Graves of Civil War vets among 90 stones toppled at Oak Hill Cemetery

By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — A historic cemetery off Rathbun Street containing the final resting places of many local veterans of the Civil War has been desecrated by vandals.

Police are investigating the toppling or damaging of some 90 headstones scattered around Oak Hill Cemetery sometime overnight Wednesday.
The targeted stones appear to have been pushed off their mounts at gravesites dating back to the 1860s and others broken into pieces along cracks or previous repairs.
The damage was reported by Elizabeth Vangel, a caretaker and Board of Trustees member of the cemetery, when she visited Oak Hill at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Jalette said.
Vangel, who is overseeing the development of a media center honoring Woonsocket journalist and newspaper publisher Samuel Foss in the former cemetery caretaker’s home, told police she had visited Oak Hill Wednesday and all appeared in order at that time.
The exact cost of the damage was still being calculated, according to Jalette.
Some of the toppled headstones and markers appeared to have sustained damage as a result of being displaced and will require repairs beyond being remounted, Jalette said.   The damage could require approximately $125 in work for each vandalized stone for more than $100,000 in total repairs, he said.
“I know this cemetery has a lot of historic value in headstones you find throughout the cemetery,” he said.
The case has been turned over to the department’s juvenile division and assigned to Det. William Senior and Det. Sgt. William Coupe for investigation, he said. The department also plans to canvass the Rathbun Street neighborhood for any information on the incident and will take anonymous calls through the department’s tipline at 769-4444. Anyone wishing to contact detectives with information can also call the department at 766-1212.
Oak Hill holds plots for many of the city’s prominent founding families and others who found success in business such as Edward Harris and Foss, the owner of Woonsocket Patriot.
Foss ran the newspaper from the 1841 to his death in the 1879 covering stories ranging from local support of the anti-slavery movement to Abraham Lincoln’s visit to the city in 1860s and the war between the states that followed.
One of the stones toppled in vandalism included that of John Foss at the Samuel Foss’ family plot at the top of Oak Hill.
Others stones pushed down or broken carried the names of Whipple, Grant, and Mowry families.
One toppled stone bore the name of Susan H. Whipple listed her date of death as May 14, 1899. Nearby was a smaller stone, untouched, bearing the word, “Baby.”
 The disturbed stone for Harriet Jane Grant noted she died at the age of “50 years and 3 days” in on Feb. 15, 1871.
Another desecrated grave was that of Samuel Preston, one of the residents of Woonsocket who had served in the Civil War. The grave was one of those in Oak Hill flagged with American flags by area veterans for Memorial Day and the small flag remained in place next to the toppled stone.
When contacted about the damages on Thursday, Vangel said she believes about three graves of Civil War soldiers were affected, those of Rudolf Carpenter and Joel Crocker in addition to Preston.
Vangel has been researching the lives of the city soldiers who went off to war as part of the development of the Foss Media Center at Oak Hill and will be offering that information online as part of its information services.
While alarming, the damage around the cemetery can be repaired, according to Vangel.
“I feel we were very lucky,” Vangel said while noting the significant history that exists in Oak Hill.
The Board of Trustees do want to find out who was responsible for the vandalism, she said, and plan to pursue legal action if necessary to recover the costs of repairs.
A $1,000 reward has been offered to anyone providing information that leads to the arrest of those involved, she said.
“We want to put the message out that Oak Hill is a place to revered and nationally recognized,” she said. “It is consecrated and hallowed ground,” she said.
“This is not something that we are going to tolerate and we want to send the community a message that Oak Hill is a national treasure and it should be treated as such.
In addition to supporting the police in their investigation of the crime, Vangel said Oak Hill plans to install electronic security equipment at the cemetery that will help prevent such incidents in the future.
Wednesday’s vandalism is not the first time Oak Hill has been struck with such desecrations. About 60 headstones were toppled at Cemetery in October of 2000 and later repaired.
Many of the stones damaged this week will be re-erected during maintenance and conservation work expected to take place at Oak Hill this summer, she said.