Will anyone preserve Claypit Cemetery?

Letter to the Editor:The Lowell Sun

The town of Dracut has consistently maintained through the years that it is not responsible for the abandoned Claypit Cemetery located behind the Brunswick Bowling Alley. Through research which has been published online at primaryresearch.org and in The Sun (see the Lowell Sun Opinion column, Sept. 27, 2007), there is significant evidence that points to the contrary. It is unclear why Dracut officials refuse responsibility for a site that is so historically significant to their town’s history. Perhaps their indifference to the cemetery is due simply to ignorance about just how important Dracut’s oldest cemetery is to the town’s heritage.

To date, 29 individuals have been linked to Claypit, and it is very likely that the number is even higher than that, though no evidence, primary or secondary, has been discovered to confirm this. Among those at Claypit are:

• Moses B. Coburn. He was a descendent of one of Dracut’s first settlers, Edward Coburn, and went on to serve as a Revolutionary soldier. After the war he returned to Dracut and owned a farm in the Pawtucketville neighborhood.

• Nathaniel B. Coburn. Coburn was a deacon at the Pawtucket Congregational Church. Several members of his family are buried in Claypit, including his wife and several of his children.

• Phillip Pierce. He was originally from Chelmsford and is distantly related to Franklin Pierce, who served as U.S. president from 1853 to 1857. Several members of his family are buried at Claypit.

• Barzillai Lew. Lew was a prominent African-American from Dracut who served as a fifer during the Revolutionary War. Two descendants of Lew are also in Claypit — Sara and Osmon Lew.

• Orrin R. Park. Having enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War, Orrin Park died in November 1862 while serving in Suffolk, Va.

• Rhoda Brown. She was married to Alfred Coburn. Her headstone is one of the few still remaining intact at Claypit. The stone was engraved by Benjamin Day, who was a prolific stone cutter in both Essex and Middlesex counties in the 19th century.

• John Varnum. He was Dracut’s first town clerk and is most likely one of the earliest to be buried at Claypit. He died in 1715.

The people listed here were all Dracut citizens, not Lowell citizens. They helped establish the town of Dracut and, in the cases of Moses B. Coburn, Barzillai Lew and Orrin R. Park, served their nation during war as citizens of Dracut, not Lowell. Sadly, though, the cemetery is in a state of complete neglect and disrepair because Dracut officials have been poor stewards of their responsibility to properly honor those at Claypit.

I, along with others who have researched Dracut’s oldest cemetery, would be willing to assist town officials in restoring Claypit as historically accurate as possible. This would include obtaining new headstones for the three veterans, Coburn, Lew and Park, from the Department of Veterans Affairs. However, Dracut town officials have allowed its history to be neglected for more than a century now, and there is little sign that this indifference will end anytime soon. Therefore, perhaps it is time for the city of Lowell to act responsibly and accomplish what the town of Dracut has so far failed to do — honor those veterans at Claypit and preserve a piece of our past for those in the future.

REBECCA DUDA, teacher Lakeview JuniorHigh School, Dracut