For nearly a century, volunteers have kept up the private graveyard on Massachusetts Avenue but their numbers, and time, is running down. 

 

"We can't do it anymore," said Pam Beverly, who's nearing 80. 

 

She and Susan Bohl are all that's left of the Blackinton Cemetery Association started by Bohl's grandmother Grace Davies Buffum in the 1920s.

 

No more members have been added since the 1990s as people left or died. Bohl and Beverly, president and vice president, respectively, have been lobbying the city to take over the cemetery for the past 17 years.

 

"We've been trying since 2000 to get the city to take it over," Bohl. "They finally took over the mowing. That's been wonderful." 

 

Mayor Richard Alcombright said the issue has been lingering for years but he hopes to finally bring it to the City Council this summer. 

 

"We have every intention of taking it back and maintaining it as the city's own because of its historic nature," he said. 

 

The cemetery dates to the early 1800s when the village, then known as Centerville, sprung up along the Hoosic River. Sanford Blackinton's textile mill became the major employer in the mid-1800s and the burgeoning borough boasted its own churches, schools and stores (company owned), and even a library, jail and railroad station. 

 

Blackinton donated the land to enlarge the cemetery and for the Welsh workers in his mill. Seven veterans of the Civil War, one from the Spanish-American and two dozen or so from both World Wars are interred there. 

 

"It's a wonderful history," said Beverly, who remembered with Bohl a thriving community in their youth.

 

"We had our own stores, our own post office here," Bohl said. "The people of Blackinton were very proud and for many, many years they kept it up. ...

 

"It was a beautiful community to grow up in, we didn't need go to North Adams. We had our own parade on Memorial Day. Even up to when I was in the Girl Scouts, and they always picked a local veteran to give the Gettysburg Address. It's a shame to see it just going away." 

 

Beverly thinks she may become one of the last to be buried in Blackinton. There have only been a handful of burials since 2000 but there are a few family lots left, and perhaps more room for cremations. 

 

At one time, more than a 100 people volunteered or donated to maintain the cemetery. But many of the families have died out or moved away. The effort to solicit funds has become onerous and what little is left is being put toward the current cleanup, the first significant one in nearly a decade. 

 

Taking the lead is Larry Burdick, who started with the Hill Side Cemetery restoration group, which under Roger Eurbin has made significant improvements to the north side of that historic cemetery. 

 

Burdick said the mayor had mentioned the city was looking to take Blackinton over and that had piqued his interest. He grew up a little farther east on Mass Avenue, where is mother still lives. 

 

"So we met over here," he said. "It's nothing that I haven't done before."  

 

Burdick's been putting in the most time and elbow grease. He designed the sign that was painted by Marilyn Kirby and routered out by her brother. Some six truckloads of brush have been taken away by the Department of Public Works since he started back in January and numerous stones have been reset, straightened and put back together with epoxy. 

 

"Pam and I have just been so happy because we didn't know what to do anymore," Bohl said. She and Beverly are hoping more volunteers will show up to help Burdick with the project.

 

He's there Monday mornings from around 9-9:30 to noon and can be reached at 413-346-4944. No experience is necessary, just a readiness for hard work.

 

Last Wednesday, a group of Boy Scouts under the direction of Scout Master John Vallieres were cutting away more brush on the steeper hillside. Burdick walked up the hill pointing out where graves were still hidden under the brush. 

 

"I take a lot of pride in what I do and it will look very, very nice for Memorial Day," he said. 

 

Alcombright said there will be some cost to taking over the graveyard but believed he had a good case to present to the council, which has to vote on taking any land. The only hold up could be legal issues related to the deed. 

 

"We're going to have to make more of a commitment. We'll have to take a little more active role," the mayor said. "It's an obligation of the city, the people who are buried there built this city. There are veterans over there and we have to figure out how to do that."