Is long-forgotten Cranston gravesite home to Revolutionary War hero?

CRANSTON, R.I. (WPRI) — Andrew Grover was hiking through John Curran State Park earlier this month when he stumbled upon a piece of Rhode Island history.

Hidden among the brush in the woods and mounds of trash was a gravesite he later learned may date back to the Revolutionary War.

The Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Commission‘s database of registered cemeteries lists nine “unknown” gravesites in Cranston.

Grover believes he’s rediscovered one of those cemeteries, specifically “Cranston 576.”

“We have this wonderful thing in Rhode Island,” Grover explained. “We’re very unique with the number of old cemeteries that we have [hidden] in the forest.”

“Sometimes, Rhode Islanders don’t realize [the cemeteries are there],” he continued. “That’s not really a thing in other places.”

Grover examined a few of the gravestones and discovered one of them belonged to a man named Lewis Burlingame.

John Hill, chairman of the Cranston Historical Cemeteries Commission, tells 12 News a historian visited the gravesite in 1981, but an exact location for it was never recorded.

Burlingame, who has the only marked gravestone in the cemetery, died back in 1893.

The Burlingame family’s roots have run through Cranston for centuries. Hill said James Burlingame Jr., Lewis’ grandfather, was a Revolutionary War captain.

“We build monuments for presidents, we name high schools after governors, but the people who did the actual work on the land, who made this place what it is … these headstones are what they get,” Hill said.

Hill said it remains to be seen whether James is buried alongside his grandson.

Either way, he said he looks forward to learning more about the gravesite and the people who are buried there.

“These people deserved to be remembered and deserve to be respected,” Hill said. “We are going to try and do that for them.”

Volunteers are planning to clear the cemetery of overgrowth sometime next month.

In the meantime, Hill plans on asking the Rhode Island Historical Cemetery Commission for a sign to mark the location in hopes that the long-forgotten gravesite will never be neglected again.