Marblehead Selectmen hold first interview for cemetery oversight committee

MARBLEHEAD-Selectmen have conducted their first interview for the five-member Old Burial Hill Oversight Committee.The committee will include one member of the Cemetery Commission and four at-large members, and will study needs and authorize repairs to the gravesites at Old Burial Hill, the 1638 cemetery where weather and vandalism have taken a toll over the years.There are seven applicants and selectmen plan to interview six of them Wednesday.However, E. Russell “Zeke” Peach was interviewed Tuesday afternoon because he won?t be available when the other candidates are interviewed Wednesday.The Atlantic Avenue resident reminded the board that his sister, Rosamund Stewart (Peach) Merrill, was buried at Old Burial Hill Saturday, and that was the first burial at the site since Daniel Peach was buried there 15 years ago.A number of Peach family members have been buried at Old Burial Hill since the cemetery began 371 years ago. There was a Peach on Marblehead?s first Board of Selectmen in 1648, John Peach Sr., and John Peach Jr. served on the board elected in 1656 n and while the Dolibers claim to be the first family to settle in town, Zeke Peach has an answer for that.?That first Doliber was married to a Peach,” he told selectmen.On a more serious note, Peach said he has visited Old Burial Hill and has seen his family?s gravestones “sinking down and leaning forward.”He said he offered to repair the stones at his expense but the Cemetery Commission discouraged him from doing that.He called the oversight committee a good idea. “I?d like very much to be part of that,” he said.