Upcoming Events & Volunteer Opportunities
Barb explains the features of a slate headstone to Vana and Vi
It's almost summer and things are getting busy out in our favorite bone yard. From tours about the history of the site as well as special tours on stonecutter Bartlett Adams to learning more about cleaning and conserving gravestones, we've got a full schedule!
- Bartlett Adams Lecture (Thursday, June 5 at 7:00pm, Mechanic's Hall Ballroom, 519 Congress, Portland, Maine)
- Tours of the Eastern Cemetery (Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays, June 21 to October 22 at 1:30pm)
- Portland's First Stonecutter: Bartlett Adams Tours (last Saturdays of the month at 11:00am)
- Stone Preservation and Conservation Workdays (summer Saturdays)
- Stone Survey: Photography (summer Fridays and on your own)
- Walk Among the Shadows (late October)
Subterranean Celebrity: Sabine Emery
Died March 24, 1868
Sabine Emery's new marker
The story of the Battery Wager is large, but the bare bones (as used for the movie "Glory") of it are that the 54th Massachusetts all-black regiment led the charge on Battery Wagner. The soldiers were slaughtered horribly by the confederates. The second wave of the assault on the Battery was by the 9th Maine. In that assault, was Colonel Sabine Emery. He was wounded badly in the action after leading the second assault on Wagner, but not killed. Emery, an 1858 Colby graduate, died in 1868, ultimately of his wounds, at age 34.
Ben Smith, Civil War historian of the 9th Maine, has been trying to find Emery's burial spot for years, but no one seemed to know where it was. Finally, through records at Evergreen Cemetery, he discovered that Emery is in the Gould family tomb at Eastern Cemetery. Smith was so thrilled that he led the initiative to requisition a soldier's stone from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The stone has been installed, and a dedication ceremony with re-enactors from the 54th Massachusetts marching from the Abyssinian Meeting House to the Eastern Cemetery is scheduled for Saturday, June 7 at 1:00PM. Special thanks to Barbara Hager for the this story about Sabine Emery and his new marker.
A New Day for Portland Parks & Open Spaces - A Community Conversation
Thursday, June 5, 2014
5:00PM - 7:00PM
First Parish Church
Spirits Alive is a sponsor of this free, public event featuring speaker Adrian Benepe. It is organized by a growing network of interested people and organizations engaging in a visioning and planning conversation about Portland, Maine's gardens, open spaces, parks, and trails.
$5 Friendships Help Us Help the Eastern Cemetery
Support the Eastern Cemetery with your giving
For only $5, you can help Spirits Alive keep the Eastern Cemetery alive for generations to come and join as a Friend. Through your support, you can help us, an ALL-VOLUNTEER organization, to continue to:
- Keep the gates open – encouraging the community to explore its open and safe green space
- Offer education about the cemetery and its residents to the public – through tours, lectures, and events
- Encourage and support the city in keeping the site clean and safe for visitors of all ages
- Preserve this incredible outdoor museum and sacred historic landscape