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06/08/2016 08:30 AMGenerations of Clinton residents have been laid to rest at Indian River Cemetery, one of the oldest active burial grounds in the state. Some were transient people who took shelter along the railroad, where sheds had been built and occasionally burned down. Some were town benefactors and leaders—household names like Joel, Morgan, Pierson, and Hull. There are Civil War heroes buried here, as well as infants, with lambs carved into their headstones.
The grave markers at Indian River range from centuries-old brownstone, most likely from Portland’s quarries, to marble, metal (there are two, and they look surprisingly like stone), slate, and newer ones, which are typically made of granite. Occasionally you’ll see a tall grave marker, shaped like a column with a ragged crown, like the top was broken off.
“Those aren’t broken,” says Bob Bruch (pronounced broosh). “They were made that way. They symbolize an incomplete life—a life cut short.”
Bob is secretary of the Clinton Cemetery Association (CCA), which oversees the care and maintenance of the Indian River and Beaverbrook cemeteries, where time and the elements—snow drifts, acid rain, general weathering, lichen, and erosion—have slowly taken their toll on a town’s heritage etched in stone. Efforts to preserve the monuments to people who lived and died here are ongoing, he says, with mixed success.
Clinton Transplant
Bob wasn’t always interested in cemeteries, though his roots in Clinton and his love of history run deep. Until he was 14, Bob lived in West Haven with his parents, older brother, and younger sister. They summered at his grandparents’ house on Clinton’s Shore Road.
“My most favorite memories are of summers in Clinton. I loved the swimming, boating, and water skiing at the shore. I learned to swim at Duck Island. My dad would throw each of us off the boat, and we had to swim either to shore or to the ladder. We learned to water ski there, too. Walking the beaches is still one of my favorite things to do, especially in September and October.”
Bob’s father was a police officer, and his mother a telephone operator.
“I was a quiet, kind of nerdy kid. I wasn’t athletic, but rather bookish.”
He went on to become a teacher in Clinton for nearly 40 years.
A 1969 graduate of The Morgan School, Bob earned an associate’s degree in education at Middlesex Community College, a bachelor’s and master’s from Southern Connecticut State College, and a sixth-year professional diploma in reading from Southern Connecticut State University.
“During my junior and senior years at Morgan, I worked at Yale-New Haven hospital in X-ray and medical records to help pay my way through college,” he recalls. “I frequently worked many part-time jobs—and still do to this day.”
Hired by the Clinton Board of Education in 1973, Bob started out as a 4th-grade teacher at Pierson School. After a career spanning 39 years and teaching many grade levels, along with adult education, he retired four years ago from the Joel School.
“My favorite memory from those years is that I had my daughter, Katie, as a student in 1st grade. She is now a 5th-grade teacher herself. You never know where your influences will travel as a teacher. My grandson Gavin’s kindergarten teacher is Jack Reynolds, who was one of my student teachers about 18 years ago.”
Bob met his wife, Barbara—who goes by BJ—on the first day of 8th grade. The two have been together for 52 years and will celebrate their 43rd wedding anniversary next month. Their daughter and son-in-law, Katie and Rob, also live in Clinton.
When Katie was 10, she took an interest in the Bruch family plot and insisted that three spots—for her mother, her father, and herself—were not enough.
“What about my husband?” she asked.
Despite Bob’s explanation that someday Katie might marry and move away to Florida or Texas or elsewhere—and be buried there—she would not relent.
So the Bruches purchased a fourth plot—for a son-in-law they wouldn’t meet for many years—and Katie promptly stretched out on the grass of her family’s expanded plot, looking up at the sky.
“What are you doing?” Bob asked.
“I want to see the view from here,” she answered matter-of-factly.
Family Tree
As for how the veteran teacher got involved in the Clinton Cemetery Association, Bob credits longtime CCA secretary Doris Griffin Kelsey, who was also secretary of the First Church of Christ Congregational (where the Bruches worship) and the Clinton Historical Society.
“Doris knew I was interested in history and town activities, so she asked me to join the CCA. I became a member more than 30 years ago, and the first meetings I attended were in the conference room of Swan Funeral Home.”
Doris passed away in December 2013, at age 95, and the following year, Bob was named secretary of CCA. In Doris’s home, he found burial books dating back to 1892 as well as handwritten lot books, deed books, and cemetery records maintained in Doris’s own hand.
The nonprofit CCA was established on Jan. 15, 1863, by a group of Clinton citizens concerned about the preservation of Indian River Cemetery, which by then was almost 200 years old. CCA’s first fundraiser, says Bob, was an ice cream social—an elaborate affair with chandeliers—that raised roughly $25.
The association was incorporated in 1900, and membership is limited to legal residents of Clinton who make written applications and have an interest in the general good of the cemeteries overseen by the association.
“We have a board of directors, who meet regularly, as well as three paid employees. The rest are volunteers,” says Bob.
“Many people think Indian River and Beaverbrook are owned either by the First Church or by the Town of Clinton. But there is no town-owned cemetery. People are surprised to learn that the cemeteries are private property and that we receive no funding from the town at all. We are self-supporting. It also surprises folks to know that people like to walk, bike, or jog through the cemeteries, and Indian River is frequently listed as a place to watch rare and unusual birds. We encourage those individuals interested in Clinton’s history to visit often and take time to stroll among the many beautiful gravestones and learn the history contained therein. We’re listed on the state and national historic record, and many visitors come to view the gravestones. We have a lot of notables buried in our cemeteries, including the first rector of Yale College, Abraham Pierson.”
Bob and his wife have been the cemetery sextons and have served on the CCA board of directors for the last 20 years.
“We meet with families to arrange a final resting place for their loved ones,” he says. “We research information on burials, and we keep the required records,” which, after a few false starts involving a scrubbed computer hard drive, they are hoping to digitize.
Locating family plots, says Bob, is not always straightforward and often involves a bit of detective work.
“People will often inquire about a family plot under a name that doesn’t exist in our records,” he says, “because the original plot was purchased by an ancestor with a different surname.”
When that happens, a search through the family tree, the cemetery’s records, and the grounds themselves is in order.
“We work to preserve the history and these grounds for future generations,” says Bob.
It’s an ongoing job, he explains, that involves annual cemetery walks and improvements that include replacing older benches with granite seating areas, updating wooden street posts, and replacing trees with species that have larger canopies and can be planted at farther distances from markers and walls. Researching new methods of preserving old monuments and meeting with preservationists is also part of the work.
CCA has help in maintaining the cemetery, says Bob, from local youth, including one student who created a GPS mapping system of the grounds, and area Boy Scouts—such as Troop 7, whose young members annually re-flag all the gravesites belonging to veterans.
“People find solace and peace in the knowledge that Indian River Cemetery, established in 1665, is still an active historic cemetery, meaning that plots are still sold here and burials are still conducted. Beaverbrook, which is newer, opened in 1973. Many families have moved away, but return to Clinton to inter a love one in a family plot. They find comfort in the knowledge that they join together with several generations of family members.”
In Indian River’s early days, says Bob, plots were sometimes given in trade for services or materials that the cemetery needed, such as sand or trees.
“There was a barter system then,” he says, “and some of the older plots were purchased for as little as a dollar.”
Next Generation
Aside from the work of record-keeping and preservation, CCA has also begun sponsoring an annual scholarship for Clinton students. The Doris Griffin Scholarship, presented to a high school senior pursuing higher education, is awarded based on academic merit, community service, participation in school activities, and financial need. The first-ever scholarship will be awarded this month. (The winner will be announced on the group’s Facebook page.)
Bob and BJ, who are now both retired, spend their free time babysitting grandsons Gavin, who turns six next month, and Brady, 4 ½. Like their grandfather, the boys are comfortable among the old etched stones and patches of forget-me-nots at Indian River, and they are full of questions and information (“On top of this underpass belongs to the railroad,” one offers. “How do they make this stone?” another asks). Like his mother before him, Gavin is already thinking of his future spouse and planning where they might settle someday—either at Disney or on a farm, “where we grow peaches and make jam.”
Besides his work with CCA, Bob is active in Clinton’s Historic District Commission and has been involved in a number of faith-based and civic groups, serving as diaconate, secretary, and moderator for First Church of Christ Congregational; master of Jeptha Lodge #95 AF and AM of Clinton; Patron of Olive Branch #87 Order of the Eastern Star; grand patron of the Grand Chapter of Connecticut Order of the Eastern Star; and—together with BJ—Girl Scout leader for seven years, before their daughter was born.
“Yes, I did say Girl Scouts,” he says. “We also served on the advisory board of the International Order of Rainbow for Girls for Branford Assembly #19 and on Connecticut Rainbow for Girls as scholarship chairmen. This is one of the Masonic youth groups.”