Along-neglected burial ground that is the final resting place for some Revolutionary War veterans has been cleaned up and improved thanks to the efforts of an East Brunswick Boy Scout.
Dominic Barszcz, 18, carries a rail to be placed on the fence surrounding the Obert Family Burying Ground Historic Cemetery in East Brunswick March 31. Dominic has been working to clean up and improve the Revolutionary War-era grave site for his Eagle Scout project. JEFF GRANIT staff Dominic Barszcz, 18, recently restored the Obert Family Burying Ground Historic Cemetery, off Lonczak Lane, with the help of friends, family and fellow Scouts as part of a service project required to attain the level of Eagle Scout.
In March, Barszcz led 25 volunteers in clearing, plucking and leveling overgrown plant life that permeated the dilapidated graveyard.
“At first, I wasn’t sure what to do with it. It was in really bad shape,” Barszcz said. “So we took out everything — and it was much more than weeding. We went in there with chain saws and cut down saplings and trees that were falling down.”
Left: Dominic Barszcz holds the fence post while his father Tom hammers in a reinforcement plank at the Obert Family Burying Ground Historic Cemetery in East Brunswick. Above: The lone grave stone at the burial ground stood among a mess of weeds and broken tree limbs before the Scouts’ project. Barszcz’s main priority was cleanup; he cleared out all plants except for a few rosebushes and trees, picked up garbage, removed the underbrush and used heavy-duty weed killer to expel the site’s prolific poison ivy.
“It was as if you took a section of the forest and plopped it into the middle of a field,” he said.
Barszcz made several improvements to the burial ground itself, repairing the fencing, planting myrtle and creating a wood chip path leading to the site’s only discernable gravestone.
PHOTOS BY JEFF GRANIT staff Physical labor wasn’t the only arduous task involved in Barszcz’s project — the East Brunswick High School student was required to thoroughly research the burial ground and write a 23-page proposal.
Barszcz’s father, Thomas, originally suggested that he pursue the site’s cleanup. As a longtime resident of East Brunswick, Thomas Barszcz has known about the graveyard since he was a child.
“I’m from a long-established family in East Brunswick, and I knew of the plot as Lonczak Farm,” he said. “I know that a cemetery was there in desperate need of maintenance and I thought that maybe Dominic could propose it as his service project.”
The burial ground, located next to SummerhillMeadows, is home to the remains of members of the Obert and Allied families, who had settled in East Brunswick, and approximately 100 others, including some Middlesex County Militia members who fought in the Revolutionary War. However, there is only one gravestone there, reading, “Jehu Dunham, New Jersey Militia, Rev. War, September 24, 1761, April 6, 1842.”
Dominic and Tom Barszcz use a level to straighten out the sign before reinforcing its posts. JEFF GRANIT staff “He was part of a big family in East Brunswick, but I’m not sure what he did to be honored like that,” Barszcz said. “There are other unmarked stones scattered across the plot to represent the bodies there, but none of them are engraved.”
Barszcz said he had difficulty finding information about the burial ground until he came across an article in a local newspaper regarding the site’s recognition in 1986 by the National Veteran’s Association, which deemed the plot a historic gravesite. The honor was the result of a five-year effort by Dr. Richard Durnin, commissioner of the county Cultural and Heritage Commission.
In the following years, developers proposed to tear down the graveyard to make room for housing; however, such efforts were warded off due to its historical value.
Regardless of any such value, the site has been subject to vandalism and neglect over the past two decades.
During the month it took Barszcz to complete his research, he was required by the Boy Scouts to obtain permission from the benefactor of the project. But the quest proved more problematic than expected.
“It took a while to figure out the benefactor. I went to the township to go through tax records to see if I could trace the land back to its owner, and we came up with the itle of someone that doesn’t seem to exist,” he said.
Instead, permission came from Summerhill Meadows, the adjacent condominium development. Its homeowners association funded the $274 project, and donations also came from the township Parks and Recreation Department for fencing, and from a private company for wood chips.
Barszcz noted that Estelle Goldsmith, president of the East Brunswick Historical Society, was key in making the project happen as well.
In the future, Barszcz hopes that the site will be treated with respect and maintained, and that certain preventative measures he has taken will protect the burial ground.
“My hope is the ground cover — the myrtle— will flourish and keep away the weeds,” he said.
Barszcz said he will suggest that the site undergo annual maintenance in a cleanup event involving the Boy Scouts.
The service project, however, was not the only undertaking that Barszcz pursued in order to obtain the rank of Eagle Scout — he has hosted two troop campouts, served as a patrol leader for several years and earned 21 merit badges.
“You don’t have to strive for the rank of Eagle Scout, but I think it’s something all Scouts should try to achieve,” he said. “If you make it to Eagle Scout, you remain one forever.”
Barszcz will need to appear before the Eagle Scout Council and present his project in order to be considered. Only through a unanimous approval will he obtain the rank.
In the meantime, Barszcz, who volunteers his time at a local preschool, food bank and library and enjoys surfing and snowboarding, is preparing to graduate from high school. He hopes to attend the University of North Carolina Wilmington.