The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-09-03
TREES RUIN A GRAVEYARD.
They Grew and Spread Their Roots ant
Drove Out the Dead.

SdllOTS NV my On Iuc new Worcester
plantation, across the Penobscot from
Bangor, wanted to get the place incor-
porated and applied for a charter, they
intended to call the town Orangetown,
in honor of Orangetown, Md, but the
early education of the man who drew
up the petition had been so badly neg
lected that when he wrote the docu-
and in this manner was good town
name born from very poor photography.
During the Jos years which have passed
since then the people have made very
few blundcrs. They not only know
what they want. but they go it with =
get-there imPetuosity which generally
wins success.
In TACT, some citizens of Orrington
can be trnthfully charged with having
too much zeal. One resident--a wom-
an, bearing the name of Baker-has
made herself famous for all time by a
little act of thoughtful kindness that
would never have been noticed had it
been done in most towns. Mrs. Baker,
though she lived and died years before
Secretary Morton was known, was q
firm believer in Arbor day. She set out
such native trees as she could find grow
ing on the hills, and sent away to
friends and got several varieties that
had lately come over from Europe.
One spring morning in the fourth
decade of the present century, a coaster
| came in from Boston, having few trees
on board billed to Mrs. Baker. Among
them was a rare species known as the
honey locust. The agent who sold it to
her praised it very highly, saying it
| had large racemes of fragrant white
| flowers and beautiful pendulous foliage,
| making it most suitable ornament for
| a cemetery. In addition to these quail
| titles, it was thrifty and perfectly hardy,
and could be either grown as a hedge
or trimmed to single trunk.
Following the printed instructions,
which came with every tree, she planted
her honey locust in the family lot in
the old Chaplin cemetery on the road
from Orrington Center to Orrington.
No tree ever kept its contract more per-
fectly than that honey locust. 1t
waXed big and strong in the dry, gravel
| ly soil, and raised up many offspring,
all of which grew wonderfully. Fifteen
years later, when Mrs. Baker laid down
the cares of life, she was put to rest in q
beautiful grove of her own planting.
Around her grave the wild cypress grew
in rank yellow profusion. Above it the
red cinnamon rose bloomed all through
the summer months, and over these the
I rare honey locusts swayed their fra
grant blossoms, until every dallying
wind stole away deeply laden with
sweetness. Surely, if there were ever.
a place where death was robbed of its
terrors, this was the spot.
New tenants came to the little four
acre cemetery as the years went on.
The Harrimans, noted for their
strength; the Chapns, famous in
finance; the Bakers, with their hand
some children, and several other good
people, having finished their work, we're
laid away for long, sweet rest among
| the flowers.
The people died, but the honey To-
Gusts lived. They not only lived, but
took such JOY in living that by 1850
the sexton complained bitterly about
the tough roots of the locust trees
which he was forced to cut off in order
to dig new grave. In former years,
with Il spade and pickaX, he could dig
a good grave in about four hours. Now
| he had to take an ak and crowbar
along, and when he had dug grave he
found the whole day was used up. Sew
eral owners of burial plots that were
inclosed with expensive fences, as well
as those who had erected stones or mon
uments, complained about the preva-
lepce of locust trees, saying the tangled
| growth concealed the graves. The lots
| were thiclletS of bruShwood, and even
the cemetery paths grew up so that
men had 70 swamp new roads whenever
body was inferred on the further side
of the Enclosure.
About the time the war closed the
residents woke up to the fact that their
beautiful cemetery had been trans
formed iAto a wilderness. filled with
'brambles and noNious thorns. Some
made onslaughts upon the trees, clear
ing individual lots here and there,
which at once grew up to young To-
| Gust trees from roots on the unreclaimed
lots. Meetings of lot owners were held,
bu no definite plan of action was adopt
| ed Meanwhile the locusts grew and
entrance to the cemetery became more
difficult every year. Shortly after it
| was learned that the locusts could not
| he eradicatcd the survivors began TO
take up their dead and move them to
other cemeteries. Some went to Mill
! Creek, others to Orrington village. and
still others to the hillside yard at Shows
| Corner. Before 1870 nearly everybody
was up and away. Then the town voted
to pay for the removal of those whose
friends had all died or moved away,
and the grave diggers went all over the
yard.
The work was done well-much bet
ter than the average of such jobs. Still
il is said that some five or six bodies
were never found. The rank trees
grew so rapidly and were such greedy
feeders that the ashes of the dead were
taken up to form wood and blossoms.
Chaplin cemetery has been abandoned
for more than 20 years. The lOCustS