Friends of Cranston Historical Cemeteries

TO LOCATE AND PROMOTE THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE CARE OF CRANSTON'S MANY HISTORIC CEMETERIES.

The first meeting of the Cranston Historical Cemeteries Commission

NOTICE OF MEETING
The first meeting of the CRANSTON HISTORIC CEMETERY COMMISSION Will be held on
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 At 7:00 p.m.
At The Sprague Mansion 1351 Cranston St. Cranston, RI

Cranston Historic Cemetery Commission

Agenda April 29, 2009

1. Call to Order

2. Introduction of members

3. Presentation by Peggy Malcolm, Chair of Warwick’s Historic Cemetery Commission and Evelyn Wheeler, RI Historic Cemetery Commission

4. Presentation by Michael Hebert, RI Department of Transportation, on the status of the reburials and proposed Memorial Service at the State Farm Cemetery.

6. Discussion of Procedures and Goals

7. Election of Officers

8. Other Business

9. Adjourn

With the historic Knightville Meeting House the oldest public meeting place in Cranston in the background, Evelyn Wheeler, chairwoman of the Rhode Island Historic Cemeteries Commission, chops her way through the briars. This cemetery travels from Colwell Avenue to Phenix Avenue. The front of the graveyard begins in the backyard of the church with the grave site of Andrew Knight. It was impossible to see these few fenced areas before last week. The Ladies of the Knightsville Cemetery need a big thank you.
Volunteers for Earth Day choose to devote the day to Knightsville despite some thoughts that it could never be done. Progress is being made. We made a opening from Colwell Ave to the Church on Phenix Avenue. More help is needed.

Many of the cemeteries have been abandoned and left to nature to reclaim and vandals to destroy. These plots of Cranston History need to be reclaimed for future generations of genealogists and historians. The future is in the past and the past is written on the gravestones of families like the Fenners, Knights, Spragues, and Stones to just mention a few of Cranston's founding familes.

The Friends of Cranston Historical Cemeteries needs your help! Do you have an old family plot on your property that no one knows about? Please call or email the Friends with your name and address of the cemetery. We may be able to get it cleaned up. All cemeteries need to be recorded.

Help save our history. We have begun to take back the historic Knightsville Meeting House Cemetery on Colwell Avenue. This cemetery was much neglected and went to weeds and trees. The Rhode Island Cemetery Commission chairwoman Evelyn Wheeler and our Friends of Cranston Cemeteries have been working hard to find the lost headstones. This cemetery was established in 1812 when Andrew Knight was buried here on land his son donated for a burial ground. Andrew Knight had given the land for the meeting house in 1802.

Knightsville is just one of many forgotten cemeteries.
Fenner Lot CR005
Graves Lot CR12
Ebenezer Fuller Lot CR039
Jeremiah King Lot CR048

"As long as Grass Grows or Rivers Run"

Please help locate us the cemeteries where the following stones belong: Poor Little Alice needs to go home

Rhode Island Law: 23-18-10.2 Exemption from liability. – (a) A city, town, or public body shall not be held civilly liable for any breach of duty resulting in injury to the person or damage to the property or any person who voluntarily and without compensation, undertakes to maintain or to repair any designated historical cemetery pursuant to § 23-18-10.1, provided that nothing in this section shall eliminate or limit the liability of a city, town, or public body:

(1) For acts or omissions not in good faith or which involve intentional misconduct or a knowing violation of law; or

(2) For any malicious, willful, or wanton act.

(b) A private landowner permitting access over his or her property to a historical cemetery for the purpose of voluntary maintenance or repair of the cemetery shall not be held civilly liable for any breach of duty resulting in injury to the person or damage to the property of those seeking to repair or maintain the cemetery.

Rhode Island Law: 23-18-12 Vandalism in cemetery – Civil penalties. – Any person who shall be convicted of vandalism of cemetery property shall, in addition to any fine or penalty imposed by the court, pay treble damages to the agency whose cemetery sustained the damage. In the event the convicted offender is a minor, the family court may, if it determines that the juvenile is unable to pay treble damages, require the offender to perform specified work at the cemetery site where the damage was sustained for a period of time that in the court's opinion will equal treble the damages inflicted at the cemetery.

Please understand that if you allow someone to clean the cemetery on your property and they get hurt or stung by bees you are NOT liable. At the end of this page is the Rhode Island law about protection from liablity



For more Information about Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries


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Evelyn Wheeler
Matthew Fatale
Lydia Rapoza
Alex Amalfitano

Cranston Historical Society