NEW SCOTLAND – Preserving history is not something that comes easily.

Just ask the members of the New Scotland Cemetery Association, which maintain and oversee the cemetery. It is perched on a hillside, with the Helderberg escarpment providing a serene backdrop. Buried within it lies more than 200 years of New Scotland town history that the association desperately hopes to preserve.

The cemetery is located behind the New Scotland Presbyterian Church on New Scotland Road. The church – the oldest in New Scotland – was organized in 1787, and the first church building was constructed in 1791. The church that stands today was built in 1849.

At the time the church was formed, New Scotland had a population of about 100 people. According to town records, there was a small general store, a blacksmith shop, and four saloons.

The section of the cemetery adjacent to the church holds the bodies of Revolutionary War soldiers. Jacob Moak was in the Albany County Militia; his is the oldest known grave in the cemetery. He died in 1795.

That section of the cemetery is still attached to the church. The part of the cemetery known as New Scotland Cemetery is no longer part of the church.

Help needed

The New Scotland Cemetery Association has only a handful of members. Three of the members – Corinne Weeks, Martha Oden, and Arlene Herzog – spoke to The Enterprise about some of the problems the group faces.

One of the most frustrating problems, the women agreed, is that the cemetery has no records prior to 1917.

Whoever was in charge at the time probably took the records home and put them in their attic, and who knows what happened to them, Weeks hypothesized.
"The records just simply disappeared," she said.
The women have been working to get the names and dates of those that are buried in the cemetery. "We’re missing half the people, yet," Herzog said.

The research and maintenance is daunting for three retired women with busy lives and aching backs. The difficulty increases with the overturned stones, the stones that have been overgrown with brush and trees, the stones with names that have been weathered off the surface over the years, and the stones covered with lichen and moss.

Aside from the physical labors involved with maintaining a cemetery, there are financial burdens. The cemetery gets about two to five burials a year, on average.

The money from those burials is the only income that the cemetery receives. The cost for a lot space in the cemetery is $400. The burial cost is $690; the gravedigger is paid $550.

In lawn care alone, the association pays about $5,000 per year.
"We can afford to exist for three more years," said Herzog.

If the cemetery runs out of money, the town then takes it over. Towns really don’t like having the added burden, the women concluded.

They are hoping that the town does not have to take over the New Scotland Cemetery.

Herzog, Weeks, and Oden are searching for descendants of people who are buried in the cemetery, or anyone who may know names of individuals buried there.

They are also in need of volunteers. Even one day a year would help, they said.
"There are probably people that just don’t know about us, that would be willing to help out," said Weeks.
"You really should have at least 20 people who want to be involved," Herzog said. "And people who are under 50," she added.

Anyone who is interested in volunteering, or who has any information about people buried in the cemetery should call Arlene Herzog at 439-1559.
"A little bit of time here and there is just as important as total involvement," Weeks added, reinforcing that every hour of time helps.

The association has gotten some much needed help from Bill Morrison and his troop of Boy Scouts. The Scouts worked on straightening and cleaning the stones of the Revolutionary War soldiers.
"The Scouts have been wonderful," Oden told The Enterprise.

The distinction is clear between the area of the cemetery where the Scouts have been, and the older portion of the New Scotland Cemetery, which is in disrepair and needs attention.

The New Scotland Cemetery, like many other cemeteries in the state, performs burials only while the ground is thawed. The thawing machinery, and proper backhoe are expensive, and for small cemeteries, like New Scotland Cemetery, it is just not an option.
If a law requires winter burial, Weeks said, "It could put us right out of business in no time."
Even if the cemetery association were able to afford the winter-burial equipment, Herzog said, "You couldn’t get the machinery in without disturbing other graves."