BELFAST — A group of at least 50 people gathered in Grove Cemetery Sept. 16 to explore through the grounds, and visit dozens of notable graves.

The tour of the Waldo Avenue grounds was led by Megan Pinette, who is a trustee of the Belfast Cemetery and president of the Belfast Historical Society. Pinette is also responsible for choosing the graves visited during each year’s tour.

With too many people to fit in the chapel at once, Pinette said the group was the largest she’s had in the nearly 20 years of the tours.

While the skies were clear, they were also busy with air traffic; the Belfast Fly-In happened to overlap with the tour this year, and the sounds of planes could be heard sporadically throughout.

Still it was far better than last year’s tour, which according to Pinnette, took place in late October and ended with heavy rainfall.

This year’s tour started at the cemetery’s chapel, which was open to the public. The small building houses eight pews, a piano, and photos of the cemetery’s earlier days, a century before.

There were dozens of graves visited during the two hour tour, including six World War I crosses dedicated to six Belfast soldiers killed in battle.

One of those soldiers, Frank Hazeltine, wrote what would be his last letter home Sept. 18, 1918. Sent to his mother, Hazeltine said he was writing to her, “by candlelight down in my little old dug-out.”

“Once again I am in the trenches, full of pep and enthusiasm. It is a ‘tres bon’ sector - good dugouts and all supplies coming in fine,” he wrote.

Hazeltine was killed just four days later by German forces. He was honored in 1919, when the American Legion Post in Belfast was named in his honor.

Other grave sites included that of Percy A. Sanborn, who was one of Belfast’s more famous men during his time, Pinette said.

Sanborn, who was born in 1849, was a painter, specializing in painting the U.S. Constitution ship. He was also known for painting the likes of horses, cats, and dogs, and would charge $5 per piece for his watercolor and oil paintings. Sanborn’s paintings and life story are displayed at the Belfast Museum.

The graves of James and Mary Miller, and their son, Robert, were also discussed during the tour. The Miller family was one of the first in Belfast, with James building a log cabin, followed by the first two-story home in the town. Reportedly 58 when he arrived in the town, James died in 1877.

Years later, when son Robert talked about their arrival, he reportedly said the day they made it to Belfast was an emotional one.

Just 13 at the time, he said: “If I ever felt to cry in my life, it was when we first set ashore in Belfast; for there was no cleared land nor house to be seen except the spot and cabin before us.”   

Pinette began working with the cemetery in 1998, after volunteering in her son’s fifth grade classroom. She visited the cemetery, and after learning just a little about the impressive history held within, she was hooked.

“Then I just started reading some of the stones, and they were so intriguing I wanted to know more about them; that led to where did they live, where did they work,” she said.

After just two years she had already researched approximately 100 people and decided to share her discoveries with others.

Pinette ran the cemetery’s very first tour the next year, and the rest is an ever-growing history.

While she generally mixes up the stones visited, she tries to always include the oldest gravestones in the cemetery, moved from their original location on High Street to Grove Cemetery, which opened in the mid 1830s.

With more than 9,000 stones within the cemetery walls there are countless stories waiting to be told, and countless more that have yet to play out.

“It’s ever changing,” she said. “It’s remarkable how you think history’s done and nailed down and then something comes along and changes your whole perception.”.

Funds raised through suggested donations at the event will go towards costs associated with maintaining the cemetery. 

Erica Thoms can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com