The Nameless Ones

As you turn off Route 12 onto County Route 4 and head toward Preston and continue on down the road, a large brick building on a knoll comes into view. This is Preston Manor and currently an assisted living adult home. A nice down-home facility that both my parents, Louis and Helen Utter, spent some time at. This place has had a long and at times tragic history and has been known as the Chenango County Poor House and Insane Asylum, Alms House, the Welfare Home, and the Preston Work House.

If you look across the road and then across the field, you will notice a flagpole that stands in front of a group of trees. Beneath the pole is a granite monument. Behind the trees and stone wall lies a cemetery.

In the summer of 2013 I was just getting to know Tina. We were helping her friend Kurt Riegel do a lot of cemetery work. She kept mentioning stopping in and seeing the poor house cemetery. Finally one day we did stop.

We really had no idea where to go or what to expect. We came in from the side and crossed the wall. It was a jungle of blackberry briers, small trees, rosebushes, goldenrod, and huge honeysuckle. We just looked at each other. How could this possibly be a cemetery?

We fought our way in, struggling to see anything. It was not looking promising. Were we mistaken? Then we saw it, a small marble marker standing amidst all the undergrowth. We got closer and looked for a name. But there was no name, just the number 4. Then we saw markers with 3, 2, and 1. No names, just numbers?

After that first encounter, Tina was now saying we needed to do something to cleanup the cemetery. She said they deserved better. So that fall we returned and with the permission of Preston’s town supervisor we began at the front of the cemetery. We had a crew of five this time and we were the youngest. One of our helpers was Tracy Law who was actually a resident of Preston Manor. He was energetic and our biggest supporter in completing this huge task. He also helped us the next year but sadly we could tell his health was declining and he died before he could see the whole project completed. I learned much about Tracy from his obituary and we wish we had gotten to know him better.

We have been back many times since that first cleanup day, sometimes by ourselves and sometimes with more volunteers. It has been hard work and our frustration level was very high when we felt we were not gaining much ground. But we endured and have the satisfaction of finally being able to now look over the entire cemetery.

There have been a number of surprises along the way. We discovered about 8 inscribed sandstone markers. Some research showed that the poor house burials are part of an older Fly Creek Cemetery. In the back left corner we found about a dozen substantially sunken graves. Why just those dozen?

In 2014, each time we returned we noticed someone had been in with a weed eater. We since learned this may have been a gentleman who passed away. We had wanted to meet and thank him but we never got the chance. Tracy had told us about a pile of numbered markers and although we diligently looked we could never find them. Then this spring, during our last cleanup, there they were!

There are about 60 primitive markers in this cemetery, the most we have ever seen in one place. But the most haunting are the 158 numbered markers with no names. Can you imagine going through the rest of eternity known only as a number? That is certainly dehumanizing. We don’t know what their stories were, perhaps poor or mentally ill, but they do deserve better.

On one of our cemetery weekends we entered S. D. Lewis Cemetery in Preston. Much to our amazement we discovered 75 numbered stones just like in the poor house cemetery. There is a connection between the two but we have not had the time to research it.

We would like to thank all the volunteers who took time out of their busy lives to help with our endeavor. Your efforts are much appreciated. We would also like to thank the Town of Preston’s Highway Department who cleaned up the huge brush piles we left behind.

The bulk of the work is behind us but we still have plenty to finish before we can take a lawn mower in there. Eventually a long term care plan will need to be developed or in 20 years it will be back in the same condition. So now it is 2017 and we enter into our 4^th year of work. It is most enjoyable to listen to the birds and the babbling brook and we can’t help but reflect on those that are buried here.

This article is dedicated to Tracy, but most of all we want to remember all the unnamed souls who reside in the Chenango County Poor House Cemetery. May they rest in peace.

By the way, the monument beneath that flag pole reads:

The County of Chenango by this memorial recognizes its residents residing here….

May 21, 2025