New London Landmarks has raised $1,750 in donations to restore the headstones of Ichabod Pease, a freed slave who at age 81 opened a school for African-American children, as well as his wife Rose, at Cedar Grove Cemetery.

Pease’s story has been traced by Mary Lycan, a history student at the University of Connecticut, and Tom Schuch, a local history buff.

Pease was an accomplished cobbler who also earned a living as a gardener on the Huntington estate in New London.

The school Pease founded was torn down prior to urban renewal, but Schuch has located the site, near the current Salvation Army headquarters on Gov. Winthrop Boulevard.

The gravestone restorations were done by Beyond the Gravestone. Landmarks plans to hold a program at the gravesites next spring.

— Information compiled from New London Landmarks and Day staff reports