History Beneath the Stones

The Greens Farms Congregational Church turns 300 years old June 12 and its anniversary committee is committed to three "Rs:" remember, renew, rejoice.

The "remember" component was under way Friday at the church's Upper Cemetery as congregants Diane Parrish and Susan Schmidt and four of their children began the laborious task of cleaning gravestones marking 1,000 interments  since 1783. 

Many of the headstones are covered with orange and green mosses and fungi, their lettering obscured.

Kitchen scrubbers in hand and with buckets of water at the ready, Parrish and her son, Clay, 20, and Schmidt and her three children — Lauren 10, and 8-year-old twins Hannah and Justin — cleaned the marble, granite and brownstone markers and then sprayed them with a non-toxic enzymatic cleaning agent.

If all goes well months from now, the enzymes will have broken down the grime of the ages and returned a lustrous look to the cemetery. 

The Westport Historical Society is leading a tour through the historic cemetery on September 26 and Parrish and Schmidt hope to enlist the church's youth group, Ichthyus, and the Boy Scout troop sponsored by the church to lend a hand. The tour will be led by Peter Jennings of Fairfield, many of whose ancestors were interred there when Greens Farms was part of Fairfield.

The tour will highlight the graves of some of Westport's most memorable long deceased, explained Schmidt as she gently rubbed away flaking debris from a gravestone, revealing the name of Henry Thorp, whose death occurred on Aug. 13, 1818 at age 26.

Nearby is the grave of a possible relative, Capt. Burr Thorp (1770-1831), a sea captain who took on cornmeal from the tide mill at Compo Cove bound for the West Indies.

Some of the gravestones have toppled over time and are sinking into the earth. All that's legible on one white stone is the name "Polly Nash," possibly a  relation of Daniel Nash, who led a group of businessmen in 1835 to obtain a state charter to incorporate Westport.

To the rear of the cemetery is the gravestone of Lucy Rowe (1804-1859), wife of Charles Rowe, a sexton of the church. Both were freed blacks. Lucy's grave is among a series of small headstones, presumed to mark the site of burials of slaves and freed blacks, but the location of Charles' burial is unknown.

In addition to cleaning gravestones, Clay Parrish, a history major entering his junior year at Carleton College, is spending the summer digging into the church's archives to create a historical novel about the church and its congregants. He will co-author it with Michaela MacColl.

He's also working on a film documentary. It will likely include details from the first sermon by the church's first minister, the Rev. Daniel Chapman (1690-1741) as well as the sermon delivered on the occasion of President Lincoln's assassination, documents he has been thrilled to discover.

The church officially begins its 300th anniversary celebrations at its homecoming service this September.

Minister Jeff Rider has called upon all members of the congreation to "renew" the church by taking on an act of outreach for a stranger in a cause they have never before been involved in.

The "rejoice" component of the celebration will happen through music. The church's musical director, Dr. Eileen Hunt, has commissioned a new hymn to celebrate the anniversary. It will debut next month. Newly commissioned choral and organ works will debut subsequently.

The celebrants are hoping to mount an art exhibit as well to showcase the work of their talented members as well as a commemorative quilt being stitched by church members.

The celebrations will culminate with a church picnic on June 12, 2011, which is 300 years after the church's first sermon was delivered, Parrish said.

Meantime, as the slow and painstaking work of scrubbing and cleaning the historic gravestones goes on, Schmidt is moved to wax philosophical.

"It brings to mind the impermanence of it all," she said, pausing to regard a nearby imposing marble monument, its lettering clear.  "It looks so massive - like it will last forever. We can only do our best to preserve it and accept the reality of its impermanence."