Help preserve The Wing Ring Cemetery in Wayne, Maine

By: Walter (Wing) “Buzz” Schultze, President of the WRCC and WFA Member

Shortly after the end of the Revolutionary War, family members of Simeon Wing, descendants of Stephen Wing who constructed the Wing Fort House, migrated from Sandwich to Maine and became founders of the town of Wayne. In 1867, the 7 sons of Simeon Wing and others established The Wing Cemetery Company (WCC) for the purpose of creating a cemetery as a memorial to the family and as a permanent resting place for family members. This new cemetery was completed in 1871 and the remains of family members from an earlier and smaller burial site were relocated to the new site. The cemetery remains a family-owned site to this day and is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Current Maintenance

The site is currently maintained by the Wing Ring Cemetery Co (WRCC), a Maine not for profit corporation, formed in 2010, and is provided with financial assistance for mowing and raking from the Wing Assembly of Maine (WAofME), part of District 1 of the WFA. In addition, two members of both the WAofME and WFA made generous donations last year for the straightening of interior curbing and gravestones.

Immediate Repairs Needed

The Cemetery is surrounded by 4 granite slab walls, approximately 600’ in all, which must be reset to avoid their collapse in the immediate future. The cost of resetting the walls is $5,500 to $6,500 each, a total in excess of $25,000. The WRCC and the WAofME do not have the funds to handle such repairs and no funds are available from the Town of Wayne or its Cemetery Association. Funds to repair and reset the front wall, the worst of the 4, have already been pledged by a Wing Family couple who choose to remain anonymous at this time. The repairs will be completed by this fall. Once completed, the walls will remain stable for another 150 years and longer.

As President, caretaker and only remaining active member of the WCC and WRCC (since 1989) I have been searching for grants and other sources of funding for the additional repairs with no results. While no financial assistance is directly available from the WFA, they have offered to send out a request for assistance to WFA members as part of this newsletter in the hopes that some members have the interest and wherewithal to help support these necessary repairs.

Grave Sites Can Be Adopted

There are approximately 170 marked graves in the Cemetery. The cost of the repairs to the additional 3 walls will be approximately $20,000, about $120 per grave site.

If anyone would be interested in adopting a grave, or more than one, or otherwise assisting with the cost of these repairs, please contact me at buzzer1007@yahoo.com for additional information. I can also be reached by phone at 207-215-6450. If you would like additional information on the Cemetery itself and its history, it can be found on the internet under either the Wing Cemetery or the Wing Ring Cemetery.

Thank you for your consideration. Any assistance that you could provide to preserve this historical Wing Family site will be greatly appreciated.