The Friends of Old Saint Mary's Cemetery

Mrs. Barbara Minnehan, President
Mr. & Mr. George Bariolo
Miss Claire Cummings
Mr. Vincent Bucchino
Mr. & Mrs. Louis Pratt
Mrs. Marilyn Lovell
Mrs. Rosemary Elia
Miss Rita Hanlon
Mr & Mrs. William Dillon
Mrs. Isabel Eden
Mrs. Betty Rogers
Miss Ellen Alves
Mrs. John Murphy
Mr. & Mrs. Edward Casey
Mr. & Mrs. William Doyle
Mrs. Elaine Reynolds
Mrs. Donna Crimmins Holder
Miss Pamela Fields
Mrs. Anne Bell
Mrs. Betty Morse
Mrs. Ann Lamontagne
Atty. Francis Small
Miss Dorothy Burns
Mr. Owen Keenan
Miss Rita Hogan
Mr. & Mrs. Mollineau Mathews
Mr. Joseph Cosoletti
Mrs. Helen Shannahan
Mrs. Rosemarie Trevani
Mr. & Mrs. Gil Richards
Mr. Paul Curran
Mr. Michael Minnehan
Mrs. Cecilia Burnett
Mrs. John Hennessy
Mrs. Edna Alves
Mers. Geri Hussman
Mrs. Madeline McBride

When in her younger years, Saint Mary's Parish was growing rapidly as there were new arrivals from Ireland on a regular basis.  Many were leaving Ireland in fear of their very lives.  A terrible hunger had come across the land as a fungus began to attack and destroy the potato plants on the Emerald Isle.  While there was an abundance of other produce that grew with great success, this was either consumed by the Irish aristocrats or shipped to nearby Great Britian for their enjoyment.  The greater and poorer population of Ireland subsisted on the potato crop, and its failure meant that tens of thousands, in fact, hundreds of thousands, were suffering from the ravages of this hunger - they were malnourished, susceptible to disease and unable to work because they were weak and their immune systems compromised.  Those who could fled the green and rotting fields of Ireland for distant shores.

Many of those who left Ireland were already too weak and sick and never saw the shores of America when they died before the end of their sea voyage.  Others who came from Ireland to the United States found a home in Milford.  Some of these were unfortunately too sick, malnourished or weak to make a living here and died after their arrival.  There is a section in the original Saint Mary's Cemetery that became their common grave.  Unmarked and for the most part unknown, it is estimated that there are 8,000 of these souls who are buried in Saint Mary's Cemetery in Milford.  They are gone, but not forgotten. 

At the end of the 20th century, Barbara Minnehan had spent three summers searching among the headstones of the Old Saint Mary's Cemetery looking for relatives she had never met but to whom she felt a strong connection.  One day, with her car keys in hand, she began to stratch at a stone to clear away the lichen that obliterated the name of the one buried there.  As she uncovered the name of the man buried beneath the stone, she literally uncovered her past.  The stone she cleared belonged to her great-great-grandfather Patrick Kelley and his mother, Winifred (Hubon) Kelley, her great-great-great-grandmother.  As the names of her relatives once again were touched by the sun, Barbara recognized a need to honor the memory all those buried in this cemetery for their courage and sacrifice crossed an ocean and began a life that is so much richer for so many.  Feeling that they should not be forgetten and their resting place deserved greater dignity, she set out to invite others to the task of renewing the Old Saint Mary's Cemetery.
In 1998, with the permission of Father Michael Foley, Pastor at Saint Mary's, Barbara set out several letters and invited anyone she knew that she thought might be interested to join "The Friends of Old Saint Mary's Cemetery."  The response was encouraging and on March  17, 1998, the group organized with Barbara as its president.  They quickly registered as a non-profit with the government and began to discuss the needs and their response.  Many local people took up the challenge to improve this ancient gravesite and to restore dignity and honor to the memory and final resting place of these poor souls.  From April to October, beginning in 1999 and every year until 2007, they would spent their Saturday, whatever the weather, and sometimes it was a hundred degrees, their efforts were a true labor of love, it was entirely volunteer.  They set the following agenda for their committee:

1. To lift and reset broken stones.
2. To restore stones that have been partially destroyed
3. To cut down evergreen trees and bushes obscuring gravestones.
4. Re-grading of the lots.
5. Re-grading of the roadways.
6. Cleaning of Father Farrelly's monument.
7. To place markers on individual pathways, with the pathway's name.
8. To place a sign at both the entrance from Cedar Street and the Hamilton Street entrance with the name of the cemetery and its established date.
9. At some mutually agreeable location in the old cemetery, the placement of a memorial plaque giving a brief history of the cemetery and those who are buried there.
10. At some point when all the work is complete, consideration should be given to the establishment of a trust fund to insure the future preservation and care of the cemetery.

To achieve these ambitious goals, they organized annual Saint Patrick's Day events, and even a half year event to raise the funds they needed to pay professionals or secure supplies beyond their own donations and time to beautify and restore the cemetery, bringing a long lost dignity to these precious souls whose courage and effort had shaped the town and the parish of Milford.  One of their early and exceptional efforts was to organize the issue of a United States Postal Service (USPS) stamp commemorating the Irish Immigration that was  unveiled at the cemetery on February 26, 1999.