Ronnie Miller, who learned about caring for the Dutch Neck Cemetery from Richard Wallace, will now be passing it down to Donald Thieme. Ronnie was a natural, being born and bred in Dutch Neck. Even today he lives across from the house where he grew up. He will be buried here, too, near his father and a host of relatives. In fact, he and his wife Connie have owned a plot there practically since marrying. The Dutch Neck Cemetery is about halfway between Route 32 and its tip at Butter Point, just behind the St. Paul Chapel, though the two are neither financially nor organizationally connected. Inside the cemetery’s iron gates, stones date back to the early 1800s, marking both brief and long lives of the people who lived before Ronnie. It’s a privately-owned cemetery. While most occupants have a connection with Dutch Neck, it’s not required. Anyone can buy a plot in this bucolic spot, surrounded by oaks, maples, and firs. Work and responsibility are part of Ronnie’s DNA. At six, he was mowing lawns for neighbors. Then, around the time his father died, when he was twelve, he found work at Western’s Hardware. In high school, he worked for Hall’s Funeral Home. After technical college, he managed a construction business; and finally, he ran his own lawn and property management business serving 400 customers because he was so precise and exacting in what he did. Then, around the time his father died (when he was twelve), he found work at Western’s Hardware; in high school, for Hall’s Funeral Home; after technical college, managing a construction business; and finally, running his own lawn and property management business that grew to 400 customers because he was so precise and exacting in what he did. As caretaker of the cemetery, he has shown and sold lots, supervised the mowing and much of the cleaning, and overseen the installation of monuments and the four-foot cement bases poured to hold them. With Ronnie’s retirement, Connie, the current president of the Dutch Neck Cemetery Association, will also retire. Their plans? To stay in Dutch Neck, home.
A lot of times I think back to what other people have done for this cemetery in the past, and I think I must have been doing something right. Ever since I’ve been taking care of it, I’ve received very few complaints.
I re-wrote the by-laws in 2013 to protect its interests. For example, we don’t allow any in-ground planting, though I still have people doing it. It’s potted plants only. If you want roses or lilies, put ‘em in a pot. Otherwise, they grow up. They spread. Then, you’ve got them covering the monument and all that work to keep the monument clean. They damage the stone, and if they’re right next to the monument, if there’s space, their roots will grow in underneath, and in time, that can tip the monument over. Besides, it increases the maintenance when people plant things. The mowers can’t trim next to the stone, which causes mold and mildew growing on the stones. We used to spend $1,000 a year to clean stones, and it takes two years to clean all the stones. We just couldn’t afford to do that anymore.
Of course, maybe 75% or more are plastic flowers. And the problem there is, even though people are supposed to pick them up themselves, they don’t. So, we do. Because in the wintertime, if those flowers are left there, they’re all over the place. It’s a mess. They freeze. Then the snow breaks off their petals. Then the wind blows them around. Then the lawnmower hits them. You’ve got a big mess.
We also require stones to be at least two inches above ground because if they’re level with the ground, grass and moss keeps creeping in, and sooner or later, they disappear, and you got to uncover them to find them.
I learned the job from Richard Wallace. He walked me through a lot of things that wasn’t on paper. He was an historian that could know anything. Especially Dutch Neck, because like me, he was a native. But all those facts were in his head. I don’t think he wrote anything down. I don’t think he learned to write very well. But if I couldn’t find a grave, he could walk me right through to it, to exactly where it was, who bought it, and roughly the year it was bought, too. It was quite devastating when he passed away. I had nobody to fall back on without him.
All the privately-owned cemeteries are having to deal with a lack of records. It’s a little frustrating trying to find out where someone’s lot is. Somebody might have a scrap of paper saying they paid $10 for this lot in 1939, but there’s no deed and nothing written down. Yet now this person’s passed, and we need to know where the lot is. Sometimes it has been very, very difficult. You can spend a lot of time hitting dead ends. When all the family is gone that you would have contacted to get information, what do you do? Just work through it and take a lot of measurements and noodle the problem. One caretaker told me, “You just put them where they fit.”
Well, that’s not my way of doing things. The right way is trying to find out as much information and get them buried where whoever thinks that the lot that they bought was. I use the Internet in trying to search things out. I’ve spent as much as thirty hours sometimes just finding out what I needed to know so a burial could take place.
One time there was a person’s name on two locations in the cemetery. I was trying to find out which was the right one. I knew the parents because they lived down here. So, I started with funeral homes. And I found out that this lady was already buried, I don’t know, maybe in Lewiston. She wasn’t even down here. But a daughter’s name came up in an obituary. So, we’re leaving a space open for now. I have never run into a problem I couldn’t solve. I’ve always been able to work through things.
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