Uncovering tombstones, recovering the past Resident takes on restoration of neglected cemeteries BY AMANDA BELING Staff Writer PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff Joel Parry surveys the overgrowth still covering some grave markers at a West Long Branch cemetery he is restoring. The large pile of branches and vines behind him are the result of his ongoing work. WEST LONG BRANCH - - Local resident Joel Parry spends his free time restoring two local cemeteries and in the process, is helping to uncover local history. According to Parry, there is a lot of historical information in the cemeteries that people probably don't know about because of how neglected they've been. Parry has taken on the task of cleaning up two overgrown cemeteries located on Broadway and North Linden Avenue: Slocum Cemetery and another cemetery that doesn't appear to have a name adjacent to Greenlawn Cemetery. According to resident Ruth Ryan, who has taken an interest in Parry's project, people think the unnamed cemetery is part of Greenlawn Cemetery, but her extensive research shows that it is a separate burial ground. In an e-mail, Ryan explained: "Actually there are five cemeteries all grouped together. Two in the rear are very well kept Jewish cemeteries. One eyesore member of this cemetery group has no known name, and has been disregarded by both the town of West Long Branch and the Greenlawn Cemetery Trust Committee for years. "The 'no name' cemetery is on the corner of Broadway and North Linden and ... a small fenced-off cemetery at the rear of 'no-name' is known as Slocum Cemetery and was actually deeded over to the city of West Long Branch at one point. It contains [the remains of] the Slocums and Jolines born in the late 1700s." "There's a militia list in the Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine from April 1979 where William and Hannah Slocum, part of Capt. James Green's company, are on it," said Ryan, in a recent interview. Parry, who lives across from the cemeteries, said spending his time working in the cemeteries makes him feel like he's doing something positive for the people who rest there and is an interest he developed as a young boy. "I've always had a love for cemeteries. When I was about 11 years old, I was in charge of mowing the lawn and cleaning the grounds of two cemeteries near where PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff Some of the grave markers date to the 1700s and many bear the names of Joline or Slocum family members. I lived in Vermont. It just gave me a greater interest in the preservation of cemeteries," he said. Parry explained that he was motivated to begin cleaning up the two cemeteries when he came across a monument dedicated to Civil War soldiers on the border of Greenlawn Cemetery and the unnamed cemetery. "I'd actually taken a walk through there and came across it and you could hardly see it because there was so much brush covering it," he said. "I live across the street and I didn't even realize it was there until I was right next to it. Once I saw that, I decided to just start cleaning it all up." The process of clearing weeds and brush, picking up trash and getting the cemeteries back in good condition will take a while, and Parry said he has organized the work into three phases. "First, I want to finish getting everything cleaned, then I plan on remounting and resetting the headstones, and then I will wash all the headstones once everything else is in place," he said. Ryan's e-mail said Parry deserves accolades for selflessly taking on the project. "Upon being asked, [he] modestly admits he has spent approximately 200 hours and $1,100 of his own money to do this job, all by himself. He has rented chain saws and carted brush away, pulled up saplings, and picked up about 200 beer cans and bottles," she wrote. Though Parry derives satisfaction from doing the work, he said he wonders who is supposed to be responsible for taking care of the cemeteries, beyond mowing the lawns. "The people that purchased these plots 70 to 90 years ago never could have imagined what their cemeteries would look like today. I've picked up beer bottles, liquor bottles and soda bottles, and a lot of trash. People have lived in this cemetery, I'm certain of that. I found an old mattress laying on the ground a couple of months ago over a grave," said Parry. "All three cemeteries are full and aside from someone coming to mow the lawn, they've been highly neglected to deteriorate to the condition they were in when I started cleaning everything up," he said. Ryan said she met Parry at a yard sale last spring and considers him a local hero. "He mentioned that he was going to clean everything up, and a few weeks ago I drove past and noticed that he'd done a lot of work over these past few months clearing away lots of brush and trees," she said. Ryan said she helped Parry for a couple of hours one day a few weeks ago and she couldn't imagine how he'd been managing the cleanup on his own. "It's a lot of work," she said, "and I'm just so impressed with the work he is doing. He's just amazing." "When I first started this I counted anywhere from 70-90 headstones that were unidentifiable because of all the brush and dirt, and there are also about 75-80 headstones that need to be remounted," he said, adding, "Then all of them just need to be washed and restored to where they once were." Parry noted that there is a lot of historical information in the cemeteries that a lot of people probably don't know about because of how neglected they've been. Parry said he is usually out there every day after work until about 9 p.m. and every weekend he works from 7 a.m. until about 5 p.m. "When people come into the cemetery and see me working and ask me who I work for and who's paying me to do this, I just tell them that I don't work for anyone and that I'm just doing it because it's the right thing to do," he said. Parry said that he gets a great deal of satisfaction from the progress he makes each day. He said that since he began doing this work, he's noticed that more visitors come to the cemeteries, whether they have family there or not. "I don't know if the town will pay more attention to this situation because of what I'm doing because I think the cemeteries are low on funding, so all that they do is mow the lawn," he said. The main obstacle that Parry will eventually face is how to do a lot of the heavier work. "I bought a small chipper that I can use for anything up to two-inches thick, but anything over that will need a commercial chipper," he said. Regardless of who should be doing the maintenance work on the cemeteries, Parry is committed to finishing what he's started. "My hope is just to continue to keep it maintained and that people keep coming to visit the cemeteries and the monuments," he said. Ryan said she hopes Parry will get some help from local Boy Scouts who may volunteer their time and that local businesses will help by providing tools and even items like grass seed and work gloves to aid in this project. "What's mostly needed is elbow grease," she said, promising to help Parry when she can. "I welcome anyone who wants to come out and join me," said Parry.