Category Archives: Burying Grounds

Today I had my first unexpected brush with post-mortem fame since Lisa, Sarah Danberg, and I found Medgar Evers grave in Arlington Cemetery back in 1999. There at the back of the small unnamed cemetery on Stony Brook Road in Great Barrington lies the grave for André F. Cournand, marked with a fine white stone, delicate script and a bas relief Nobel medal. Yes, I had discovered the final resting place of the winner of the 1956 Nobel Prize for Medicine. How unusual!

I love these little New England cemeteries. This one had a load of Comstocks and Harrises, too. I wonder if any of these folk are related to my Harris relatives in Iowa.

Lexi Rudnitsky (1972-2005)
Yet I love you more, having not loved you longer

• Ebenezer Townsend (♂ – †1862)
• Electa Townsend (♀ – †1864)
• Wealthey Townsend (♀ – †1859)
• Michael Ugo Stille (né Mikhail Kamenetzki, 1919-1995)
• Cornelius H. DeJong (♀ 1908-1995)
• Erika Kloz Olivier (†1970) & Anton Olivier (†1977)
• Harmony A. Bills (♀ – †1912)
• Lancaster Comstock (♂ – †1842)
• Abel Benedict (♂ – †1819)
• Prudence Ray (♀ – †1817)
• Maj. Artemas Ray (♂ – †1829)
• Selona Turner (♀ – †1818)
• Mix Turner (♂ – †1879)
• Zebulon Chapman (♂ – †1804)
• Phineas Atwood (♂ – †July 19, 1836 Æ 33)
• Phineas Atwood (♂ – †August 13, 1836 Æ 70)
• Erastus Martin (†1838) son of Uli and Silance Martin
• Permelia Harris (♀ – †1835)

I went back to Holliston again, lured by the name on the map: “Indian Cemetery.” No Native Americans or Indians from the 19th century as far as I can tell. I can’t say for certain, but I think this cemetery and the nearby “Indian Ridge” follow the New England / suburban pattern of naming things after what the newcomers recently displaced.

For those of you who have never seen a New England cemetery, the dominant fact is stone. The Massachusetts soil is thin; some say the easiest thing to grow on a Bay State farm are rocks. These rocks make good walls if not good neighbors. They also denote sacred ground here, much as they have for millennia. (The Greeks used rock to outline temple boundaries.)

The rock here is hard, and the words on headstones are chiseled in fine script that somehow is still legible after two centuries. This burying ground also had small, squat, inscrutable stones — barely recognizable as important objects — that mark people forever unknown to us. This part of Holliston’s hinterland was clearly a poor part of town, and many people are remembered by initials only.

Here are some of the more interesting names and stones:

Mr. William Gallot
died Nov. 9, 1838, Æt 44

The Lord has call’d our frind [sic] away,
Relentless death hath stain.
We trust our loss has prov’d to be
His everlasting gain.

Beloved Auntie Doe
Doris B. Gallot, 1912-1992

Here lies the dust of an infant. Daughter of Samuel and Polly Nichols.
She died Dec. 24, 1805

• Achsah Whittemore (♂ – †1867)
• Ellen Faustina (♀ – †Sep. 3, 1844 Æt 1 year, 3 mos. & 16 days)
• Clementine F. – Wife of John Whitaker †May 12, 1851 Æ 32
• Patience Lamb (♀ – †1841 Æ 58)
• Samuel Nichols (♂ – †1808 XXXVIII)
• Sarah Rider (♀ – †Dec. 8, 1832 Æ 1 day)
• Nancy Rider (♀ – †Dec. 8, 1832 Æ 1 day)
• Kezia Bullard (♀ – †1821 Æ 49)
• Eliazer Bullard (♂ – †1824 Æ 60)
• Haziah Bullard (♀ – †1831 Æ 61)
• Algernon Heine (♂ 1926-1994)
• Jesse Haven (†1813 Æ 68), Betsey Haven (†1821 Æ 42), Mr. B. Haven, Mrs. C. Haven, Dea. J. Haven
• Miss Nabbe Cozzens (†1806 Æ 19)
• Mr. Hopestil Eames (†1821 Æ 77)

Cemeteries not only show who lived and died in a place at a given time. They also show what those people thought about their futures. The Green Hollow Cemetery in very rural Oakham has forty-two graves, although there is space for at least five times as many, easily. But times change, as has where we live and bury our dead.

I won’t list all of the names, mostly Crawfords by birth or marriage. Also Goodales, Fullers, Hubbards, and Fobeses. As I walked around the cemetery, roosters a couple houses over called, and children played in an adjacent yard while their father raked crunching leaves.

• Lucena Crawford (♂ – 1828-1904)
• Hubert A. Fuller (♂ – 1865-1868)
• Lavandar S. Clifford, Apprentice Seaman (†1920)

Update — 30 October 2009: Many thanks to Edie (Crawford) Mathis for correcting my misspelling — it’s “Fobes” not “Forbes” — and for telling me about “a fundraising effort under the auspices of the Oakham Historical Association for the restoration of the Green Hollow arch and improvements to other parts of the cemetery property.” Clearly, there’s some life still surrounding the Green Hollow Cemetery.

The center of Holden, Mass., contains several choice cemeteries. The small Center Cemetery contains the graves of many widows and officers who served in the “War of 1776.” It’s here that I saw the first revolutionary name: Washington. The gravestones here are in pretty good shape and have some of the best engravings I’ve yet seen. (I really should bring the wee digital camera on these excursions.)

One of the headstones referenced the town of “Midway,” which I had never heard of. It’s possible that they meant Medway — in rural areas misspellings were uncommon but not rare — but over 27 miles separate Holden and Medway as the crow flies. Neither Google nor the Commonwealth’s Secretary of State helped me here. If you know this place, let me know. [1]

Mrs. Betsey Hubbard (♀ – †1822 Æ 32)

As you are now so once was I,
   Rejoicing in my bloom;
As I am now you soon must be
   Dissolving in your tomb.

In Memory of John & James, sons of William & Lucretia Dodd
who died Sept. 18, 1813, both buried in one coffin.
John Æ 2 years & 7 mos, James Æ 9 mos.

Mary, daughter of Samuel & Keziah Damman, Died Aug. 26, 1813, Æ 7 months
“The hand of death, this bud hath nipt, we hope to see it bloom in heaven.

The Dammans had three children who died within 14 months.

Rev. Jos. Davis †1799
“He was the man of Science and a zealous, pungent Preacher.”

• Olid Combs (♂ – †1813 Æ 14)
• Widow Persis Mirick (♀ – †1810 Æ 70)
• Boaz Mirick (♂ – †1809 Æ 27)
• Col. William Dodd (♂ – †1818 Æ 36)
• Elmira Nye (♀ – †1825 Æ 20)
• Amazonia Hubbard (♀ – †1810 Æ 7)
• Angelinia Hubbard (♀ – †1808 Æ 2)
• Roxy Flagg (♀ – †1822 Æ 21)
• Jannat Thompson (♂ – †1744 Æ 77)
• Mr. Salmon Patridge (♂ – †1827 Æ 35)
• Nahum Fisk (♂ – †1803 Æ 41)
• Elnathan Davis (♂ – †1804 Æ 43)
• Jerusha Chaffin (†1821 Æ 42)
• Mrs. Abigail Howard, “Relict of Mr. Benja.n Howard” (†1802 Æ 87)
• Liesy Estabrook (♀ – †1778 Æ 17 mos.)
• Alpheus Heywood (♂ – †1801 Æ 37)

Update – 5 August 2007: [1] – Yesterday, one of Lisa’s cohort in her choir said that Medway was in fact “Midway” because of its relationship to Medfield and some other town that I didn’t overhear. The mystery is solved yet strangely continues.

Not far down the road in the center of Holliston is the Central Burying Ground. I’ve driven by it dozens, perhaps hundreds of times, and today I finally stopped. It’s one of the oldest that I’ve visited in the Commonwealth outside Boston. Many of the headstones have weathered to obscurity, others are more than 250 years old but still clearly visible. (Black stones from the 18th century have weathered better than lighter colored granite from the early 1800s.)

As I looked at the names and their placement in the cemetery, I saw a small but proud town. A town that had sent its men to fight in the Seven Years War and the American Revolution. A town that lost an eighth of its population in 1754 to illness and named new children after those who died young for generations after. A small town which intermarried repeatedly and where several surnames span the burying ground’s history while other families appeared once and then no more. I also found Wheatons — Josephus and Mary Ide Wheaton — perhaps the progenitors of my wife’s family? (There are more in Rehobeth, Father-in-Law.)

There was clearly money here, with large stones praising wives as “reflief,” “comfort,” and “consort.” Widowers took new wives, who often shared the same headstone and sometimes even the same name. But there was also poverty. Some stones, no larger than loaves of bread, mark paupers or infant children: R.A.D., E.D., A.N.E. And death came quickly to some, as marked by the eight-or-so identical stones placed close together which marked the Batchelder family: John (88), Emeline (74), Matilda (24), Charles (19), Maria (15), Almira [Pond] (21), Maria (17), George (13 mos), George (11 mos), and Emily (77).

The churchmen wrote long epitaphs praising themselves, but did their flock feel the same? On a few stones, a finger pointed toward heaven, informing the observer where to seek the deceased.

Be wise to day tis madness to defer!
Erected to the memory of Mrs. Jemima Bullard
(consort of Mr. Eleazer Bullard)
who departed this life April ye 2d 1791
in the 20th year of her age.

Here Lies Buried ye Body of Mrs. Abigail Lealand ye wife of . . .

Sacred to the memory of Mrs. Anna Claƒlin
the desirable comfort of Mr. William Claƒlin.
She departed this life October 18th 1794
in the 20th year of her age.

Our Marion sleeps.

Mehetabel [Wood] Morse
Born July 22, 1655 – Died November 12, 1681
The first white child born in Sherborn

• Loring Colman (♂ – †1854)
• Nabby Morse (♀ – †1773)
• Nabby Bridge (♀ – †1858)
• Calista Adams (♀ – †1804)
• Persis Johnson (♀ – †1864 Æ 91)
• Hiram Johnson (♂ – †1820 Æ 18 mos – Son of Hiram and Rubie)
• Seneca Wenzell (♂ – †1854)
• Lieut. Asaph Lealand (♂ – †1812 Æ 82)
• Allethina Parkman (♀ – †1792 Ætatis 29)
• Jerusha Newton (♀ – †1835 Æ 94)
• Keziah Stedman (♀ – †1825 Æ 44)
• Ichabod Hawes (♂ – †1836 Æ 52)
• Esek Marsh (†1835 Æ 91)
• Sukey Rockwood (†1829 Æ 23)
• Thankful Lealand (†1774)
• Zenolia Burlingame Daley (1851-1902)
• Elvira H. Pond (♀ – †1846 Æ 43)
• Elmira Slocomb (♀ – †1836 Æ 37)
• Little Johnie Hawks (1856-1862)
• Zeruriah Phipps (†1795 Æ 3 yrs)
• Eliphalet Holbrook (♂ – 1782-1856)
• Antipas Stewart, A.M. (♂)
• Alathina Leland (†1856 Æ 26)
• Huldah Batchelder (♀ – †1846 Æ 69)
• Oldin Batchelder (♂ – †1860 Æ 85)
• Meletiah Whiting (♀ – †1859 Æ 78)

I seem to have gathered a small library of atlases for the Commonwealth project — five atlases that show all of the streets in Massachusetts circa 2004, plus some that aren’t passable anymore, and a larger scale topographic atlas. My street atlas of western Mass showed seven cemeteries on the main road through town. I could only find two, but then again there are only five or six roads in town; Hancock is very small. The one cemetery in New Ashford, though very easy to find, was quite overgrown.

The three cemeteries I did visit had a few spectacular names:

• Patience Rogers (♀ — wife of Rev. Rogers — died 1791)
• Habkley Boon (♂ †1854?)
• Ruhamah Boon (♀ †1861)
• Hon. Rodman Hazard, esq. (♂ †1843)
• Phinehas Palmer (♂ †1855)
• Harty Phillips (♀ †1852)
• Loesa Laphan (♀ †1917)
• Emeline Whitmarsh (♀ 1821-1876)
• Reuben Ely (♂ †1799 Æ 90)
• Minerva Smith (♀ †1842)
• Heman Ely (♂ †1804 Æ 28)
• Isabel Sweet (♀)
• Perly Ingraham (♀ †1810)
• Prudence Parington (♀ †1826 &AElig 17)
• Mercy Jordan (♀ †1841)
• Elmer Knox (♂ †1805)
• Wanton H. Pettit (♂ 1833-1917)

The thought of the grave & of death
Had no fearful effect on his mind.
But calmly he yielded his breath
His Spirit to God he resigned.

Happy soul thy days are ended.
All thy mourning days below
Go by Angel guards attended
To the Arms of Jesus Go.

Memento Mori. Deposited here is the infant remains of Mary Vesta aged 6 years and eleven months.