They went to war, these Windham neighbors, and helped create a country. Our country. One man was shot in the shoulder, but he served for two more years. They both returned to Windham, and took up where they left off – farming and raising their families.

Today, hundreds of years after the Revolutionary War, Josiah Chute and Joseph Swett rest in a cemetery near where they lived, surrounded by great tall trees, a decrepit abandoned truck, rubble and a small mountain of dirt, left over from an unfinished housing development.

The cemetery is on the Chute Road – a road getting a lot of attention lately. Rezoning the end of the road toward River Road is being proposed, which would accommodate more houses for future developments. There are (at my last count) at least two uncompleted developments already on this road. One of them is right where the Chute Cemetery is located, one of those ancient graveyards, town property, but in the middle of private property. At the River Road end, the ancient Brown Cemetery is located. State law requires public access to any cemetery where a veteran is buried.

Just before Memorial Day, one of today’s veterans was helping place flags at the gravesites of Windham’s fallen warriors. He sent photos of what he found at the Chute Cemetery, and in my opinion, it is just disgusting to see again the desecration to this graveyard where two Revolutionary War soldiers are buried and where the only monument in town, recognizing Windham’s founder (Thomas Chute) is located.

Can’t we do better than this?

At public forms on rezoning part of this old road, many area residents – some who think six or seven years is a long time to live anywhere – have given their ideas on what should be done. Many speak to the “too built up” places they left behind to move here to the “country” – but I bet most of them don’t know about the condition of one of the town’s most historic sites.

While we’re hashing over whether pigs and chickens should be allowed in a farm zone (if not there, then where?) or if we should change zoning to accommodate developers, I think it’s time to take responsibility for the upkeep of graveyards where veterans are buried. It’s not just the right thing to do – it’s the law.

I don’t know who owns this property now, but I can’t believe that this pile of dirt and trash will just remain until — who knows when? Who is liable for clean up while we’re waiting for the economy to rebound?

It is the town’s responsibility to maintain any cemetery – any cemetery – where veterans are buried. When a development is at a standstill, is anyone responsible for cleaning up around the cemetery? How close is that mountain of dirt? The last I knew, there was a setback disallowing disturbing the soil adjacent to a graveyard. I don’t know what the law is about broken computers and trucks being discarded next to a cemetery.

Two granite monuments in Chute Cemetery were erected in 1884 by William Goold, executor of the will of the landowner, George Washington Chute who died in 1882. One monument is to the memory of Chute’s great-grandfather and Windham’s founder, Capt. Thomas Chute. He died in 1770. His actual burial place is unknown. The other monument is to the memory of George W. Chute who cut the granite out of his own property and hauled it to this site, built the walls around the cemetery and before he died, gave the cemetery to the town of Windham.

This is also the burial place of George Chute’s father, Josiah Chute, wounded in the shoulder by a musket ball during the Revolutionary War, served for two more years and returned home to Windham to his house at the corner of Swett and Chute Roads. Neighbor John Swett, another veteran of the Revolutionary War is buried here with most of his family. In an adjacent small enclosure, Hemon Cobb was buried in 1900. This was the last burial here. Cobb lived nearby on the road that bears his name.

I wonder how the cemeteries where soldiers from Vietnam and Korea and Iraq and Afghanistan are laid to rest, will be cared for in the future.

I know this cemetery and land well. I spent most of my life on the Chute Road in the house my father built just prior to World War II. It wasn’t the only house on the road but I can easily name all the families and during all of those decades, the Chute Cemetery could be seen from the road. I do not want to go behind that pile of dirt and see what the graveyard looks like today. I am personally appalled at the lack of respect shown to the memory of those who fought to build America.

If you agree with me, contact your town councilors.

Kay Soldier lives in Windham.