Old U. S. cemeteries slowly losing markers

In 1779, as war raged between the British and freedom- seeking American colonists, Jonathan Wilkinson answered the Continental Army’s call.

And now, the only solid memorial of his life is slowly sinking into oblivion.

In an overgrown field next to a shady oak tree — marked only by a weatherworn wooden box of long- dead flowers and a small American Legion medallion — the Revolutionary War veteran’s fading, mildew- stained white gravestone is being swallowed by the earth.

And his isn’t the only one. At least eight of the graveyard’s stones have disappeared since the site was cataloged in 1931 by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

“This is such a shame,” said Scott Banker, of Greece, N. Y., an amateur cemetery restoration expert who has taken an interest in the weedy field that was once the North Greece Cemetery. Over the past few years, Banker has documented all of the headstones still visible there and tried in vain to persuade town officials to let him restore some of the gravestones, or at the very least, clear them of the encroaching earth.

Town Supervisor Bill Reilich has said he worries that efforts to preserve the stones could cause more harm than good. Still, the North Greece Cemetery is emblematic of a growing problem in New York: one of cemetery associations running short of funds, giving up their caretaking responsibilities and leaving taxpayers to shoulder the costs. Or, perhaps, to not shoulder the costs and instead end up losing some of the nation’s oldest burial grounds in the process.

“There’s tons of abandoned cemeteries in Monroe County that are forgotten, overgrown and neglected,” said Banker.