05/08/2026
A huge thank‑you to the wonderful volunteers - AKA board member Evelyn Walker, her husband Norm, and our Duxbury high intern Clara Blundell - who came out to help clean four Alden family gravestones in Myles Standish Burying Ground. Last week, someone applied powder to the stones to highlight the inscriptions for their personal photos. While this was previously a common practice, we now know from unhappy experience that these materials often cause serious and irreversible damage to gravestones. Particles work their way into the stone and expand inside the pores, causing the surface to crack and break apart over time.
One of the stones compromised was Jonathan Alden's gravestone (pictured), the oldest in the cemetery and an irreplaceably rare surviving piece of 17th‑century Alden family history. His father John Alden's stone, also shown here, is an example of a stone deteriorated beyond repair. The Town of Duxbury has generously donated funds to help replace John's gravestone, for which AKA is very grateful.
