Before

During three very productive days in June, members of the Owls Head Cemetery Committee worked in the Achorn Cemetery in Rockland to reset and clean the headstones in the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) lot. Thirty-seven stones that had been leaning and/or sunk were reset and all 45 stones were cleaned using D2. One traditional three-part headstone had to have an entirely new base crafted as the original mid-base and base were missing. A concrete base was poured using a form to create a mortise and tenon; the headstone was then mortared into the new base using a hydraulic lime mortar. The transformation of the GAR lot is truly remarkable.

Members of the Owls Head Cemetery Committee who donated their time, skills, and most of the materials were Walter Guptill (president of MOCA), Lea Carver (board member of the Maine State Cemetery Preservation Commission), Heather Almquist (chair of Cemetery Records for MOCA), Dick Carver (board member of the Rockland Historical Society), and Ted Brooks (volunteer extraordinaire). All members of the work party have been trained in specific restoration skills through MOCA.

You can really see the difference in H. Horton Burpee’s stone.

After

by Leah Carver
MOCA Newsletter
Fall 2025 | Volume LVII Issue 4