"Macedon, N.Y. — First Baptist Church of Macedon celebrated its 225th anniversary Sunday with a homecoming service and a dedication at the site of the original church’s location near the corner of Quaker and Walworth roads.

As part of the celebration, a mother-daughter team honored the lives of people whose headstones in the church's cemetery have been lost or damaged.

For Deanne and Erika Newcombe of Macedon, it’s a project years in the making.

“This project originally started in 2021. I came here with my mother, Deanne, and she and I saw the condition of the headstones while the lawns were very well kept,” said Erika Newcombe. “The headstones have been stacked in the pile right over here, and the pile went up to my hip, so it was a very large pile of just fallen headstones.”" [More information in Newsclip and written in article]

July 13th 2025 

"Erika Newcombe, a local college student and 2023 Palmyra-Macedon graduate, shared the work she has been doing at the Old Baptist Cemetery on Walworth Road. What began as a Girl Scout Gold project has transformed into a passion that she and her mother work on together. Newcombe is working hard to locate, identify and restore some of the headstones in this pioneer cemetery. One of her most exciting finds was of Hannah Harwood, wife of Webb Harwood, among Macedon’s first settlers. She also located the gravestone of Betsey Brister, the wife of Aaron Brister, a former slave and entrepreneur in Palmyra."

 [More information written in article]

May 4, 2024

"Erika is working hard to locate, identify and restore some of the headstones in this pioneer cemetery.  One of her most exciting finds was of Hannah Harwood, wife of Webb Harwood a couple of Macedon’s first settlers. She also located the gravestone of Betsey Brister, the wife of Aaron Brister a former slave and entrepreneur in Palmyra. Erika shared the journey with a room full of adult historians and enthusiasts."

 [More information written in article]

Spring Edition, 2024

"Congratulations to Erika Newcombe! 👏💚 Erika has a passion for preserving her community’s history and chose to help restore one of the oldest cemeteries in Macedon, N.Y. The Old Baptist Cemetery, also known as Bryant Cemetery, contains all pre-Civil War burials including veterans from the Revolutionary War, Winston Churchill's great-great-grandparents and a few of the original town and church founders. Throughout the course of her project, Erika learned how to properly clean and repair headstones, tracked down the names of some of the unknown pioneers buried in the cemetery and created a website about it.

One of Erika’s favorite Girl Scout memories is playing gaga ball for the first time with her troop. 🙌"

August 23, 2024

August 1st, 2025