ROCKLAND – On Saturday, Aug 5, volunteers finished the major grunt work of a Tolman Cemetery restoration project. That small yet hardy group of volunteers, led by a hired stone restorer, worked through two weeks of summer heat, rain, and dimming daylight to salvage the markers of Revolutionary and War of 1812-era families.

In doing so, they found a few surprises within the cemetery, which was awarded a place on the National Register of Historic Places July 28.

Some surprises were small and expected, such as finding grave stones out of place with the burial plots.

Some were a little bigger, such as learning of methods by restorers of the early 1990s. One particular example being the headstone of Captain Joseph Young, Revolutionary War, according to Lady Knox Daughters of the American Revolution Regent Mary Kay Felton.

“Somebody in the past, who has done restoration out here, has taken pieces out, and they’ve thrown them all into a hole, along with concrete,” Felton said. “So, at this point, we can’t even take those pieces off to put the headstone back together.”

And then the biggest surprise. For years, members of the Lady Knox Daughters of the American Revolution, along with the Rockland Cemetery Association, wondered why one single person was buried way in the back. Dousing, courtesy of Lincolnville’s Cecil Dennison, led to the discovery that that one person was not alone.

Dousing is the process of traversing an area while holding a long iron rod in each hand. The energy of that area draws together, or separates the rods based on what is beneath. For example, dousers can tell if a grave exists, the length of the grave, and even the gender of the body by the direction the rods involuntarily move.

Through that dousing, volunteers found a potter’s field hidden way in the back underneath trees and shrubs that have since been cleared.

“He can’t find everything,” Richards said. “Sometimes he’s wrong, but if you compare it to ground-penetrating radar, he’s probably about as accurate, if not more accurate, depending on the age of the grave.”

In this case, he was correct, and, along the way, solved a mystery plaguing local history buffs: Why was Sam Jennison, pauper and Revolutionary War patriot, buried all alone?

That’s what members of the project thought three years ago.

Felton, personally, learned something of her ancestry during the project. She and her daughters are descendants of Isaiah Tolman. On the day that daughters Emma and Ellison, Children of the American Revolution, came to help clean the headstone of fifth greatgrandmother Peggy Tolman, which was laying on the ground, Revolutionary War Patriot Captain Young’s stone was unearthed.

“I knew that we were direct descendants of Peggy Tolman,” Felton said. “I didn’t realize until they unearthed the stone that the Peggy Young that was back there was, in fact, our Peggy.”

And as the adults learn more about the identities and locations within the area, the children are learning about the world in general.

Felton’s kindergartner, in the process of cleaning the small field stone of a 21-month-old infant, declared that the deceased must not be very important, based on the size of the stone. Felton explained to her that sometimes a small rock was used for a child or for the very poor.

“OK,” said the daughter. “I take back what I said.”

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