WARE — Decay drags across the grave markers at the Quabbin Park Cemetery.
Lichen and moss fuzz the edges of each stone and obscure the engraved names. Chipped slate plates stick out at a slant or lean on a neighboring marker. The breakdown of the stone itself, called “sugaring,” has morphed some of the oldest stones.
Between 1931 and 1932, 34 graves from the Swift River Valley moved to this Ware gravesite off Route 9. The four disincorporated towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich and Prescott are now beneath the water of the Quabbin Reservoir, and the residents and their descendants rest among the 7,613 graves at the cemetery.
But a couple of bright white marble or shining granite stones jump out among the gray, decrepit headstones. The clean look is the mark of Gene Theroux, a 75-year-old Southbridge resident and Friends of Quabbin president who has dedicated himself to refurbishing the cemetery monuments for the last seven years.
“I spend so much time out here, I could tell you when there is a change in a blade of grass,” Theroux said.
Theroux has cleaned and straightened 120 graves, and recently applied with the state to clean 85 more. Motivated by his own family lineage in Enfield and his 38 years of service in the Air Force, Theroux started by cleaning the markers of his own ancestors and other service members. Then, he decided that the Victorian cemetery monuments and statues also deserved attention.
“Then ultimately, [I’ll] do them all when it comes down to it,” Theroux said.
He has made caring for the stones his retirement work, a way of honoring what Swift River Valley residents gave up.
Theroux’s own family history runs deep in the cemetery. While looking through archival photos from the Metropolitan District Water Supply Commission, the state agency that built the reservoir, he recognized the names on a headstone as his fourth-great-grandparents. The photo showed stones damaged in a 1947 winter storm. The broken piece of his ancestors’ marker had been discarded, leaving nothing for Theroux to repair. That loss ignited his passion for restoring headstones.
The broken piece had been discarded at the time, preventing Theroux from fixing it. The mistreatment of his family’s burial site ignited his passion for restoring headstones.
“That gravestone, my fourth-great-grandparents, I could have fixed that in probably an hour and a half,” Theroux said.
Generations of Theroux’s family members are buried throughout the cemetery, from Revolutionary War veteran Giles Rider to Civil War soldier Martin Simon Jones, who lived out his life in the Northampton State Hospital after spending 10 months in Confederate captivity.
They are in good company with many other notable figures who have monuments in the cemetery. Some include Joshua Crosby, the first settled minister of the Enfield Congregational Church, who was also one of the first trustees of Amherst College; Pelham tavern keeper William Conkey, who ran the business where the leaders of Shays’ Rebellion planned their acts of resistance; and Hosea Ballou, a pastor who served a congregation in Dana and was a founding figure of American Universalism.
Honoring veterans
On a windy November day a week before Veterans Day, American flags ripple throughout the cemetery, each planted beside a grave marker. Among crests from past wars and seals of modern military units, one marker designates patriots honored by the Betty Allen Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Northampton.
As part of the 250th anniversary of the United States, the Betty Allen Chapter collaborated with the Duxbury chapter, Sons of the American Revolution and the Friends of Quabbin to document the Revolutionary War veterans buried in the Quabbin Park Cemetery. The organizations identified 43 veterans from Hampshire, Worcester and Plymouth counties, and earlier this year held a ceremony at the cemetery to honor them.
“I think a lot of work that we did was really doing that research,” said Cheryl Nicholas, chair of the United States 250th Committee of the Betty Allen Chapter. “It took a few months for us to do.”
Several months before the ceremony, 14 volunteers from the Betty Allen Chapter joined Theroux to clean the veteran gravestones. Theroux gave the group a quick demonstration before they went to work removing the dirt and fungus from the stones.
“He (Theroux) was a great help and his experience with cleaning gravestones was greatly appreciated,” Nicholas said. “He’s a wonderful, supportive person.”
As Theroux walks the grounds, his eyes diagnose the symptoms of a degraded gravestone. A glance at a leaning headstone tells him whether the base underground is broken or the ground is uneven. He can tell whether white lines on a stone are mold or evidence of sugaring.
On this visit, Theroux walked over to a 150-pound headstone and gave it a shake. The small arched stone wobbled on its base without much force. He observed that there was no epoxy or cement freezing the stone in place. Instead, gravity is the glue for other grave markers, obelisks and ornate graveyard monuments.
“There’s a lot of hazards in cemeteries,” Theroux said. “People can get seriously hurt, injured, maimed or killed in a cemetery.”
Theroux said that if the base were level and plumb, the stone wouldn’t move. But the earth shifts over time, undermining a headstone’s stability. Acid rain weathers the stone, and fungi grow in its pores.
Each gravestone requires its own treatment. Dirty marble may need only a spray of biological solution and a gentle brush. Theroux has cleaned a lot of monuments, but his proudest shines are the two cemetery angels, which glimmer in the fall sun.
A snapped tablet can be pieced back together with stone epoxy. One of the small marble tablets Theroux repaired was in six pieces when he found it. All that’s left of the damage is a couple brown lines.
A leaning headstone base would require the removal of the tablet, a crowbar to lift the base, and several gallons of gravel and topsoil to stabilize. At 75 years old, Theroux has no issue lifting 300-pound headstone bases, as long as he has the right tools.
Despite his dedication to the cemetery, Theroux decided that Quabbin Park would not be his final resting place. He has decided to go to the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Agawam, and leave money for a burial with his family. Part of him wonders if anyone would come to visit his gravestone.
“Is anyone going to come back and visit me anyway? Does anyone really care?” Theroux said. “You ask those questions. Is it worth the expense?”
If any of the Swift River Valley residents had wondered the same question, they’d be relieved to know that at least one person still cares after all these years.
