A town meeting is being held in Ridgefield tonight about the town taking ownership of Ridgebury Cemetery.  A more than 300-thousand dollar endowment for upkeep of the 3-acre site would also be turned over to the town if approved.  Some of the graves are pre-American Revolution.  There are still open plots in the cemetery.  Tonight's meeting is at 7:30pm.

There are 52 veterans of various wars buried in the cemetery including 16 from the Revolutionary War.  The soldiers served in King George's War (1744-48) throughthe Korean War.

The oldest deed on file is dated from February 1870. 

The cemetery is the final resting place of many Keelers, who were among the early settlers of Ridgefield.  The first burial, based on an inventory of gravestones in 1960, was that of Ruth Smith Keeler in 1734.  An inventory in 1993 however could find none older than that of a Timothy Benedict in 1757.  Ruth Smith Keeler was the second wife of Jonah Keeler, who built the famous "Pink House" in Ridgebury in 1717.  The house was continuously occupied by Keelers until the death of Nehemiah Keeler in 2005.  The house was torn down in 2009 by the neighbor who purchased the property.