Posted on 05/06/2008 6:05:16 PM PDT by Larry R. Johnson
HARTLAND, Vt. (AP) — The 130-acre property was exactly what Michel Guite and his family wanted: an old Vermont farm with mountain views, rolling hills and meadows.
There was, however, one wrinkle: The property included a small family cemetery — with the grave of a War of 1812 veteran — surrounded by a fence on a scenic knoll.
His proposal to move the graveyard so he can build a house and barn has set off protests. The town has passed a resolution aimed at blocking the move, a descendant of one occupant of the graveyard is trying to fight him in probate court and opponents including military veterans have asked the town to take over the cemetery and keep it where it is.
Out of the whole 130 acres, he wants the half acre with the cemetery? Didn’t he know the cemetery was there when he bought it? I think he sounds like a self centered jerk.
Funerals are for the living. Once everyone who knew the deceased are themselves deceased, the significance of the burial is pretty much done. I bet that war of 1812 vet hadn’t had anyone visit his grave in ages.
>>he doesn’t want the graves around his three young children. “I feel that it’s improper to have a reminder of the sadness of life so near where children are playing,”
Seems like it would be a proper time to discuss the realities of life with them.
Now, you just stop picking on those poor folks from Massachusettes, will you?
I myself would be honored to have a veteran’s ancient burial on my property and would chose to restore his plot as a Memorial to all of our fighting men and their sacrifices.This guy just wants a nice place to set his house, and to hell with everything else.Sure its his property, but there are plenty of places to build on his size lot.This is were common decency should win out over his freedom to build on his own property.I am not saying it should be illegal, or that the town has a right to tell him what to do with his property, maybe its just not the most noble choice he could make.
When I was young and we visited our kin in Old Hickory, Tenn we played at an old cemetery next to the family farm. Many of the Donalson family were buried there.
About 15 years ago the cemetery was dug up and the remains moved to the cemetery at THE HERMATIGE, where Andrew Jackson is buried.
Today, the old location is a subdivision.
Money talks.
There all dead, Jim.
I've visited the grave of my GGG-grandfather, a war of 1812 vet. Living in the same county I grew up in, that my parents, grandparents and grea-grand-parents grew of in, I've visited the graves of all my ancestors that were here. Every memorial day I go with my Mother's siblings to honor our deceased ancestors. They tell me the stories they were told when their mother took them to put flowers on the graves of those who had gone before. It's part of our history, and part of our sense of who we are. I'd be disturbed if someone wanted to build a house on any of their resting places. In fact, we were quite disturbed when the state decided to cover over a graveyard with a dam 30 years ago. It's probably on the list of dams the environmentalists want removed now...
I'd be more concerned about my grave being disturbed than my burial.
There will be lots of armed people at my burial, it won't be disturbed.
Honestly, I don't care what happens to my body after I'm gone from it.
It's a vehicle I won't be driving anymore.
The gall! How dare he want to build a house on his own property!
I say, let him move it. Old graveyards are moved all the time; I’m sure the dead wont care. If he is willing to pay for the move out of his own pocket, and it is done in a dignified and orderly manner … go for it. As some one intimated early on this thread, I’m sure there is no well-worn path to the graveyard. Probably no one cared until this wag decided he wanted the site moved.
If the graves and gravestones are moved, there would be no lose of historical value, just historical location.
If the cemetery was so important to the town and to the descendant, why didn't they buy the property? I get nervous when people start trying to tell me what I can or can't do with they property I own.
Of course, there may be more to this story.
It’s his property and he can do what he wants.
Call the VFW or American Legion and move the burial site of the vet.
Then when Michael Guite comes to town to buy a loaf of bread, gallon of gas or a shirt, refuse to sell him anything.
Assuming of course that a few dozen beers being poured on your casket is part of the planned activities, and won't count as a disturbance.
I understand that he wants to build his house on the scenic knoll.
I hope he understands that any ghosts might stick around, and make his new life very interesting.
These things can be dealt with at sale if the seller cares enough. If he or she didn’t and they weren’t, then it’s a little late now. The new owner has every right to do this if it wasn’t in the terms of sale. He’s still a jerk, IMHO, but he has every right to do it.
HARTLAND, Vt. (AP) — The 130-acre property was exactly what Michel Guite and his family wanted: an old Vermont farm with mountain views, rolling hills and meadows.
There was, however, one wrinkle: The property included a small family cemetery — with the grave of a War of 1812 veteran — surrounded by a fence on a scenic knoll.
His proposal to move the graveyard so he can build a house and barn has set off protests. The town has passed a resolution aimed at blocking the move, a descendant of one occupant of the graveyard is trying to fight him in probate court and opponents including military veterans have asked the town to take over the cemetery and keep it where it is.
“We’re looking for some precedence setting, because we’ve never heard of such a heinous thing,” said Tom Giffin, president of the Vermont Old Cemetery Association.
Cemeteries have been dug up for public good before, to make way for roads and buildings, but “there’s never been the case in the state of Vermont for somebody to move a cemetery to put a house up,” Giffin said.
Opponents say it’s about honoring the dead, and respecting the graveyard as a historical site.
For Guite, it’s about property rights.
“I’ve got nothing against any of those people,” he said. “I’m only going to buy this if a judge says `This is now your land, it’s your private property, you’re allowed to do whatever you want with it. We hope you look after it well, God bless you for it, and nobody has any right to go on your property than they have to go on every other Vermont farm’s property.’”
Guite, 62, of Springfield, Vt., and Greenwich, Conn., signed an option to buy the land in December — contingent on being able to move the graves.
Among other things, he doesn’t want the graves around his three young children. “I feel that it’s improper to have a reminder of the sadness of life so near where children are playing,” he said in February.
Guite wants to move three graves that he said are registered with the town, those of War of 1812 veteran Noah Aldrich II, who died Jan. 15, 1848 at age 61; and Aldrich’s two grandchildren, who died within a day of each other in 1850 during a flu epidemic.
He proposed moving their graves and headstones to another spot — perhaps on his land, perhaps in the town cemetery.
But historians say there are more than three graves, including that of Aldrich’s wife, Lydia. And a previous owner of the land, Jerome King of Hanover, N.H., buried his parents’ cremated remains there before selling the farm in the 1980s, and he has said he also opposes moving the graveyard. Descendants of the Kings visit several times a year.
“I’m against it on principal,” said Jim Bulmer, a member of the Bridgewater American Legion who attended a Probate Court hearing on the issue with about 10 other veterans. “You’ve got a veteran in there from the war of 1812, who has come to his final resting place and let the poor guy rest in peace. He served his country. Why do we need to move cemeteries to accommodate an individual who has a particular agenda?”
Moving bodies is not unusual, as in cases of moving family members closer to each other, said Jimmy Johnston, a lobbyist for the Vermont Funeral Directors’ Association, and owner of the Barber and Lanier Funeral home in Montpelier.
However, Johnston said, “Moving graves of someone who is not a family member, unless it’s eminent domain, I’ve never heard of one being moved to build a house.”
Guite said he followed the law, advertising the move in the newspaper with no objection from immediate relatives.
But in a recent probate court hearing, a judge reached across several generations and designated Marcia Neal of Grand Junction, Colo. — the great, great, great granddaughter of Noah and Lydia Aldrich — as representative for the family.
“I’ve begun to feel a real personal connection to these people,” Neal said.
Although her first inclination would be not to move the graves, she wants to find a solution.
“It has become so involved and sort of complicated. I’d hate to stand in the way of anybody’s right to buy and sell property. I would really like to be able to help reach a solution to the problem. I’m not sure what they would be.”
It seems a bit wasteful, but whatever makes the guests happy! ;-)
You are all big on bashing the government for taking property or telling you what you can or cannot do with it, but are the first ones to jump this guy and say what he shouldn't be able to do with property that will be rightfully his when the deal closes. Hypocrisy of the first order.
No wonder McCain is our candidate for Pres, there are very few real conservative voters left.
It’s a good case for cremation. That’s the way I’ve chosen.
Does the beer get poured before the strippers show up?
I agreed with him until I read this piece of nancitude.
Gosh, I hope not!!!
There will probably be a bunch of disturbed people at my burial. But they are around most of the time anyway. I get used to it. In fact, it will probably be a relief to get away from them.
There was a thread posted about this story yesterday.
The man who wants to move to Vermont is from Connecticut.
Noises were actually caused by raccoon/squirrels in the house but the ghost story lives on for a hundred years.
This is similar to buying a house right in the path of an airport runway and then complaining about it or wanting the planes diverted elsewhere. If he didn’t like the graveyard on this property he should not have bought it. Sheesh.
>>Funerals are for the living. Once everyone who knew the deceased are themselves deceased, the significance of the burial is pretty much done. I bet that war of 1812 vet hadn’t had anyone visit his grave in ages.
I’ll agree with the “pretty much done” part, but I’ve been searching for the grave of my great-great grandfather Charles Brooks, an illiterate (English immigrant) Revolutionary War veteran off and on for about 10 years now.
I just spent the weekend locating an old cemetery that contains the remains of two Revolutionary War relatives, and two other men from the same town who served in the Revolution.
I asked for directions at the local minimart and none of the adults there had ever heard of that particular cemetery. Several, though, took interest and helped me find it. One stayed with me, interested in hearing “the rest of the story.” He turns out to be a tour guide at a maritime museum with strong ties to the War of 1812. He was able to connect one of my relatives to Oliver Hazard Perry’s shipbuilding enterprise in advance of the Battle of Lake Erie.
The commemorative markers are in poor condition and the flags are tattered or gone. One of the soldiers needs a tombstone. My new friend and I plan to involve the local school and community, if they are interested, in learning about these men and giving their graves the proper respect.
Today, online, I read a considerable part of my ancestor’s story in a digitized 19th century book about the men from Rhode Island who served in the Revolution.
We also discovered the graves of one of my relatives and his contemporaries who fought in the Civil War. The local library had a display of artifacts from their participation at Little Round Top in the Battle of Gettysburg. I have found and ordered several books online that specifically refer to their regiment’s service. The state university has a digitized collection of contemporary news coverage of the Battle of Gettysburg.
These men are gone, but certainly won’t be forgotten.
Meanwhile, Michel Guite is also disturbed about how the mail man flies by at 90 MPH, giggling, without slowing down. Today he found out the sheriff always rents a cab to get around.
I thought there was a time limit of 150 years or something like that for grave sites.
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