TELEGRAM & GAZETTE (Massachusetts) May 23, 2013 Thursday
Hard times for historic cemetery: Burial ground of prominent founding
generations at risk
by Susan Spencer, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
NORTHBRIDGE
A walk through Pine Grove Cemetery in the Whitinsville section of town
is a walk through the history of the Blackstone Valley.
Established in 1878 by sons of textile magnate Paul Whitin, who
endowed the nonprofit Pine Grove Cemetery Association with 27 acres
and a superintendent’s house, the prominent burial ground marks the
generations who built and worked in the region’s once-flourishing
mills.
There are Paul (1767-1831) and Betsey (1777-1868) Whitin; families of
John C. (1807-1882) and Charles P. Whitin (1809-1887); Swifts; Tafts;
Fletchers and other founding mothers and fathers.
Farther along the winding paths, names of more recent Armenian and
Dutch immigrants, such as Arakelian, Baghdasarian, Devries and Bloem,
become apparent.
“I think the people in Whitinsville know Pine Grove Cemetery is a
civic asset,” said seventh-generation Whitin descendent Alexander
Whiteside of Milton. “It’s certainly something worth fighting for and
preserving.”
A fight to preserve Pine Grove Cemetery is just what Whitin
descendants and others in the community find they might be in for.
Mr. Whiteside was recently alerted by local residents concerned about
Pine Grove Cemetery Association’s financial condition and rumors that
the cemetery might be transferred to the town or to St. Patrick
Parish, which is rapidly filling its cemetery across town, or sold in
part to abutting Whitinsville Christian School. Now he is looking for
answers.
“Our family has put a lot into this cemetery,” Mr. Whiteside said. Six
generations of Whitins are buried there. “We probably owe it to them
to make sure that what’s being done wouldn’t make them turn over in
their graves.”
Even after meeting with cemetery trustees last week, he hasn’t found
an explanation or a plan.
“They did say they’ve done everything they could, but they didn’t say
what they have done,” Mr. Whiteside said. “There’s no reason for this
to be a secret. They have that obligation to be open and forthright.
It’s not their cemetery. They’re basically trustees.”
The trustees aren’t talking publicly, either. Charles E. Broadhurst of
Uxbridge, president of Pine Grove Cemetery Association, said, “I’m
afraid we’re not interested in participating (in a newspaper story).”
However, a statement faxed at the last minute to the Telegram &
Gazette read in part: “Over a number of years, the cemetery’s
operational costs have exceeded its income partly due to a limited
number of burials. The trustees are being proactive to search out and
investigate alternative sources of revenue as well as other long-term
plans to insure the perpetual care of the existing graves and
continued benefits for the community. The trustees of Pine Grove
Cemetery want to assure all concerned that the trustees have and will
continue to act to preserve and protect this valuable community
resource.”
The cemetery’s financial trend is clear, according to IRS Form 990s
filed for tax-exempt organizations. In each of the three most recently
reported tax periods, ending in October 2011, 2010 and 2009, the
association incurred a net loss of roughly $80,000 to $100,000.
Total net assets at the end of 2011 were $408,057. Three years earlier
they were $696,902.
In 2011, the cemetery association’s revenue was $81,223, including
$45,860 in cemetery sales. Expenses totaled $185,562, of which
$145,691 was for salaries, wages and payroll taxes for four employees.
The Pine Grove Cemetery Association has tried to raise money.
In 2008, it sold the caretaker’s house for $227,000, according to
documents filed with the Worcester District Registry of Deeds. And
there have been fundraising mailings. Association secretary and
bookkeeper Judith M. Yerka confirmed that solicitations brought in
$14,345 in 1996, including $5,000 from Whitin descendant Priscilla
Mason, who died in 2012 at age 98. Subsequent fund-raising letters
yielded $11,750 in 2000, $9,000 in 2004 and $6,100 in 2006, including
another $5,000 donation from Miss Mason.
“Even though we get money in, it’s not what we need,” Ms. Yerka said.
Mr. Whiteside, who said he never received a fundraising letter, said
the board members “wouldn’t confirm or deny” reports about selling or
transferring cemetery assets to another organization.
Northbridge Town Manager Theodore Kozak had no comment about
discussions to transfer the cemetery to the town.
But Selectman Charles D. Ampagoomian Jr. said it was part of a
discussion in executive session about six to eight months ago.
Describing the meeting as informational, he said, “As far as I know,
there’s no formal proposal to the town. There’s nothing on the table.”
The town currently operates the small Riverdale Cemetery on Route 122.
When asked about potential plans to buy open land from the cemetery,
Lance Engbers, headmaster of Whitinsville Christian School, declined
to comment. “I don’t know that much about it,” he said.
The Rev. Michael Broderick, pastor at St. Patrick Parish in
Whitinsville, did not return phone calls inquiring about rumored plans
to acquire the cemetery.
Diocese of Worcester spokesman Raymond Delisle said that he probably
wouldn’t hear about it until an agreement was signed, if there were
one.
He said that there were rules about how a Catholic cemetery could be
managed, such as barring non-Christian symbols. But in such a
hypothetical situation as managing a non-denominational cemetery, the
practices would only be applied to burials after the acquisition.
“The bottom line is, when we operate a cemetery we have an obligation
to maintain it. We see it as holy ground,” he said. As a private
cemetery corporation, Pine Grove Cemetery Association would have to
notify the secretary of state’s office of any change in its
organization, according to Brian McNiff, an agency spokesman.
While it is tax exempt, a cemetery corporation is not a public charity
and therefore not subject to oversight by the state attorney general’s
office.
Without further information from cemetery association officials, it is
difficult to say whether the financial difficulties are primarily a
result of the recent recession or of a slowness to respond to cultural
shifts.
Thomas P. Daly of Westwood, cemetery consultant and chairman of
legislative and consumer affairs for the Massachusetts Cemetery
Association, said: “Cemeteries are changing. It’s not just all
in-ground burials; we now have more cremations. Family traditions have
changed too – not everyone does traditional burial (with family
gravesites).”
The increasing popularity in cremation, which in 2011 approached 50
percent across New England, according to the Cremation Association of
North America, contributes to lower demand for cemetery plots.
Cemeteries may offer above-ground niches for disposition of
“cremains,” or allow typically two sets of cremains to be interred in
one burial plot. Cremains might even not be buried at all.
Mr. Daly said also that families of veterans increasingly have their
loved ones buried in a veterans’ cemetery, which reduces demand on
regional private cemeteries.
Mr. Daly said he has worked with a few groups that offered to turn
their cemeteries over to municipalities. “It can be done, but it takes
some prudent direction to do that,” he said.
“A lot of cemeteries, I’ve found, are so behind the times,” said Brian
K. Killelea, general manager of Worcester County Memorial Park in
Paxton and secretary of the Massachusetts Cemetery Association.
Mr. Killelea was not familiar with Pine Grove Cemetery’s situation,
but said his family-run memorial park, on 100 acres, has tried to keep
up with practices by being among the first to have a website and
online database.
The memorial park hosts free estate-planning seminars, Memorial Day
cookouts for families who travel to visit their loved ones’ graves,
walking groups and recently, a “Good Grief” social support group.
“We have to pay attention to the living just as much as to the person
who passed,” Mr. Killelea said.
Mr. Whiteside said he believed there was still time to turn around
Pine Grove Cemetery if the matter is addressed head on.
“The issue is, what is the current situation? What can be reasonably
done?” he asked. “There are things that people in town should be
involved in. It should be done in a public way.”