Memorial Day salutes for the fallen
June 4, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti
Monday’s bright sunshine made it easy for a crowd to gather to mark Memorial Day as dozens joined American Legion members to pay tribute to fallen military service members. Afterward, local historians shared remembrances of townspeople laid to rest in some of Waterbury’s most remote graveyards.
The ceremony at Rusty Parker Memorial Park was the last of four stops by members of American Legion Post 59. They laid wreaths at Maple Street and Hope cemeteries in Waterbury, Holy Cross Cemetery in Duxbury, and by 11 a.m. gathered downtown at the war memorials where a crowd of nearly 100 paused for a short program.
With the legion’s color guard standing at attention, Post Commander Wayne Goulet and legion Chaplain Ted Carminatti were joined by a local youngster who gave a short address reflecting on the sacrifice of the nation’s volunteer service members. Bishop John A. Marshall School sixth-grader Jack Semprebon reflected on the solemn purpose of the day. He traced the tradition of volunteer service and commitment to “duty, honor and country” starting with the American Revolution. “Those men must’ve been so scared,” he said, recalling the 1941 Japanese air attack on U.S. ships stationed at Pearl Harbor.
After a memorial wreath was put in place, the honor guard fired off its final multi-gun volley of the morning and Christopher Wood played “Taps” on a bugle from the park gazebo.
The crowd then shifted to the platform at the Waterbury Train Station for a presentation by members of the Waterbury Historical Society. The group’s annual “Ghost Walk” typically features talks sometimes combined with visits to local spots to share stories of Waterbury figures from days gone by.
This year’s theme was remote burial sites and the nature of the subject made the material best covered with photos and discussion. About 70 people gathered to hear presentations by Brian Lindner about Ricker Mountain cemeteries at what is today Little River State Park and Lawrence Dennis discuss the Demeritt family cemetery on private land on Blush Hill. Spots on Waterbury’s southern edge accessible from land near the Ice Center were topics Skip Flanders and Amy Kinsell covered.
Lindner ticked through lists of family plots and group cemeteries in the 19th- and early 20th-century settlement at Little River. Now the site of a state park with an established trail network, the spot is the most accessible of the areas covered. He noted various homesites with landmarks like a circle of large white quartz stones and cautioned about wells still open. “If you want to take a great hike in the woods, it’s a fantastic place to go,” he said.
Kinsell discussed the Johnson Family Cemetery that sits in close proximity to Interstate 89 and the railroad tracks with some 33 gravestones standing. Accessible by trail past the Ice Center, it’s somewhat overgrown but contains the grave of a Revolutionary War soldier, sailor and prisoner of war, Zachariah Basset, whose marble gravestone was discovered stolen in 2011. The Veterans Administration replaced it in 2016 with a granite marker.
The Demeritt Cemetery is on Blush Hill past Michigan Avenue. Dennis traced its history as a family graveyard maintained until the 1960s with stone walls, an iron gate and a collection of graves marked bearing names and ages of both elderly family members and young children lost to sickness. “Nature has pretty much taken over now,” he said.
Flanders went into much detail on the largest of the graveyards featured in the program – the Vermont State Hospital’s cemetery marked with a monument and situated on a knoll along the lower Perry Hill bike trails. The location likely was chosen for its quiet scenic setting with a view of the Winooski River and possibly even the state hospital in the late 19th century, Flanders said. The spot offered a peaceful final resting place for patients at what was known as the state asylum at the time. They suffered with mental illness and disabilities and often had no family to claim their remains. As it was a common practice to send remains to be used for medical research, just over two dozen individuals were interred in the hillside cemetery, Flanders recounted.
After research was done to learn more about the 28 individuals buried there, the cemetery was rededicated with a monument in 1991. Flanders took time to list each name and a brief description of their causes of death including sicknesses, accidents and suicides.
Flanders thanked the attentive crowd who listened to the stories for the better part of an hour. “May those who are buried there rest in peace,” he said.
Special thanks to Michael Woodard from the American Legion for sharing his photos from the day.