Connie Zea, 96, and her granddaughter Emily Zea, left, attend Wednesday's ceremony in front of the town offices honoring longtime Plainfield town clerk and historian Howard Zea, who died at age 95 in 2012. The centerpiece of the garden dedicated to Zea includes an old millstone with a story of its own and a plaque noting that Zea served as town clerk for 58 years. (Photograph courtesy of Stephen Halleran)
Connie Zea, 96, and her granddaughter Emily Zea, left, attend Wednesday's ceremony in front of the town offices honoring longtime Plainfield town clerk and historian Howard Zea, who died at age 95 in 2012. The centerpiece of the garden dedicated to Zea includes an old millstone with a story of its own and a plaque noting that Zea served as town clerk for 58 years. (Photograph courtesy of Stephen Halleran) Credit: Photograph courtesy of Stephen Halleran

Meriden — Town officials and relatives of the late Howard Zea honored the longtime Plainfield town clerk and historian last week by dedicating a garden in front of the town offices in his memory.

The centerpiece of the garden includes an old millstone with a story of its own and a plaque noting that Zea served as town clerk for 58 years.

“Scholar and curator of the town’s history. Master storyteller and treasured citizen,” the plaque reads, in part.

Zea’s tenure as town clerk was a New Hampshire record, but when he retired in 2001 in his mid-80s, he didn’t want a party or other fuss made.

“He just felt it was hard enough to leave something that he loved that much, so we didn’t do anything” at the time, said Plainfield Town Administrator Steve Halleran.

A few years after Zea died, in 2012, at age 95, the town’s road agent, using an excavator, was able to pull the millstone, which weighs at least a ton, out of Blood’s Brook, where it had been lodged for decades ever since the dam to the old mill pond broke.

A companion millstone, rescued years ago from a more accessible part of the brook, had been a lawn ornament at Zea’s home on Colby Hill Road, next to the mill site, for decades.

In fact, the Zea home had served as the town clerk’s office until 1973, and his millstone not only adorned a flower garden, but also served as a protective barrier after a resident got stuck on his lawn in April.

Town officials decided to use the newly rescued millstone as the centerpiece to honor Zea with a garden outside the town office in Meriden.

“It seemed like a natural,” Halleran said. “You can’t have someone who was the longest-serving town clerk in the state … and not acknowledge that in some way.”

Plainfield Selectboard Chairman Rob Taylor said Zea not only was the face of town government for decades, but that his tenure also kept key paperwork intact, whereas in other towns it might have been lost as town clerks were replaced but the papers didn’t move to a new home office.

“Plainfield has a treasure trove of records. It’s largely the workings of Howard Zea to thank for,” Taylor said. “He’s the guy that truly did a phenomenal job.”

Attendees as the ceremony on Wednesday included Zea’s 96-year-old widow, Connie, his son, Phil, and other family members. Phil Zea, the president of Historic Deerfield in Massachusetts, said his father would have appreciated the fact that the memorial, with the second millstone, tied together elements of the town’s technological and agricultural history while also reflecting the role of the other millstone at the family home, which has since been sold. That millstone is now at a neighbor’s home across the street.

“It’s all about connectivity and sense of place,” he said, “so I think Dad would have liked that.”

Valley News staff writer John P. Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com.