I'm not quite sure where it came from.  We probed the ground in order to search for stones that are buried.  We were able to locate several.  The cemetery is laid out in an East-West grid pattern (feet to the East).  Next time I will try and locate and mark the rest of the stones.  The count of burials is now 51 and climbing!  This is how the cemetery looked when we left today.  

 

 

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