Behind Buckingham Friends’ historic stone meeting house, designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003, there lies a 7-acre cemetery that has served our community since 1705.
This burial ground contains the remains of African Americans from the days of the Underground Railroad, soldiers who died in our Meeting House (which was requisitioned as a hospital during the Revolutionary War), many local Native Americans, and generations of Quakers, as well as others from the community.
Surrounding this sacred burial ground is a 2,225-foot stone wall begun some 270 years ago. The 752 running feet of the wall is beautifully capped with cypress wood. The “upside down V” space between the capping and top of the wall is filled with mortar and stone. Unfortunately, the capping has deteriorated tremendously because of water seeping in, freezing in the winter and expanding the wall’s materials.
It is imperative that the wall be recapped to bring an end to damage that has been occurring. A handful of volunteers have been working on the recapping project since 2012. It has been a long, arduous, as well as expensive task. With 389 feet to go, and 1,363 feet completed, we are approaching the last phase of the wall recapping.
The cypress capping of our wall is extremely unique architecturally. In our work of both the meeting house and the graveyard wall, we strive to maintain the original architectural design during the restoration process, honoring the National Historic Landmark significance of this property. It is time consuming and expensive, but the quality and integrity of the end result is very much worth it.
Unfortunately, we have had several large trees in the woods surrounding our burial grounds come down, bursting through the wall, and resulting in much damage recently in three places. With our dwindling member numbers (we use to be over 1,000 in 1800, and we are now under 100 members) and Covid circumstances, our finances are quite low.
We are in dire need of a possible semi-retired or retired stone mason or two, with a bit of time on their hands, who would like to volunteer their services for an extremely worthwhile cause that will greatly contribute to a historical restoration in their community. The stone is there, and we will provide the mortar. It will be of no cost to the volunteer.
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