Boy Scout Dylan Brown helps Center Moriches church restore 19th century cemetery
As part of his Eagle Scout project, Dylan Brown, 18, of East Moriches, helped restore the 19th century graveyard at Center Moriches United Methodist Church. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
Dylan Brown, of East Moriches, needed an Eagle Scout project.
Center Moriches United Methodist Church needed help restoring its weather-battered 19th century graveyard.
Through happenstance and Brown's persistence, he and the church found one another — and last month, the cemetery was rededicated with restored headstones and a new fence.
"I needed to get a project done," said Brown, 18, who is expected to soon earn the Boy Scouts of America's highest honor. "I wanted to leave a mark that was bigger than me."
The tiny burial ground — which contains the grave markers, though not the remains, of 16 people — was littered with broken headstones and tree stumps, church trustee Thomas Muller said. Decades of erosion made headstone inscriptions virtually illegible, and the fence surrounding the site was beyond repair, he said.
"We said, 'Let's clean it up,' which sounds pretty easy," Muller, 80, said Tuesday. But the prospect of digging up stumps, adding fresh topsoil and repairing grave markers proved daunting for many church members, he added.
"A lot of work," he said.
Then one day last year, Brown showed up asking if the church needed any help, Pastor Tracy Moore said.
With friends and family pitching in this spring, Brown built a new picket fence coated with timber oil to protect it from the elements.
To fix the headstones, Brown needed a flashlight and a special blend of paint.
Headstone inscriptions were so faded that Brown, a member of Boy Scout Troop 29 who will join the U. S. Coast Guard this fall, shone light on the stone tablets to decipher names, birth dates and dates of death.
To enhance their legibility, Brown used gray paint designed for monument lettering. The paint, marketed by a South Carolina company, is expected to last up to 100 years, Muller said.
"We set them [back] up in the most responsible way we could to respect these people," Muller said.
Brown spent 514 hours on the project — "the most I've seen in a while, and I’ve been doing this for a lot of years," said Paul Haines, who chairs the committee that assesses Eagle Scout candidates. He added he had "no doubts at all" that Brown will earn the honor.
“This was a great project,” said Haines, 77, of East Moriches. “Rehabbing the stones was fantastic.”
Restoring the cemetery was important to church officials because at one time it was believed to have been the final resting place of prominent church members from the Clark, Penny and Smith families, Muller said.
Among them was Moses Clark, a Revolutionary War veteran who died in 1841, according to online historical archives.
But church officials did not find human remains while excavating the graveyard, Muller said, adding officials believe the remains had been removed and reinterred elsewhere decades ago.
The cemetery was rededicated on June 22. Brown said the entire project cost him and his family a little over $800.
"You get a lot of history out of them. You get to see who was here," Brown said, referring to the graves. "If you don't have a record of that, you kind of lose a record of who you are."
Dylan Brown, of East Moriches, needed an Eagle Scout project.
Center Moriches United Methodist Church needed help restoring its weather-battered 19th century graveyard.
Through happenstance and Brown's persistence, he and the church found one another — and last month, the cemetery was rededicated with restored headstones and a new fence.
"I needed to get a project done," said Brown, 18, who is expected to soon earn the Boy Scouts of America's highest honor. "I wanted to leave a mark that was bigger than me."
The tiny burial ground — which contains the grave markers, though not the remains, of 16 people — was littered with broken headstones and tree stumps, church trustee Thomas Muller said. Decades of erosion made headstone inscriptions virtually illegible, and the fence surrounding the site was beyond repair, he said.
"We said, 'Let's clean it up,' which sounds pretty easy," Muller, 80, said Tuesday. But the prospect of digging up stumps, adding fresh topsoil and repairing grave markers proved daunting for many church members, he added.
"A lot of work," he said.
Then one day last year, Brown showed up asking if the church needed any help, Pastor Tracy Moore said.
With friends and family pitching in this spring, Brown built a new picket fence coated with timber oil to protect it from the elements.
To fix the headstones, Brown needed a flashlight and a special blend of paint.
Headstone inscriptions were so faded that Brown, a member of Boy Scout Troop 29 who will join the U. S. Coast Guard this fall, shone light on the stone tablets to decipher names, birth dates and dates of death.
To enhance their legibility, Brown used gray paint designed for monument lettering. The paint, marketed by a South Carolina company, is expected to last up to 100 years, Muller said.
"We set them [back] up in the most responsible way we could to respect these people," Muller said.
Brown spent 514 hours on the project — "the most I've seen in a while, and I’ve been doing this for a lot of years," said Paul Haines, who chairs the committee that assesses Eagle Scout candidates. He added he had "no doubts at all" that Brown will earn the honor.
“This was a great project,” said Haines, 77, of East Moriches. “Rehabbing the stones was fantastic.”
Restoring the cemetery was important to church officials because at one time it was believed to have been the final resting place of prominent church members from the Clark, Penny and Smith families, Muller said.
Among them was Moses Clark, a Revolutionary War veteran who died in 1841, according to online historical archives.
But church officials did not find human remains while excavating the graveyard, Muller said, adding officials believe the remains had been removed and reinterred elsewhere decades ago.
The cemetery was rededicated on June 22. Brown said the entire project cost him and his family a little over $800.
"You get a lot of history out of them. You get to see who was here," Brown said, referring to the graves. "If you don't have a record of that, you kind of lose a record of who you are."
Graveyard project
- Center Moriches United Methodist Church, with the help of a local Boy Scout, cleaned up and restored its 19th century graveyard.
- The cemetery contains the headstones, though not the bodies, of 16 people whose remains are believed to be buried elsewhere.
- The scout, Dylan Brown, 18, of East Moriches, built a new fence and repaired headstones to fulfill his credentials to become an Eagle Scout.
Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.
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