http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=d67ff604-65b8-463e-8dac-000b332bca20
In the event that the paper stops the link, I will copy the article below:
By MARK HAYWARD
New Hampshire Union Leader
Saturday, Jun. 13, 2009
MANCHESTER – John Crawford made a rather odd discovery when he was clearing brush beside the house he moved into this past winter.
When his rake hit something solid, he was sure it was a piece of granite. But when he cleared the brush and a discarded Christmas tree, Crawford discovered a misplaced tombstone -- complete with a name, birth date and death date.
"It kind of freaked me out a little bit," said Crawford, who moved into the house at 42 Garfield Road about four months ago. His home is two houses from the corner of Calef Road and the sprawling Pine Grove Cemetery.
"It really doesn't make sense for this to be over here at all," Crawford said. "That belongs in a graveyard, not beside my garage."
The 20-by-15-inch stone bears the name of Joseph DeMoulpied, who lived from 1824 to 1903, according to its inscription.
While the city Parks, Recreation and Cemeteries Department could give no explanation of how the stone ended up beside the garage, information is available about DeMoulpied.
He was born in Guernsey, a small archipelago in the English Channel, according to a geology blog maintained by the DeMoulpied family. He eventually left the islands for Canada and served as an Anglican minister in Quebec.
Three of his children emigrated to America, and DeMoulpied showed up in Manchester in a 1900 census, living with his son Alfred.
John Crawford made a rather odd discovery when he was clearing brush beside the house he moved into this past winter. (DAVID LANE)
Cemetery workers removed the stone from Crawford's yard Wednesday, and it is has been placed in storage, said Judith Aron, cemetery supervisor at Pine Grove. When a burial is scheduled for the family lot, the cemetery will inform the family of the stone and ask them what they would like to do, she said.
She could not explain how the stone ended up at the Garfield Street home.
Cemetery records said Joseph was buried March 22, 1903, at Lot 2520, which he had purchased himself. In May 1915, the remains were removed and re-interred in the family plot -- Lot 3703 Chapel Lawn.
A large monument on the lot has the family name with a slightly different spelling -- DeMouilpied.
The house that Crawford rents has a large, fenced-in yard filled with an old travel trailer, a scrap pile and a storage shed. After discovering the DeMoulpied stone, Crawford combed the yard and found nothing else connected with the cemetery, he said.
He said he's glad to have discovered the stone.
"It's good I found it," Crawford said. "He's a minister; I'm sure he was a good man. Put him back where his son is."
The DeMoulpied blog said Joseph is buried alongside the family of his son Charles. Alfred has a separate plot, according to the blog, which is written by Debby DeMoulpied.
"What a life he must have had," wrote Debby, DeMoulpied's great-great-grandaughter. "Early-mid 1880s in quiet Guernsey and then taking such risk to move to Canada to minister with the hardships of such a remote area.
"And then finishing his life in bustling Manchester, the heart of millyards and the Industrial Revolution."
What fun!
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