By Dawn De Busk 

Staff Writer

NAPLES— Soon, something that is missing at Edes Falls Cemetery will be placed inside the fence. 

What appears, at first glance, to be an empty space in the cemetery is actually four graves with temporary markers instead of headstones.

Katie Cash-Staley, who is the Naples Historical Society Museum Manager, brought to the attention of local elected officials that this family of four who passed away more than 100 years ago never got proper headstones. 

“I don’t know how they do it now. But, in the past when someone died, the funeral home would put a marker where they were buried so they would know where the headstones went. These were temporary markers,” she said. 

“There is a family in Edes Falls [Cemetery] who still have their temporary markers. It is a husband and wife, Albert and Maude Chaplin. They had two infant children that died at 9-months old Evelyn and at 2-months old Monte.There are 4 temporary markers for this family lined up in the front of Edes Falls Cemetery,” she said. 

The Chaplin Fund could be used to purchase these headstones, Cash-Staley said. Not only had she researched the history of the former Naples residents, but also she had done the legwork — locating a price for engraved headstones. She got a quote from Collette Monument, out of Lewiston, which was able to do each headstone for less than $250. That includes the engraving, she said. 

On Monday, July 25, the Naples Board of Selectmen unanimously voted to purchase the headstones using the Chaplin Fund to cover the cost.  

On Tuesday, Naples Town Manager John Hawley said that the headstones have been ordered.  

Last week, Cash-Staley spoke to the selectmen during Public Participation.

“Most of you know me. During the summer, I run the museum for the historical society,” she began. “I am on the cemetery committee. Working with the historical society, I’ve had the opportunity to research some of the families in the area.”

“John Chaplin moved from … Massachusetts to the Chaplin Mills area, which was part of Bridgton, in 1790. He had 13 boys. You can see why there are so many Chaplins and people related to the Chaplins in this area. The Proctors, Gammon, Hill, Knight, Rogers, Watkins and Dingley are all part of the Chaplin family,” she said.

When the patriarch died in 1940, he started a fund to preserve his own plot and for the worthy poor in town.  

“I would like to ask the the town to possibly take money out of the Chaplin fund to provide real gravestones for the families who died” in the late 1800s and early 1900s, she said. 

“You can see where they are in the Edes Falls Cemetery in the front. It looks like there is a big empty space in the cemetery,” she told the board members.

“I couldn’t fill out the normal Chaplin Fund application because these people died a long time ago. I don’t what their finances were. Someone else paid for the burial of the two-month old. We found information that someone else paid for the memorials,” Cash-Staley said. 

“Because they are part of the Chaplin family, because it has been over 100 years. They are obviously the worthy poor of the town or they would have gravestones already,” she said.