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Maugerville family wants ancestors' headstones back after finding them in an unlikely place
Lloyd Dutcher has spent years trying to have headstones returned to his family's cemetery
· CBC News · Posted: Nov 19, 2020 8:00 AM AT
Members of the Dutcher family were surprised when they went to start restoration work on the family's 19th century graveyard and discovered the headstones were gone. (Submitted by Lloyd Dutcher)
As a child, Lloyd Dutcher spent his time exploring the fields and forests of Maugerville that included the small cemetery where his ancestors were buried.
The cemetery is considerably overgrown now. But buried under the unkempt brush are the sprawling 200-year-old branches of the Dutcher family tree.
"Elijah Miles was buried there in 1802," said Dutcher, going through a mental list of family interred there. "My grandfather, Nathan Day, he was a sheriff in Sunbury County."
He's able to pinpoint John Dutcher as the first ancestor in the area bearing his last name, buried in the family cemetery after drowning in the St. John River in 1805.
The farm property the cemetery sits on has changed hands a few times in the decades since Dutcher played there as a child and the plot has fallen into disrepair. Dutcher now lives about 10 kilometres away.
Lloyd Dutcher says his plans to restore a family graveyard in Maugerville hit a snag when he realized someone took all the gravestones. 2:35
Three years ago, Dutcher and his family vowed to restore it back to a proper Loyalist cemetery. They planned to install fencing, make pathways and cut back the decades of creeping brush.
But when they started to comb through the underbrush to pinpoint the exact location of each gravesite, they couldn't find them. All of the headstones were gone. .
"There's nothing left here," said Dutcher.
He asked around the community to see if anyone knew what had happened to the gravestones inscribed with his family's surnames of Dutcher, Miles, and Day.
It turns out someone did.
Sandra Day, a lifelong resident of Maugerville, is related to Lloyd Dutcher.
"His mother and my mother were first cousins, I don't know what you'd want to call that," laughs Day.
But she does know that their common ancestors are buried in that cemetery. She also remembers the headstones displaying her family name when she was a child.
She said years ago another distant relative took the gravestones out of the cemetery.
"From what I was told they sat in a barn for a long while," said Day.
"They thought they were maybe doing a good thing in preserving them," said Dutcher.
That was 15 to 20 years ago.
Dutcher has since tracked the five missing headstones to an unlikely spot, 40 kilometres away — on display at the Kings Landing Historical Settlement.
Day and Dutcher don't know how they got there for certain, but they believe it was this well-intentioned relative who may have gifted the headstones to a Kings Landing employee scouting for historical artifacts.
"He was getting ready to move," Dutcher said, "A curator was down looking at old furniture and stuff and said, 'What about those headstones?' and he said 'Take them if you want.' So that's how they got up there."
"They should never have been taken," said Day. "And they shouldn't be in Kings Landing, they should be in Maugerville."
Kings Landing is a recreated historical village that treats tourists to what life was like for settlers in New Brunswick 200 years ago.
Dutcher said he doubts those stones mark real grave sites in Kings Landing. But he said, if they do, they're certainly not his relatives.
He said he's spent three years trying to get them back.
What goes to Kings Landing...
Dutcher claims he has repeatedly asked staff to return the gravestones.
"The answer I got was "Anything that goes to Kings Landing stays at Kings Landing, and never leaves,'" said Dutcher.
But with a new head at the tourist attraction, Dutcher may have found some hope.
"I can't speak to anything that happened before Jan. 27, 2020," said Mary Baruth, the historical settlement's new chief executive officer.
Baruth said she only became aware of Dutcher's request recently, when he called Kings Landing two weeks ago trying to get the stones back.
She said if Dutcher's claims are true, the headstones could be returned.
"I told him I would have our collections manager look at it," said Baruth. "She's looking at it and she's found the donation form and we're just trying to find the trail back."
She said they're trying to determine if the stones are replicas or replacements for the original headstones.
"If these belong in the cemetery, and they are not replacement ones, and that we gained them in a way that was not above board, certainly, we would want to repatriate them," said Baruth.
Family first
Generally, it's often family that are considered to be the legal owners of the stones, according to The Association of New Brunswick Cemeteries.
"The person who purchases it, owns it," said Valerie Traer, the president of the association.
That ownership responsibility usually falls to surviving family members who are often responsible for upkeep and maintenance of the stones.
"These do get passed on from generation to generation," said Traer.
But Traer said her association only represents community or privately owned cemeteries, and that cases involving family cemeteries can become tricky. She said New Brunswick is one of the few provinces that still allows for family– owned cemeteries.
But Traer does advocate for keeping cemeteries as intact and as maintained as possible.
"The cemetery is the history of the community," said Traer.
She said the second most common reason for people to visit New Brunswick, following tourism, is to look for their ancestors.
"So what better reason to take care of our cemeteries," said Traer.
Hopeful for return
Dutcher said the ownership of the land has never been in dispute. He said the current owners don't have an issue with his family's plans to restore the small plot.
But, now he's hopeful the research efforts by officials at Kings Landing will prove the headstones belong to his family, and the stones will once again mark where his ancestors are buried.
"That's the idea of having a headstone," said Dutcher.
About the Author
Corrections
- A previous version of this story indicated that the owners of the property where the graveyard is located had given prior approval for its restoration. In fact, they have not given permission.Nov 19, 2020 6:03 PM AT
Do you think I could go into George street cemetery and take home A broken headstone because it was broken and not looked after . I just want to mark this area and get the headstones back fence it in so there won’t be a building built or pasture land made there
The way I see it if it’s not marked soon then nobody will be left that know where it is
There was no intention of taking tombstones from family members. In this case the family assured us that no one - in the 1990s - were interested in the tombstones. From Kings Landing’s perspective, the tombstones had been removed from the graves for two decades and were going to be destroyed. It was felt that Kings Landing had a responsibility to preserve them as they were part of a Loyalist family in NB.
These tombstones were meant to mark our grandparents and relatives graves, not to be a tourist attraction. Not sure why Kings landing thinks they are entitled to keep them. Is there a statute of limitations on a persons grave?
nothing i would categorize as worth the effort
Former curator gives explanation for relocated headstones
Darrel Butler was the man who accepted headstones for Kings Landing back in the 1990s
· CBC News · Posted: Nov 23, 2020 9:00 AM AT
Darrel Butler was the curator who accepted the headstones back in the 1990's. (Shane Fowler/CBC News)
A retired curator has come forward to explain how five headstones went missing from a Maugerville cemetery and wound up at Kings Landing Historical Settlement.
Darrel Butler, the former chief curator of Kings Landing, said if he hadn't taken them, the stones would have met a very different fate.
"If we hadn't, we wouldn't be talking today because there wouldn't have been any tombstones saved," said Butler.
The controversy surrounding the stones comes after a family member, looking for his ancestors headstones, found them in an unlikely place: More than 40 kilometres away at Kings Landing.
Darrel Butler said he got a call in the 1990s from someone in Maugerville. The owner of the Miles family farm had recently passed away and his surviving son, who had flown in from BC, invited him to scout out the farm for notable items from New Brunswick's farming past.
"In
that period of time, it was important for us, for Kings Landing to get
artifacts, so that we could build a collection that historians in the
future would be able to use for study and research," said Butler.
Five headstones that were originally marking graves in Maugerville are now on display at Kings Landing Historical Settlement. (Submitted by Lloyd Dutcher)
Farm equipment made in the early 1800's in Saint John was the obvious choice for the collection. But Mr. Miles directed Butlers attention to the five gravestones.
"He explained that his brother, who he said was a priest, about 20 years before this had gone to the old family cemetery," said Butler. "He found the family cemetery all grown over and was really worried about preserving any sense of identity."
So, the priest moved the stones to a barn where they sat for decades until the surviving son convinced Butler to take them.
"He said nobody's interested in them in my family, I've got to go back to British Columbia," recalled Butler. "He said the best I can do is use them as lawn ornaments on my front yard... ...which my wife won't let me do."
Butler said the plan was to break them up and throw them away.
So Butler said the Kings Landing collections committee mulled over the idea of saving the tombstones. He says relocating them wasn't controversial at the time, but it was still a sensitive topic.
After several discussions, Kings Landing accepted the tombstones in part to save them from being destroyed, but also because it was clear they had been crafted in New Brunswick and had marked the tomb of Loyalists. The fact that no one could relocate the original cemetery also factored into the decision.
The stones were then placed on consecrated ground next to the Anglican church at Kings Landing.
Staff at Kings Landing Historical Settlement are reviewing their acquisition of five headstones they currently have on display. (Submitted by Lloyd Dutcher)
"In our perspective, we saved Loyalist artifacts," said Butler. "And they were important."
"If we didn't preserve them, they'd be gone," said Butler. "So that's why we did it."
Butler said now that there's another branch of family descendants willing to take care and maintain the stones, they should be returned to mark their original grave sites.
According to Kings Landing chief executive officer Mary Baruth, staff are still looking into the acquisition of the tombstones. They plan on contacting the family who want to have them back.
About the Author
33 Comments
Commenting is now closed for this story.
Nov 19, 2020 6:03 PM AT
"A previous version of this story indicated that the owners of the property where the graveyard is located had given prior approval for its restoration. In fact, they have not given permission."
Methinks Higgy et al and his former boss in particular would not be surprised as to why Butler has now deemed me to be not worth talking to N'esy Pas?
https://www.associationofnbcemeteries.com/
The Association was officially formed on October 3 1996; it has a Board of eight Directors. Any cemetery in New Brunswick may join it and enjoy the benefits that are available.
Contacts
Valerie Traer, President, 506-6842506 rtraer@rogers.com
Donna Gray, Vice President 506-6724309 donna@cedarhillcemetery.ca
Stephen Jarvis, Treasurer 5066725044 scoodic@nbnet.nb.ca
Graham West, Secretary 506-850-1672 awest3807@rogers.com
Ed Graham, Past President 506 3883400 grahamte@rogers.com
Mailing address: 81 Royal Road Moncton NB E1A4S8
Darrell Butler - Association Heritage New Brunswick
https://ahnb-apnb.ca/list-of-members/
163 St John St
Fredericton, NB, E3B 4A8
Tel: 506-454-3561
Fax: 506-462-7687
Email: info@amnb.ca
http://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2020/02/qualifications-of-new-head-of-public.html
Monday, 24 February 2020
Qualifications of new head of public library service questioned
New head of public library service got rid of 'hundreds' of books at Kings Landing library
Kevin Cormier removed significant books worth $60K, says former employee who found some at Value Village
· CBC News · Posted: Feb 27, 2020 6:00 AM AT
Kevin Cormier, appointed executive director of the New Brunswick Public Library Service last week, previously served seven years as the chief executive officer of Kings Landing Corporation, the historical settlement near Fredericton. (Kevin Cormier/Facebook)
The new head of the New Brunswick Public Library Service got rid of a significant collection of books at the Kings Landing library when he was in charge of the historical settlement, according to a former employee.
Darrell Butler helped build up the Kings Landing library over more than 40 years as the chief curator and manager of heritage resources.
The books dealt with topics such as the history of agriculture, wagons, furniture and ceramics, and staff used them for research and reference, said Butler.
"The books were very specialized and, well really, they were collectors' items, some of them individually worth over $100," he said.
But in 2016, when Kevin Cormier was the CEO of Kings Landing, Butler discovered some of the books for sale at Value Village in Fredericton.
He also found some books that had been donated to Kings Landing by a prominent citizen in memory of her mother, he said.
Butler estimates "hundreds" of books worth "well over $50,000-$60,000" were lost.
"I was quite concerned about it and I wrote to the chairman of the board of directors of Kings Landing," said Butler, who was on extended leave at the time because of a heart condition.
Darrell Butler, former manager of heritage resources for Kings Landing, said the loss of the specialized books from the library was 'tragic.' (Submitted by Darrell Butler)
'Extraneous' books donated
"Sources that contained information related to the mandate, and that could be used as reference material, were kept for use in the reference library and/or collections centre," said Baruth.
Those deemed "extraneous" were boxed and donated to the Canadian Federation of University Women's annual book fair in Fredericton, she said.
"It is our understanding that some of these materials donated to the book sale may have eventually made their way to other used book retailers, charity and consignment shops."
Baruth could not explain why the collection was purged since she was not with Kings Landing at the time. But she did say, "It is not unusual for libraries and museums to periodically review reference materials as new editions and digitized versions become available and to discard or donate reference materials not related to their mandate to charitable causes so that others may benefit from their use."
She continued: "Kings Landing has an extensive primary archival and library collection that is the cornerstone of its history, research, exhibit and interpretation plan and it remains intact."
'It's tragic'
Butler disagrees. He contends only about one-third of the collection remains.
"It's tragic," he said. "It was a very good research library. It was specialized. We had journals and texts that you couldn't get anywhere else in New Brunswick."
He cites as an example being able to compare farm wagons in New Brunswick to those in England to see the cultural influences.
"Without those books, it's gone," said Butler. "You don't have it. And it's not [all] online, as people said to me at the time," If the information is online, he said, it doesn't go into the same level of detail as some of the publications.
If the Kings Landing library couldn't keep all of the books for some reason, Butler questions why they weren't instead donated to the New Brunswick Museum or the New Brunswick Public Library Service.
"I guess what I'm saying is that perhaps Kevin wasn't quite as aware of the value of the research library at Kings Landing as one would expect him to be if he had a strong history and museum background."
Retired over difference of views
Butler said he retired because he didn't agree with some of the other controversial changes Cormier was making, which included cutting back on re-enactments and replacing them with static exhibits.
"I just said I couldn't be associated with it because I was the person … that was responsible for the historical accuracy of Kings Landing and the approach he was using was contrary to everything that I knew about historical settlements and how they should operate," said Butler.
Last March, Cormier announced plans to resume using costumed characters in the three old houses.
Although Cormier didn't have experience in museums, he did do research, attend conferences and get up to speed "as best he could" when he worked at Kings Landing, said Butler.
176 Comments
Commenting is now closed for this story.
David Amos
Methinks even Higgy must have noticed that Kevin Cormier will attack my words elsewhere but not where the article is about him N'esy Pas?
Kevin just became the hero of many an NBer for putting Amos in his pls e,
val harris
Fire this clown before he does more damage
David Amos
You had your say st the last election. You’ll have your next say at the next election.
https://kingslanding.nb.ca/contact/
Mary E. Baruth
Chief Executive Officer
(506) 363-4957
(506) 476-3106
mary.baruth@gnb.ca
https://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/news/news_release.2020.01.0036.html
Tourism, Heritage and Culture
Kings Landing Corporation
New CEO at Kings Landing
29 January 2020PRINCE WILLIAM (GNB) – Mary E. Baruth has been appointed as the new chief executive officer at Kings Landing.
Baruth has worked in the field of heritage and cultural management, and community development, for more than 33 years. Most recently, she headed the renewal of the Jack Miner Migratory Bird Sanctuary and Foundation in Kingsville, Ont.
“Kings Landing plays an important role in preserving New Brunswick’s history and culture,” said Tourism, Heritage and Culture Minister Robert Gauvin. “In 2019, there was an 18 per cent increase in visitation and I am confident the museum will continue on this trajectory with Mary at its helm.”
Baruth has been involved in special event development, economic development initiatives, heritage preservation, public art policy development and implementation, tourism, community and cultural development. She has researched and presented a number of studies, policies and reports to municipal councils, communities and boards. She is a recent recipient of the University of Windsor Community Heritage Medal.
“We are pleased to have someone as talented and experienced as Mary Baruth join our team,” said Al Walker, chair of the board of directors. “Kings Landing has created a wonderful legacy in preserving the history of our province and I have great faith that the people of New Brunswick will not be disappointed in what will come from Mary’s leadership.”
As a living history museum, Kings Landing allows visitors to experience first-hand what life was like in the 19th century. It opens for the 2020 season on June 13, daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and is located 20 minutes west of Fredericton at Exit 253, Trans-Canada Highway.
Johanne Le Blanc, communications, Tourism, Heritage and Culture, 506-444-2170, johanne.leblanc2@gnb.ca.
Rachael Biggar, communications, Kings Landing, 506-238-3721, rachael.biggar@gnb.ca.
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