The Mast-Head: Taken to Heart

Nine American war veterans lie buried in a modest farm cemetery off Jericho Road in East Hampton. I had driven by their resting place from time to time on my way to Georgica Beach from the highway, but had never given it much thought until John Phillips, who lives next door, filled me in. 

The names of the veterans buried there ring of old East Hampton. Among them are Matthew Hedges, who fought in the Revolution and died in 1817 when he was 81. Isaac Dimon was 74 when he died in 1808. John Miller was buried there in 1791 and his son John Miller II in 1806. The most recent military man buried there was Wilmot Baker, who was born in 1891 and died in 1963.

Hedges was born in East Hampton and became a private in Capt. Josiah Lupton’s New York Company of Southold in 1775. The next year, his company fled to Connecticut as refugees when the British took Long Island. After the war, Hedges settled at the Jericho farm, where he would eventually be buried.

There are quite a number of small graveyards around town, and a color guard from the East Hampton Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion visit many of them the Sunday before Memorial Day every year. 

I met Mr. Phillips and his wife, Wendy, during an event at their house in connection with the Guild Hall artists-in-residence program earlier this year. 

He told me that shortly after buying the Jericho Road house, they were startled one morning by the sound of gunfire. Walking down their driveway to investigate, they discovered an assembly of about two dozen men in the uniforms of various branches of the military who were veterans of engagements of different eras giving tribute over the graves.

In the years since, the Phillipses have made the tribute a memorial observance of their own, inviting  friends and neighbors over for coffee, homemade muffins, and cut-up fruit before the bus from the V.F.W. arrives between 8 and 9 a.m. Would I like to attend, Mr. Phillips asked. Indeed, I would.

Coffees in hand, a group of about a dozen guests made their way to the cemetery at about 8:30 Sunday and walked among the graves, the oldest of which dates to 1790. It is unclear if any vacant plots remain, Mr. Phillips said.

Two winters’ hard freezes had tossed many of the stones, particularly the smaller footstones, out of line. Town workers maintain the cemetery, mowing it and cutting back a stand a bamboo that has crept under the fence from another neighbor’s property. Who might set the old stones to rights, Mr. Phillips said, is unknown.

Sunday morning’s ceremony was over quickly. Taps, a salute, and the men filed back onto the bus to make their way to the next burying ground. There were tears in the eyes of a few of the onlookers, who waved as the veterans drove on.