The man who built Eric Swendsen’s 1750 yellow colonial home is buried in his backyard.
Captain John Webster, a cousin of former Congressman and secretary of state Daniel Webster, lies among generations of the Webster family beneath beautiful, lichen-covered tombstones in the town’s Congregational Cemetery. Webster, a Revolutionary War hero who owned the first mill in the town of Salisbury, is among more than 50 others from the town’s historic past that are buried in the small haven in the trees some 20 feet from Swendsen’s home on Route 127.
Swendsen said he goes out there on sunny days, past his stacks of firewood and maple syrup tank, and sits out on a stump from a centuries-old tree that once grew between a footstone and a headstone. Sometimes he works on his laptop, or makes phone calls when he needs a quiet place to think.
“Some people think it’s creepy, but it’s really very peaceful,” Swendsen said, reading the names off weathered slates as he walked by tombstones. “It’s a great place to reflect.”
But since Swendsen moved to town a year ago, he said the cemetery has started to become a bit overgrown.
A cemetery maintenance worker would help with that – but the turnover and other priorities meant the little cemetery didn’t receive the attention it deserved. Mowing, for one, didn’t get done last year at the Congregational Cemetery. Now, the town is advertising for a new worker, and no one has applied.
“We posted the job, we didn’t get any letters of interest,” said Cemetery Trustee Chairman Rick Chandler.
The town, like many others, is having trouble finding people to work or volunteer in its cemeteries, Chandler said.
Salisbury is also looking for a town sexton, a job that involves arranging burials for families and digging holes for cremation remains. The town had one person apply. If that applicant doesn’t work out, the cemetery trustees – a team of two in Salisbury – will be taking on those responsibilities themselves until they find someone for the position, Chandler said.
Chandler said he doesn’t mind filling in, but said that on top of volunteering for the cemetery trustees, it would be a big time commitment. He said he hopes people will be drawn to the work for the same reason he is – a historical connection to the town.
“Maybe working in a cemetery is not the most glamorous job,” Chandler said. “To me, the cemeteries in town are history. We’ve got a Salisbury history book, and a lot of the names in that history book are people who are buried in town. You can spend hours walking around a cemetery and just acquire history.”
There are 14 graveyards and several home burial sites in town, according to the Salisbury Historical Society. Seven are privately owned, and seven – like Congregational – are owned and maintained by the town.
Fourteen graveyards may seem like a lot for a town of a little more than 1,000 people, but back in the days of traveling with horses and carriages, it was much more difficult to get around, Chandler said. The town was comprised of several small villages that each had their own schoolhouse, church and cemetery.
“You can tell which people were living in each part of town by where they are buried,” Chandler said. “You can learn a lot about the Salisbury families who lived in the same village for generations.”
Before the town cemeteries officially open for the spring on Friday, Chandler will visit them and take note of stones that have been cracked by the weather or fallen trees over the winter. He will then plan two days – one in the spring and one in the fall – for a group of volunteers to carefully clean and upright stones.
But the cemetery maintenance staffer typically does the heavy-lifting work of cleaning up debris from weather events and arranging for a contractor to come in and mow.
Historical cemeteries like Congregational are mowed three or four times a year, Chandler said. The town’s active cemeteries, Mills, Maplewood and Oak Hill, are mowed 10 times a year.
There is about $10,000 in the town’s annual budget set aside for maintenance and mowing of cemeteries. They usually take bids for the job, Chandler said, so the pay can vary. The last cemetery maintenance worker was paid $5,030, according to this year’s town budget. He originally put a bid in for about $7,500, but his payment was brought down because he did not complete all cemetery maintenance work.
Swendsen said he hopes someone takes on the job soon, before summer begins.
“It’s just a matter of respect,” he said.
The sexton works to help families navigate the process of burying loved ones in town.
The sexton will arrange for the family – which must be Salisbury residents or descendants of Salisbury residents – to visit the cemeteries and choose the plot where they wish for their loved one to be buried.
Many years ago, sextons would dig all graves themselves – which could take days. But in modern times, towns hire outside contractors that use heavy equipment like excavators to do the work.
Chandler said the town probably sees a maximum of six burials a year, only one of which is a full burial with a coffin. Most burials these days feature cremated urns.
The sexton is required to dig a hole for the urn and attend the funeral service if it happens at the graveyard, Chandler said. Each burial amounts to about 10 hours of work, Chandler said.
The town pays the sexton about $3,000 a year, which comes from burial costs. Chandler said when he has filled in for the sexton, it’s been rewarding.
“They’re usually people I’ve known,” he said. “It’s sad, but it’s part of God’s plan. I feel good that I can help out the family. Even if I don’t know who passed away, I still feel good that I can help.”
(Leah Willingham can be reached at 369-3322 or lwillingham@cmonitor.com.)