Students tour Potsdam cemetery

Eighty-five sixth graders from A.A. Kingston Middle School in Potsdam recently toured Potsdam’s Bayside Cemetery. The tour highlighted the Clarkson and Snell families, the Civil War monument, the history of vaults, mausoleums, sarcophaguses, and the imagery of gravestones. The students also learned about funeral practices, death, natural burials and the use of embalming. The tour was conducted by Bayside Sexton Lorelei Murdie; Bayside board members John and Susan Omohundro, Mary Gilbert, and Mimi VanDeusen; Village of Potsdam Historian Hunter Crary; and St. Lawrence County Historical Association Director Carleen Bermann. Sixth-grade teacher Paul VanLeuven organized the tour. Photo submitted by Michael Griffin.