The Berne Historical Project at www.Bernehistory.org has a project underway
to restore the late 18th Century Pine Grove Cemetery, Berne, Albany County.
It was a small, rural, church cemetery that continued in use for almost a
century. A couple of youngsters who were probing for fallen and covered over
tombstones found what appear to be the base stones for a pedestrian gate. At
first they were assumed to be tombstone bases, but no tombstones were found.
Also these stones are roughly parallel the east west road-frontage, about
the distance back from the road that a fence would be; where as the
tombstones all face east, so the bases are north south.

The stones are oblong, large, and heavy, laying inches apart placed end to
end. They each have 2 circular holes about 18" apart and about 1 and 1/2 "
wide. One of the holes has the broken off stub off a rusted iron rod
embedded in it. They are crudely cut, rather then finished stone.

Here is there symbolic appearance:

    [  o        o  ]    [  o        o  ]

It is assumed that they were found in their original location. If so, the
gate would have been quite narrow. It has been proposed that the gate was
designed with 4 posts tied together at the top but not necessarily with an
arch. Two of the posts probably supported a latched gate to keep livestock
out of the cemetery the other two braced the gateway from tipping and
leaning.

I'm interested in what others might make of these stones. If it was a gate,
does anyone have photos of cemetery gates of this size that might give us an
idea of what it looked like?

I can e-mail digital photos of the stones and the context in which they were
found if anyone is interested.

Harold Miller
Berne Historical Project www.Bernehistory.org

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