Family Run Business
Hello, My name is Eric Maher and my family has been part of Mountain View Cemetery in New Fairfield, CT since its inception in 1926. We have been grave digger, sextons, and care takers. Today, my family still maintains and runs Mountain View Cemetery as a non-profit organization, and I have expanded to sell Monuments. as well.
A bit of History about Mountain View Cemetery and our family
Mountain View Cemetery in New Fairfield, CT was founded in 1929 after the decision to create Candlewood lake.
A total of 5,420 acres of farmland and forests had been flooded to create the lake. The area included tobacco fields, cattle farms, forests and about 100 buildings, including homes, churches, schools and cemeteries. In all, 35 families owned property within the flood zone. But Connecticut Light and Power, the electric company proposing from the construction, was armed with eminent domain and was able to purchase most of this property. There were a few holdouts (some of our family included) and some small portions of privately owned land were ultimately flooded. Parts of Brookfield, Danbury, New Fairfield, New Milford and Sherman were submerged, as was the entirety of the village of Jerusalem, now under the New Milford portion of the lake.
When the lake plan was approved in 1926, more than 1,000 laborers, worked on the project. They cleared woodland, built dams and dug ground that was too high to contain water. The lake was complete by the end of 1928.
The people buried within the flooded cemeteries were exhumed and moved as part of the lake’s construction by the workers who were paid $1 per grave. In total, 412 bodies were re-interred, many of them are now at Mountain View Cemetery.
My great grandparents, Robert and Fannie Chatterton, were the first people to oversee Mountain View Cemetery, I continue their legacy, but I have shifted from the record keeping side to providing more hands-on, people-centric services with the same intentions; to help people put their loved ones to rest.
Myself, my mother, sister, brother-in-law, and wife are all involved in helping run Monuments by Maher. We all feel very strongly about helping people make a tough time a little easier.
We are here to guide you to a fitting stone selection, create foundations that will ensure your monument lasts through time, restore or clean older stones, or even plant flowers to beautify a gravesite. Let us know how we can help you.