LIVERMORE FALLS — Don Simoneau had a goal of refurbishing a Grand Army of the Republic cannon to look as it did decades ago.

He didn’t know how to get it done, but he knew the cannon at the Old Pleasant Hill Cemetery needed to be cleaned and painted.

“It was not one of those things for me to take home,” he said. “I had permission from the Cemetery Association to do it.”

Simoneau of Fayette, a past commander of the American Legion Post 10 in Livermore Falls, has worked to improve cemeteries in the area for more than 20 years.

The cannon was donated on May 30, 1932, by Edwin Riley to the the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Association of Livermore Falls. Riley was the past department commander of the Maine GAR and was also influential in the towns’ history and paper industry.

The Grand Army of the Republic was founded in 1866 for veterans who fought for the Union in the Civil War.

The base of the cannon was made by Record Foundry, a company that existed in Livermore Falls years ago.

There are many Grand Army of the Republic veterans buried in this cemetery, Simoneau said.

The cannon had rusted.

“It was nasty,” he said. “It was awful.”

Then, out of the blue, he said, he was contacted several weeks ago by a contractor working at Verso Paper in Jay who was looking for a community service project in the area for a crew from American Industrial Construction of Gray to work on.

Simoneau had found his answer.

The American Industrial Construction crew wire brushed the cannon and cleaned it up.

“It is nice,” he said.

They also plan to come back and straighten the wrought-iron gate and set a headstone that has fallen over, he said.

dperry@sunjournal.com