Old Lyme —The ancient section of Duck River Cemetery, one of Connecticut’s oldest active cemeteries, is getting a face lift courtesy of a group of dedicated residents.

On a Sunday morning in late June, approximately a dozen volunteers with the Old Lyme Cemetery Association gathered in Duck River Cemetery to continue restoration work. Members said they believe that preserving history is important and their efforts is addressing years of neglect.

The project began in September 2021 in the oldest part of the cemetery, which dates back to its inception in 1676 and is located to the right immediately upon entering from McCurdy Road.

Throughout the morning, they cleaned 21 gravestones, excavated one foot stone, which had sunk over the years, and re-erected another five stones.

They use mostly manual labor in their work. Local historian and President of the Old Lyme Cemetery Association Carolyn Wakeman explained by phone on Tuesday that lichen, a type of fungus, is “the main disfiguring problem on the gravestones. They also get stained from water or from air, but lichen are the biggest problem.”

Old Lyme Cemetery Association Treasurer and town First Selectman Timothy Griswold, said by phone Tuesday that much of the work was done “with a kitchen brush and a water squirter and basically you take the lichen off of the stone and it becomes readable,” adding that “it’s very exciting when you can make out the words.”

Since the restoration project began, they have repaired six broken stones, carefully cleaned lichen and staining off 78 and straightened and reset 55 stones.

“We were all, I would say, nervous about working on these old stones,” Griswold said. Due to their age and the composition of many of the stones, a brown sedimentary rock which erodes and breaks fairly easily, volunteers were understandably concerned about damaging them further, but over time, he said they have developed more confidence in their work.

“We try not to do anything that might, over time, impact negatively the quality of the stones and the legibility of the inscriptions,” said Wakeman.

The project is not just about restoration, though; it is also about preserving history.

“The first surviving gravestone in the cemetery is Renold Marvin,” said Wakeman by phone on Tuesday. Marvin was 42 years old when he died in 1676.

“He was a farmer so to speak,” said Wakeman, explaining that many people termed farmers had large estates and bred horses.

“We don’t know very much about him,” she continued saying he was “a lieutenant in the local train band, or the local militia, and it is said that, and assumed that, he’s the person after whom Lieutenant River was named.”

The cemetery also holds nine gravestones, located in the rear of the ancient section, comprising ten burials of African Americans, eight of whom were freed slaves who had spent decades in servitude prior to their emancipation.

“Some of it is beyond reclaiming,” Griswold said, but the crew will continue to restore both the physical stones and the access to history they provide until they have done all they can.

More information about the Duck River Cemetery project and the Old Lyme Cemetery Association is available on their website, oldlymecemeteries.org. Individuals interested in volunteering should email OLCemeteryAssociation@gmail.com.