The same Sunday drive that led to the discovery of the Vermont Forest Cemetery in Roxbury a week or so ago, also led to the discovery of the adjacent Orcutt Cemetery on Beaver Meadow Road.
What stood out immediately were the American flags and war markers on a handful of graves in the small hillside cemetery. War markers for several soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War were visible, adorned with flags, along with similar honors for veterans of the War of 1812 and the Civil War.
Intrigued (again), The Valley Reporter reached out to Jack and Wendy Cashman, two of the three people who make up the Roxbury Cemetery Commission.
The Cashmans, along with Sue Nevins, the third commissioner (and president of the Roxbury Historical Society) went to the town select board seven years ago, voicing concern about the state of the town’s cemeteries. They ended up volunteering to take over as cemetery commissioners and after their work was approved at Town Meeting the next spring, they got busy.
One of the first things they did was to attend a workshop offered in Maine by the Old Maine Cemetery Association on how to identify and maintain gravestones and general cemetery maintenance.
That work allowed them to identify and prioritize their efforts in the town’s seven cemeteries, including the oldest ones, the Orcutt Cemetery and the Roxbury First Settlers Cemetery and the West Hill First Settlers Cemetery.
Their training also helped them find and train volunteers. In temperate weather they get together once a week and are in a continuous cycle of assessing and maintaining some 1,165 graves in the town cemeteries.
“We have about 200 more to get to this year,” Wendy Cashman said.
“Once you get into this, you find out there’s no end to it. It’s a cycle of cleaning stones and you have to keep doing it,” Jack Cashman added.
State law requires that towns maintain their history including their graveyards and it is something the Cashmans, Nevins and their community volunteers take seriously.
“These stones have no family to maintain them, that we know of,” Wendy Cashman said.
They feel strongly about the importance of honoring the town’s earlier settlers, the town’s history and respecting the veterans and all who lived and died in the town.
“It really gives us a connection to the community. I’ve always been interested in the First Settlers Cemetery a few miles away from us that sits up on a hill. People need to be remembered and honored and cemeteries need to be respected and maintained in their honor,” Wendy Cashman said.
For more details on Roxbury’s cemeteries visit https://roxburyvt.org/our-roxbury-vt/roxbury-vt-cemeteries/
