Grouse Camp 2009

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Dave Suponski

Chris thanks..The stones were pretty much all from one family 1820,s to 1870,s mostly. Dean knows the family story better than I.


Some of the 'born' dates go well back into the 1700's. The real heartbreaker is the headstones of so many children. It was an extremely hard life back in those hills on a hardscrabble farm - no doctor except by horseback at least a half day's ride from the farm into town to fetch the doctor back again . . . if he was even in town at the time. No medicines, no vaccines - nothing but a mother's love and a family's prayers . . . headstones that make your eyes well up . . . "AE 13 mos.", "AE 14 yrs.", "AE 2 yrs. 7 mos." "Mary Shattuck Second wife of Josiah Shattuck, AE 22 yrs.", "Polly Shattuck, third wife of Josiah Shattuck, AE 26 yrs.", "Josiah Shattuck, AE 79 yrs."
This is the Shattuck Family Cemetery. It was an enormous (for the day) family farm but was long since abandoned and the forest just took over. Years ago I knew where the fieldstone cellar-hole was and the ancient sugar maple "roof tree" was still standing then but the whole area was logged off at least twenty years ago and the skidder's huge cleated and chained tires ground all evidence of a farm and cellar holes into oblivion.

Larry... We came in from hunting and I turned my back for a minute and that Dean guy had put our guns in that rack again....Well you can just imagine the vocabulary that was uttered after that move....

That rack is stronger than it ever was. I call it the "Barn Door Rack". You know, the one they closed after the horse got out?