The Providential Gardener

Rhode Island's 3,500 Historical Cemeteries Need Tending

The Providence Journal's frontpage headline for Halloween, "In grave condition: Rhode Island's historical cemeteries are suffering from neglect," tells how one woman, Evelyn Wheeler of Narragansett, is leading Rhode Islanders throughout the state to notice the condition of historical cemeteries near them and take action to clean them up. If you didn't read it, I hope you'll read her story. One person can make a big difference!

NOTE that November 3 is historical cemetery cleanup day! There are spring and fall cleanups every year, and lots of little ones. You can go clean up a cemetery yourself, but check the hints and guidelines because there are problems you might not think of at first. Scroll down the RI Historical Cemeteries' homepage for helpful hints.

Rhode Island differs from other states in many ways, one of which is that because the government and religion were always separate here, cemeteries were not necessarily coordinated with churchyards. Birth, death, and marriage records were always considered civil rather than religious matters. Consequently, in the 17th and 18th centuries especially, and even down to the present day, cemeteries were established all over the place. Some cemeteries are even on private land rather than on land held by an association.

The Providential Gardener is especially interested in historical cemeteries because these can be places we not only can enjoy for their natural beauty, but also for rooting us in the history of this state. At Providence's North Burial Ground (North Main St & Branch Ave), professionals and volunteers are developing and implementing a comprehensive plan to make the place more of a park and arboretum, and we've been adding trees. The Groden Center now uses the greenhouse to grow annuals for sale. The gates on North Main to this cemetery are now unlocked so neighbors can take walks there, enjoy the serenity of the place, see the birds attracted to the pond....  This particular cemetery tells more than 300 years of Rhode Island history if you start looking carefully. And reading gravestones puts the day's troubles into perspective, you know. Keeps you focused on what's really important in life. "Oh, for the touch of a loved one's hand, the sound of a voice gone still...."

The article by Donita Naylor points us to The Rhode Island Historic Cemetery Commission's homepage. Note the database listing the historical cemeteries, each of which is numbered. Are your ancestors in any of these cemeteries?  There's a master index of names of those buried in these cemeteries. Is there one near where you work? Where you live? Do you drive by one regularly? Check it out! For further info, contact Evelyn Wheeler at 401-789-3503 or email.

Earth Day in Rhode Island

I was noticing the other day how much litter there is along some roadways. It's time for a good cleanup or two, or several dozen throughout the state in honor of Earth Day, April 22nd. Several general websites for Earth Day are:

• Earthday Network
• Federal government Earthday Portal
• Sierra Club's Earth Day Page
• International Earth Day

Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management maintains a list of cleanups throughout the state, arranged by date. We've already missed some cleanups scheduled for the first weekend in April, but there are more than 5 pages of cleanups still to come on April 14th, 21st, and 28th and on May 5th. An April 8th Providence Journal article describes the volunteer opportunities for Earth Day listed by the Volunteer Center of Rhode Island. A search on Monday, April 9, of upcoming volunteer opportunities for Earth Day in Rhode Island produced 128 events. Some cleanups are not on this list yet, though.

One cleanup I will highlight is that of the Friends of India Point Park, who will be hard at work there on April 21st. No doubt there are other cleanups around the state that are not yet on a master list. The list of activities is much too long to add to the Providential Gardener's Calendar, so please refer to the DEM's and the Volunteer Center's master lists.

Also, on the front page of the Providence Journal, April 9, there's a story about cleanups throughout the state in our more than 3,000 cemeteries. Evelyn Wheeler of the Advisory Commission on Historic Cemeteries is organizing the first statewide cleanup of burial grounds in Rhode Island on April 21 and 22.  Because of Rhode Island's way of separating church and state, which meant that towns and cities did not have a commons with the main church in the center of the town or city, graveyards were also not centralized, leading to burials on private land and a proliferation of graveyards. Some of these cemeteries are still on private land, so anyone interested in cleaning up a cemetery should check with Evelyn Wheeler first at (401) 789-3503 or by e-mail.

Tree Planting News

Getting a jump on Arbor Day this year, a few dozen people showed up to plant about 50 bare-root trees at North Burial Ground in Providence. It was a splendid morning, and the work went quickly and easily with the help of the Providence Parks Department staff. It still takes a while to plant so many trees, but we're all looking forward to their leafing out and developing to their full natural height and spread.

Bare-root Tree Planting Saturday, March 24

Bare-root tree planting? Yes, on Saturday, March 24, at North Burial Ground in Providence, the Providence City Forester, Doug Still, and volunteers will plant 60 bare-root trees. The process involves dipping them in a "hydrogel slurry" and bagging them immediately after delivery to keep the roots moist. Among the advantages are that the trees don't weigh much without dirt around the roots, which makes them much easier to move, and the flare is visible so the trees can be easily planted at the proper depth.

VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED to plant the trees! Save the date of March 24 and come see this method of planting trees for yourself. Details as to time, etc., will be forthcoming. Meanwhile,check out this Cornell University paper, Creating the Urban Forest: The Bare Root Method. Google only turns up 794 hits on "bare root tree method" today, a low number of hits in the billions of pages Google indexes, which indicates this is fairly new way to plant trees. Some other pages, especially those on forestry and agricultural extension websites, are also worth checking if you want further information.

The entrance to North Burial Ground in Providence is at the intersection of Branch Avenue (exit 24 off I-95) and North Main Street. It is owned by the city, which has commissioned Sara Bradford of Bradford Associates to survey the cemetery and develop plans for restoring the place to a natural habitat as lovely as Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston ~ we aim high in Providence! In the last three years, several volunteers inventoried the trees at North Burial Ground. Last summer, several of us went to Mount Auburn and were inspired by what we saw. The varieties of the 60 donated trees to be planted on March 24th include black oak, English oak, honey locust, red maple, larch, American elm, and tupelo. More donations are welcome!

Also note: There will be a North Burial Ground Awareness Day in May, so stay tuned!

North Burial Ground in Providence Could Use Some Friends...

Why can't Providence's North Burial Ground look more like Mount Auburn Cemetery? That was the question for several of us who recently traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts to walk the paths and note the use of space, the stunning variety of trees and plantings, and the mulch and groundcovers protecting the most vulnerable trees such as the beeches. We talked about how great it would be to have a Friends of North Burial Ground, modeled after the Mount Auburn Cemetery Friends. Mount Auburn has many famous people interred there, but so does North Burial Ground, which is 131 years older than Mount Auburn, dating back to 1700. John Sterling's North Burial Ground, Providence, Rhode Island Old Section 1700-1848, lists names recorded on the actual gravestones in the original section of the burial ground. The book is available in many Rhode Island libraries as well as the Rhode Island Historical Society Library. We could have tours, maps, informational pamphlets, and more people to help plant trees and maintain the cemetery. At least one Brown University course has taken a field trip to North Burial Ground in the fall of 2004. All the oldest Providence families have ancestors buried there (e.g., the Brown Family, Dexter Family), some of Rochambeau's army who fell sick and died in Providence are buried there. It is a fascinating place for Rhode Island history and certainly deserves attention and care. So how about starting a Friends of North Burial Ground?