LYNN – Fifty Civil War veterans, 12 American Revolutionary War veterans and three veterans from the War of 1812 are buried in the Eastern Burial Grounds but between the neglect and overgrowth the headstones are hard and in some cases impossible to find.”What really bothers me is the person who comes from California or New York to research their family and they find this,” said Community Development Director James Marsh pointing to a bank of photos that show headstones, many broken, others trapped in stands of trees.Another photo shows a headstone that is merely leaning up against a tree.”Where does that one even go?” he wondered.Marsh is trying to find a federal grant to help restore the historic cemetery after striking out on the local level. He initially sought funding through the Department of Environmental Protection’s Natural Resources Damages Assessment and Restoration Program but the cemetery failed to qualify. He said he thinks the program was geared more toward parks.Friday the gates to the Union Street cemetery, which are typically locked, were wide open.DPW Assistant Superintendent Jeff Stowell, who has been with the department a little over two years, said he has had crews working on the overgrowth for a few weeks. It’s not an easy job, he said, admitting that the cemetery has suffered nearly 20 years of neglect.Inside the bowl shaped lot are the ancestors of some of the city’s oldest families including Jesse Hutchinson, who designed High Rock Tower and the Stone Cottage. His large grave marker, which at one time faced the stone tower, now lays in two pieces. Other headstones have sunken so far into the earth only the top few inches can be seen and still a few others sport graffiti. Empty bottles and trash mix with the dead leaves piled up among the trees and along the fence that encircles the grounds.”We’ve probably pulled 25 truckloads of brush out,” Stowell said. “I had a backhoe up there digging out stumps.”Stowell said it’s tricky getting to some of the stumps because the are dangerously close to the graves. He said it will likely be a summer long project to get the place back in shape in terms of the land. As for the graves Marsh is crossing his fingers in regards to funding.His ultimate goal is to find funding to repair and rest the headstones, add a new wrought iron fence around the lot and landscape.”It’s just a shame,” he said. “It’s money. It always comes down to money and we’re trying to find it.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].