The final resting place of the town’s earliest European settlers was spruced up recently in a major spring cleanup by some 20 volunteers.
The Old Fields Burying Grounds on Vine Street, which dates back to the 1600s, was cleaned up by members of South Berwick Post 5744 VFW, which organized the event, along with employees of Liberty Mutual and neighbors.
Hundreds of citizens are buried in this cemetery, one of the nation’s oldest, but many of the graves are no longer visible or contain only fragments of headstones, according to Michael St. Pierre, historian for the VFW Post.
The 339 graves identified in the cemetery include an unknown number of former soldiers’ graves from the 1700s to the 1900s, St. Pierre said. Of the identified veterans, seven are from the American Revolution, six from the Civil War and two from World War 1, he said.
Several others have been tied to the Colonial Militia, including two who fought at the Siege of Louisburg in 1745, and others who served as members of the Massachusetts and Maine militias, he added.
The work team from the VFW were Cmdr. Jeff Chase and his wife, Dawn Chase, Quartermaster Marc Scheele, Second Vice Cmdr. Mike Murray, John Ford, Daniel Kenney and St. Pierre.
The Liberty Mutual crew were Kris Burgess, Calvin Butler, Lisa LaChance, Scott Cannon, John Holloway, Kristen McKenney, Caroline Morrison, Brian Poirier, Christopher Proulx and Colin Robb.
Neighbors Bill Straub, Rick Tindermann and Mary Jo Wentworth also pitched in.
The volunteers cleared downed trees, limbs, a large accumulation of leaves, pine needles and pine cones to allow mowing of the cemetery. The South Berwick Public Works Department hauled away the debris.
