It was so overgrown, many of the neighbors didn’t even know there was a cemetery back there — time had erased many outward signs and as it was, the small family plot was only about 1,200 square feet.

But last September, as they cleared away more and more of the overgrowth that had taken over the old Crossman plot at Tickle and Briggs roads, friends Todd Baptista, Troy Rebello and  Dawn Young grew more and more excited.

A neighbor had asked the three, all volunteer members of Westport’s Gravestone Cleaning and Restoration Group, to have a look at the property after running into them at an artisan fair. They obliged and on the first visit, found more than they bargained for.

One of the first things they spotted was a small ornate monument marked “Mabel.” Against a tree, several pieces of a larger stone were in the same position noted the last time a survey was done, in the late 1970s. More marble stones, whole and broken, were scattered about next to a stone wall, and lying half-buried in the dirt. There was overgrowth everywhere, neglect and disarray — in short, a perfect project for the volunjteer group.

“It was exciting,” Todd said. “Every once in a while you take on a project that leaves you saying, ‘What have I gotten myself into? But you put one foot in front of the other and somehow, it all comes together.”

Award winners

Westport’s grave cleaning and restoration group is one of the area’s most active, with a deep corps of volunteers, funding from the Community Preservation Committee and no shortage of cemeteries to tend to. There are dozens across town, from large, well-known graveyards to tiny family plots with just a handful of stones. Undoubtedly, there are some that have been lost to time and lay undiscovered.

To Baptista and other group volunteers, all are equally important and all give a tremendous sense of satisfaction after dirty stones are cleaned and broken ones rebuilt.

That sense of satisfaction is especially acute at the Crossman plot, named after a family that lived in Westport and Tiverton from the late 1700s through the third decade of the 20th century.

Though most cemetery projects are relatively straight-forward, the Crossman plot took considerable work after that first day as a majority of the stones found needed some attention, whether it be shoring up “sugared” — or decayed — marble, re-fastening stones to their bases and in several cases, completely re-assembling broken stones.

At first, volunteers thought they would find six sets of stones — foot and head — but in the end, they ended up finding 32 field stones in the plot.

Some toppled stones needed to be moved away from trees, and one in articular gave the volunteers  its fair share of problems.

After finding a footstone bearing the initials FMC, Dawn Young was able to find nine pieces of the full stone for Frederick M. Crossman, who died in 1883 at 57 years of age. Meanwhile, the base was located buried in the dirt.

Suitable marble is hard to find but Rebello was able to source some from a Vermont quarry, and made the five-hour round trip a few months after the initial discovery, bringing home nearly 1,500 pounds of marble for the Crossman plot and other future Westport projects.

Back home, the stone was cleaned with the help of team member Sheri Boyle and Devin Baptista, original pieces were laid out on pallets, and new pieces were cut to shape added. When all was cut and cleaned, the pieces were glued up with specialty epoxy made for marble and other stonework. Seam lines were filled with additional epoxy and marble dust, to lessen the appearance of the work that was done.

Job well done

In all, it took the volunteers about 75 hours of work to transform the forgotten cemetery. And in early February, they learned how much the work had been noted when they won a preservation award from Atlas Preservation, a supplier of gravestone reclamation and restoration parts and supplies.

“I’m proud to be a part of the Westport Gravestone Cleaning and Restoration group,” Rebello wrote in early February. “This cemetery was a big challenge. We met that challenge. Working with limited funding, we restored the Crossman Cemetery and now it has entered into the preservation stage, where it can be cared for and last for a very long time.”