Westerly – Inside the manicured grounds of the River Bend Cemetery on Beach Street lays a large square patch of close-cut grass, long thought empty except for a single upright marker and three flat gravestones.

But that lawn, labeled as the Old Town Plot in town records, held dozens of secrets kept buried for decades, not through any sort of nefarious conspiracy, but rather through a combination of time and ignorance.

On Saturday, residents, town officials and others stood solemnly in the crisp fall breeze as a new memorial stone was unveiled, its jet-black marble etched with the names – or at least identifying monikers – of the 172 souls interred in the plot, some as long as 151 years ago.

The dead of the Old Town Plot were not people of means and the stone reflected that status. Several were identified as “unknown man,” or as stillborn infants. The last two memorial entries list a person “found at the beach” in 2010 and “unknown hand bones” discovered on Nov. 22, 2019.

The discovery of the plot and its contents came about through the efforts of a former military intelligence officer with a penchant for genealogy and a bed-ridden former cemetery worker with a razor-sharp memory.

A fruitless grave search unearths a mystery

James Wolfe, 63, moved to Westerly with his wife about 2½ years ago, capping off a 31-year career that included stints as a U.S. Army intelligence analyst and with the National Security Agency.

Once retired, he put his well-honed research skills into service with the Find a Grave volunteer group, which fields requests from those seeking information on deceased individuals and their final resting spots.

“In the spring of 2023, I got a call from Florida from a person looking for a grave monument for a William Braman in plot 56 of the River Bend Cemetery,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe walked the plot, but found no sign of Braman’s grave. But he did notice a large, grassy area just below where Braman was supposed to be buried.

“I asked the cemetery people about that area, but they had no records and suggested I contact the town clerk,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe, in his element as a researcher, spent months talking to town workers and combing through archival documents, but with no luck.

“I finally asked if they knew of anyone who used to work at the cemetery, and they gave me the name of Celia Grossomanides, who worked at the cemetery office for 50 years,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe left a note on Grossomanides’ son’s door and was soon on the phone with the 95-year-old former cemetery office manager. Though age had confined her to a bed, Grossomanides’ memory remained untarnished.

“She knew exactly what I was talking about and directed me to a brown folder inside a two-drawer metal desk by a door in the cemetery’s office,” Wolfe said.

The document, moved from its original spot during recent office renovations, was soon tracked down by cemetery officials and passed on to Wolfe.

Solving a mystery and honoring the forgotten

That file showed the knoll – the Old Town Plot – was purchased by the town in 1860 for $250 and used as a pauper’s grave site for those without any other option.

The folder also contained a list of 172 names or descriptions that now adorn the plot’s new memorial marker.

“There are 13 people marked as ‘unknown,’ including one identified only as ‘stranger,’” Wolfe said. “A group of eight bodies were found washed ashore, likely after a shipwreck, and there were others who were probably victims of the Spanish flu of 1918.”

The lists also include notations of 26 children buried, some stillborn.

The plot, Wolfe learned after additional research, contains the remains of Frederick J. Dunscomb – his is the only standing marker at the site – a gunner in the Newport Flotilla during the War of 1812.

“Back when many of these people were buried, there were no funerals or fanfare, just a couple of undertakers who buried them without caskets,” Wolfe said. “There were, in many cases, no one there to acknowledge the deaths of these people that had nothing. The gravity of this, to have so many people right here and unrecognized.”

Wolfe, determined to bring a modicum of respect back to the forgotten dead, and with the support of local veteran and historical groups, reached out to Town Manager Shawn Lacey with a request to honor the plot’s occupants with a memorial.

Lacey, a Westerly native who grew up two blocks from the cemetery, was stunned by Wolfe’s revelation about the Old Town Plot.

“I’ve been to that cemetery thousands of times, rode my bike on the paths as a kid and climbed those trees, but had no idea what was there,” he said.

Lacey quickly asked the Town Council to approve a $14,800 appropriation for the 3-foot-tall, 5-foot-long marker stone that was delivered to the cemetery on Oct. 31 and dedicated on Saturday.

On the night the appropriation passed, Wolfe went home and again perused the plot’s burial list.

“I saw the third name down, the first one listed as ‘unknown,” was buried on June 17, 1874, exactly 150 years to the day the council approved the memorial,“ Wolfe said.

Lacey said the town has plans to add an informational sign directing visitors to the stone and the burial plot it overlooks.

“I want people to come here, see the stone and know the wonderful reason why it’s here,” he said.

Wolfe, too, hoped the memorial would serve as a long overdue tribute for 172 people who lay unrecognized under the earth of Westerly for far too long.

“I want people to stop and see this,” he said, waving a hand at the dark, reflective stone filled with names and dates. “It’s giving them immortality.”

j.penney@theday.com