Re-enactors help pay tribute to soldiers in newly found graves
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

CANTON – Members of 3rd Maine Regiment marched up a dirt path carrying Old Glory and rifles, playing drums and fifes along the way.

They came Sunday to pay tribute to veterans of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 as they trekked from the former site of Joseph Coolidge’s family homestead, now the Castonguay homestead, to a field above the farm.

Atop the hill, in the midst of a plot of earth fenced by rock walls, a wreath with yellow ribbons and flowers sat on a stand. The 45-by-60-foot area was clear of headstones, also clear of trees and brush that had overgrown the family plot.

Two U.S. flags adorned with two grave markers commemorating the wars in which Joseph Coolidge Sr. and his son, Joseph Coolidge Jr., had fought.

Members of Boy Scout Troop 524, led by Scout Keith Smith, 16, had reclaimed the lost cemetery in August.

People gathered Sunday in the field overlooking Livermore, Livermore Falls, Canton and Jay to pay tribute to the forgotten veterans and celebrate the finding of the lost graves.

Smith and fellow Scouts sat in the grass and listened to Don Simoneau, a Bunten Post 10 American Legion representative, and Dennis Stires. Both were instrumental in finding the lost cemetery, honoring the veterans and telling the history of the site.

Simoneau noted that his organization started out by marking 62 forgotten graves. It now marks 302 in Livermore alone. Initially, it was thought there were a dozen cemeteries in Livermore; now they know of 22.

When the Scouts and other volunteers started clearing the lot, it was a patch of woods, Keith Smith said. They worked every Sunday for a month.

“We just cleared it out with chain saws and weed whackers and muscles,” Smith said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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