WELLS — One of the town’s oldest cemeteries will finally be given the respect it’s due this fall.

In December 2014, Wells received an easement for the area, which is privately owned. Until receipt of the easement, the town had been unable to care for the graveyard, which was source of concern for some residents.

This fall, the town plans on making a number of improvements on the approximately 10,000- square-foot area, which is part of a larger parcel. A senior housing development will be located behind the cemetery, Town Manager Jonathan Carter said.

Planned improvements include marking off the cemetery with a fence, landscaping the area, and ensuring it will be preserved in perpetuity. At the June town meeting, voters approved $60,000 for the project. Those funds will be supplemented by donated material and labor, Carter said.

The project will “bring the cemetery back to what it should be and honoring those forebearers,” said Doug Bibber of Bibber Memorial Chapel in Kennebunk and a member of the Wells Cemetery Committee, which was formed in spring 2015.

Until recently, there were a number of rumors surrounding the land. One belief was that there a mass grave of Native Americans who were killed during fights with white settlers. Another was that former Revolutionary War veterans were buried on the parcel. Still another suspicion was that many of the town founders were buried on the site .

While the latter view has some credence – town historian Hop Shelley believes the town’s founder is buried on the site – ground-penetrating radar conducted last year found no mass graves. Shelley said she’s found records showing that a plaque noting names of Revolutionary War veterans is wrong, and that those veterans are buried elsewhere.

The cemetery has been a source of consternation for residents since at least the 1940s, when development on the parcel that was once a field occurred. Some believed that during construction of the various buildings, grave markers were moved and graves built upon.

According to a timeline of the property by Code Enforcement Officer Jodine Adams, sometime in 1947, the land housing the cemetery was sold by Watson to Byrnes (no first names are given), and between 1947- 49, two cement buildings were erected.

At the time, there were no laws to protect the area, said Adams. “The laws came in shortly after, but the damage was done.”

At a 1949 town meeting, voters approved having selectmen investigate the property and protect it from desecration, but no action was taken.

At a 1952 town meeting, voters approved raising $1,000 to enclose the area with a hedge, erect a monument and provide for upkeep of the lot, but no action was taken then, either.

There are records of attorneys for the town, and of town managers looking into what legal recourse the town had to require that the cemetery be properly maintained.

When the town received notification of foreclosure on the property in 2011– which housed Torches restaurant – it jumped at the opportunity to negotiate a easement on the portion of the land where the graves are located with Optima Bank of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which had acquired the property.

“We took it as our opportunity to do something,” said Adams.

A recreation easement was granted for the cemetery in December 2014.

Because it was unknown how or how many were buried on the site, ground-penetrating radar was conducted last year. According to the results, only eight graves were found. There are only six grave markers are on the site.

“We’ll never know for sure” who is buried at the Buffam Hill Cemetery, Shelley said recently in her Wells home.

She believes Edmund Littlefield’s body is among the graves. Littlefield came to the area in 1641, she said; the town was incorporated in 1653. Shelley said she believes Littlefield is there because “he lived right across the creek” from the cemetery. But if he is there, nothing marks his grave.

The earliest gravestone belongs to Edmund’s grandson, Josiah Littlefield, whose date of death is listed on his tomb as 1713. Shelley said records show his death actually occurred in 1712, but by the time a traveling stone carver came to the area in the 1730s to carve the stone, memories might have been a little fuzzy.

In addition to the stone for Josiah Littlefield, the cemetery stones, as documented in the 1920s and 1930s – according to Shelley’s book “My Name is Wells” – belonged to Capt. William Cole and his wife Sarah, with dates of death Sept. 17, 1847 and April 2, 1825, respectively; Lt. Jonathan Hammond, date of death Sept. 17, 1717, his two wives and son Jonathan; and Benjamin Treadwell, sate of death Aug. 8, 1815.

Both Shelley and Adams are glad that the concern over this historic cemetery is finally being put to bed, and think the final result will be worth the effort.

“We’ve put in a lot of time to make it’s tastefully done, make sure it blends with the development behind it,” said Adams. “I think there’s going to be respectful closure.”

— Associate Editor Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.