Lyme - When gravestones tilt at an eerie angle, sink into the soil or mysteriously uproot themselves, it's not because of something going bump in the night.

It's just nature taking its course - soil shifting over time, tree roots causing subterranean damage, the build-up of fallen leaves and other material giving the effect of the earth swallowing up old gravestones.

In the battle of gravestones versus nature, nature eventually prevails.

Unless there are people like Parker Lord.

For more than a decade, the longtime selectman and his small but dedicated crew of volunteers have been leading an effort to maintain about half of the town's 26 known cemeteries. Many are considered ancient cemeteries, with burials dating back 100 years or more.

It's not as simple as it may sound.

First, Lord had to actually find the cemeteries, some of which had disappeared under overgrowth and some of which are small family plots with just one or two gravestones.

Lord, 70, compiled the information he found in a March 1996 document called "Report on the Cemeterys in Lyme," in which he catalogued each cemetery's size, its condition and even its GPS location.

Later, he would delve deeper, recording the names of every person buried in Lyme, assuming the resting places of the dead were marked with gravestones, that the gravestones were still there and their inscriptions still legible.

The oldest burial found, of William Ely in the Ely Cemetery, dates back to 1717.

"I want to create public awareness of these ancient cemeteries," said Lord, a descendant of William Ely. "These are the people that made (us) what we are today. They're living museums."

The Hale Collection: A starting point

The challenge of finding, then maintaining, ancient cemeteries is one that countless other towns in Connecticut face. The use of wood or sandstone for gravestones, which Lord said is "very easy to work with, but it does not last," meant many of the stones had deteriorated over time.

Some cemeteries were not maintained, and others contain the unmarked graves of dozens of slaves and paupers, Lord said. Some of these graves are marked with fieldstones - flat stones found in the fields, he said - that with the passage of time have sunk so low into the ground that today, only the top portions of them protrude from the surface.

In the 1930s, a man named Charles R. Hale made it his mission to record inscriptions on headstones across the state. The Hale Collection of Connecticut Cemetery Inscriptions documented the names of all those who had been buried in Lyme through 1934, giving Lord a starting point for his own report, which records graves from 1934 to 2008.

Lord found 1,286 people buried in that time period, bringing the list of the recorded dead in Lyme up to 3,802, according to his records.

Lord's report is available in the Town Hall, Lyme Public Library and Jane DeWolf's H.L. Reynolds General Store on Route 156.

With cemetery records up to date, Lord is now focusing on holding so-called "work parties" to not only clear brush from cemetery grounds but also reset the dozens of stones that are tilted, broken or toppled over.

"It's like your yard," Lord said. "Constantly, it needs a little bit of this, it needs a little of that. And if you don't keep after them, they will totally disappear."

During a work party earlier this month at Cedar Hill Cemetery - better known as Selden Cemetery - volunteer Bill Denow said the group found a headstone that had fallen over about 50 years ago and been buried under about three inches of soil.

It took several probes with Lord's trusty machete to find and unearth the stone.

'Never-ending and difficult' work

Lord, an Essex native, began caring for cemeteries in the 1970s, when the late Elizabeth Putnam asked him to help clean the grounds of Joshuatown Cemetery on Joshuatown Road.

He soon found other cemeteries that were also in disrepair and needed attention. Today, about half of the cemeteries are the town's responsibility, most of them are ancient and only the Eight Mile River Cemetery is still selling plots.

Four of the cemeteries are cared for by cemetery associations, and eight are on private land, Lord said.

The town budgeted $5,400 for the Eight Mile Cemetery this year and another $7,000 for mowing and general cemetery maintenance, First Selectman Ralph Eno said. But much of the cemetery-associated expenses are offset by cemetery "endowment" funds that help pay for ongoing maintenance, Eno said.

"New England cemeteries are part of our history and traditions, and we have an obligation to maintain them," Eno said. "And I think Lyme is blessed to have someone like Parker and his associates who are willing to undertake the task, because it's never-ending and it's difficult."

The late town historian Hiram Maxim II is also credited with helping stir interest in the town's old cemeteries. When he discovered that an entire cemetery on a hill on Route 156 had disappeared, Maxim went in there, cleaned it up and built a simple, red, wooden gate at the entrance, said Carolyn Bacdayan, the Lyme Public Hall's archivist.

It was Lord Cemetery, and each Christmas until he died in 2008, Maxim adorned the gate with a wreath, Bacdayan said. It was a symbol of what could happen if a community took care of its past, she said.

"I think that when a cemetery is cleaned up, each one of these, as it's cleaned up, generates more interest and respect for what work is left to be done," Bacdayan said.

Denow, who looks after Lord Cemetery as its "steward," said the cemetery - once "indistinguishable from forested land" - has become a nice place to visit.

"I haven't had many paranormal experiences, but I can assure you that everyone in the Lord Cemetery is quite comfortable," Denow said. "It's not spooky at all. It's probably one of the most pleasant places to spend a summer afternoon."

j.cho@theday.com

Cemeteries in Lyme

Cared for by the town1. Lord (Route 156)2. Sterling (Sterling City Road)3. Joshuatown (Joshuatown Road)4. Cedar Hill, known as Selden (Joshuatown Road)5. Luther (Ferry Road)6. Sisson (Salem Road)7. Griffin (Beaver Brook Road)8. Coult (Beaver Brook Road)9. Grassy Hill (Grassy Hill Road)10. Gillett (Grassy Hill Road)11. Marvin (Route 156)12. Eight Mile River (Mount Archer Road)13. Hartman Park (Gungy Road)

Cared for by private cemetery associations14. Ely (Tinker Lane)15. North Lyme (Sterling City Road)16. Cove (Ferry Road)17. Pleasant Valley (Route 156)

On private land18. Daniels (Joshuatown Road)19. Thurston (Joshuatown Road) - all cremations20. Brockway (Brockway's Ferry Road)21. Emerson (Mount Archer Road)22. Indian (Beaver Brook Road)23. Beebe (Beaver Brook Road)24. Becket Hill (Becket Hill Road)25. Bill Hill (Blood Street)

Other26. Richards (Route 82) - stones have disappeared; no evidence of cemetery there

Source: Parker Lord and "Report on the Cemeterys in Lyme," March 1996