MECHANICVILLE — The layout and conditions of Hudson View Cemetery are so old and fragile that Jim Doty has to dig each grave by hand.

For 30 years, Doty has hacked at the rocky earth overlooking the Hudson River with a shovel, often carving out grave sites for familiar names.

It's hard work, but Doty takes pride in it. So it's easy to imagine him getting worked up over the thought of a group of teenagers using the cemetery as a stage for beer-fueled parties.

On Wednesday, back near where the cemetery dumps its trash, Doty found a set of patio furniture, some couches and a grill arranged in a circle.

"The kids were all set to throw a big one," Doty said. "So I pushed it all into the trash."

When he came to work Friday, more than 100 gravestones were kicked over and cracked.

Most of the vandalism occurred on the oldest section of the 30-acre lot, an aging row of several hundred small graves marked by a green sign as simply "Old Sect."

Most of the graves damaged were set in the 19th century. Many are family plots. Some of the stones are so faded that they've been rendered illegible.

"There's no one left around for any of these people to defend themselves," Doty said.

Both Doty and Mechanicville Police Chief Joseph Waldron believe the vandalism was retaliation by the teens who had their party gear tossed in the trash.

Police don't have any suspects yet, but Waldron thinks it's only a matter of time before they're caught.

"We don't think it will take long," Waldron said Monday afternoon as he stood near the desecrated graves. "This is a small community. Everyone knows everyone. We don't think this was done by one person, and when people see this they're going to be very upset about it."

Waldron takes the damage personally — he's a board member of the Mechanicville Cemetery Association. The group has funds allotted to help set as many stones back in place as possible, but the work will take time.

For now, the damaged stones, most of them crafted from dense white marble, will rest on the matted grass. Some have been turned. Others were cracked and lie fractured beyond repair. One cylindrical headstone reading "Kathryn" was knocked off its base and rolled more than 50 feet away from its plot, resting by itself in an open field where kids play baseball in the summer.

"It's like vandalizing a church," Waldron said. "You just don't do it."

Like many others who live in the city, Waldron has family and friends buried at Hudson View. Many of the city's most influential and important figures are buried there.

"You can walk down here and see the names of a lot of our streets on these headstones," Waldron said.

The cemetery is home to the historic grave site of Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth, a Mechanicville native who was one of the first casualties of the Civil War. Surrounded by a short, spiked fence, Ellsworth's 25-foot-tall monument was unscathed, but the bulk of Friday's vandalism occurred in the graves nearby.

In 1997, the 100-pound stone eagle perched atop Ellsworth's grave was stolen. It was recovered after it was found for sale on eBay.

"That was a professional job," said Bob Chase, the secretary and treasurer for the cemetery board. "This was a bunch of kids acting without thinking, or caring, about who they were hurting."

Chase, Waldron and Doty all estimate that the damage done Friday easily totals to more than $100,000. Some of the stones kicked over would cost $50,000 if forged today, Chase said.

Anyone arrested for the vandalism would, at the very least, be charged with criminal mischief, Waldron said.

"The reason you don't see stones like this anymore is that people can't afford to build them," Waldron said. "Back then, they built these things to last."

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