52 GRAVESTONES IN 52 WEEKS 1: URIAH BARTLETT OF KINGSTON, MA.

The Old Burial Ground is located in Kingston, Ma., the town just north of Plymouth. It's located
behind the First Congregationalist Church on Route 106 and has some very interesting headstones.
Some of them have quite a bit of information about the people buried there. Here's one for a gentleman named Uriah Bartlett:    

The stone reads:
            In Memory of
       URIAH BARTLETT  
       Born July 23, 1789,
       Died August 2, 1883,
          in his 95th year.
  He served in the War of 1812
and was a representative in the
General Court in 1813 and 1815.

   As a boy he had talked with the
venerable Ebenezer Cobb of this
town who was born in 1694 and
died in 1801, and who in his own
boyhood had known Peregrine White
who was born on the MAYFLOWER
in 1620 and died in 1704.
                 ________
    "Thou shall go to thy fathers in
peace, thou shall be buried in a
grand old age."           Genesis XV., 15.

It's amazing to think that a man who died in 1883 had spoken with a man who had known
Mayflower baby Peregrine White!
 

NEW YEAR, NEW LEAF

It's 2016 and like every New Year of the past few years I've made a resolution to write more
posts for this blog. If you look at the total posts for each year over on the right hand side of
the screen its obvious I haven't kept that resolution. To be honest this blog has always taken a
backseat  to my genealogy blog, and that won't change this year. But I'm adopting a new strategy
to help me do better here.

Two years ago Amy Johnson Crow of the No Story Too Small geneablog started  the 52 Ancestors
in 52 Weeks Challenge and it has been a big help in keeping me writing and researching. So I thought the same method might help me here, a sort of "52 Gravestones in 52 Weeks".

I live in Southeastern Massachusetts in Plymouth County, and the cemeteries here have gravestones
that tell interesting stories of Pilgrims, Revolutionary War and Civil War veterans, and sea captains who died far from home. I should have plenty of material for those 52 weeks.

Now all I have to do is write those 52 (or more) posts.   

UNION CEMETERY, CARVER MA., 28APR 2012 PT2

As I said, there's a lot of my Barrows, Ellis, and Griffith relatives buried at the
Union Cemetery in Carver, Ma. I'm not familiar with many of the names since
I haven't done a lot of work on the collateral lines yet. Many of them are buried
at the far right end of this lane, which also includes monuments to members of
the Savery family who were prominent in the town's early history.

As you reach the end of the lane there are several Ellis and Griffith family plots
with wrought iron fences around them. There's a curious little cupola with a tile
floor between the plot of my 6x great grandfather Ephraim Griffith/Griffeth and
that of his son Obed's family.

Beyond then are a few larger family vaults and a monument.:

 

This last vine covered vault is of Matthias Ellis and his wife, Sarah Seymour
Forsyth.Sarah died at Stuttgart, Germany in 1876 and Matthias died three years
later back in Carver, There's a story there that I definitely have to look into.

 

UNION CEMETERY, CARVER MA., 28APR 2012 PT1

During my trips last year to area cemeteries here in southeastern Massachusetts,
I came to the conclusion that  9 out of 10 times where there is a white wooden
church, there is a cemetery somewhere close by. In many cases the cemetery is
located on the church grounds or next to them, as in the Union Cemetery in South
Carver, Ma.

The Union Church dates from 1855, but the cemetery is nearly 100 years older, 
and as it turns out it has significance in my family history:

"Union Cemetery.

The land for Union Cemetery was given from the Barrows estate. The oldest
inscriptions are for the year 1777 in memory of Nathan who died Oct. 22nd
and Bethuel who died Nov. 2nd of that year, both sons of Jonathan and Lydia
Barrows. The west addition was made through a gift from Maj. Thomas B. Griffith,
and the ground was cared for during the last half of the last century by William
Savery in an individual capacity. In 1906 the cemetery was incorporated as "The
Union Cemetery of South Carver" with the following incorporators: Alfred M.
Shaw, S. Dexter Atwood, Henry S. Griffith, Josiah W. Atwood, N. G. Swift, John
Bent, Gustavus Atwood, Marcus Atwood, John F. Shaw and Mrs. Eldoretta McFarlin.
-History of the town of Carver, Massachusetts: historical review, 1637-1910  By
Henry S. Griffith, (E. Anthony & Sons , New Bedford, Ma, 1918)p249

The Union cemetery is fortunate in the possession of the Jesse Murdock and 
Fanny Murdock endowments for general repairs, which with the many 
endowments for private lots insures the perpetual care and improvement of 
the ground and with the many costly monuments this cemetery has earned 
the name of:  "The Mount Auburn of Plymouth County."- P247 "

I didn't know when I visited Union Cemetery that it was on land once owned by
some of my Barrows and Griffith relatives. I did know that my 6x great grandfather
Ephraim Griffith was buried there. and while "The Mount Auburn of Plymouth
County" might be a bit of civic puffery, Union Cemetery is beautiful.      

To be continued.

CENTRAL CEMETERY, CARVER MA, 26APR 2012

After leaving Lakenham Cemetery I continued further down Rte 58 to another
location in Carver, Ma. The Central Cemetery is situated behind the United
Church of  Carver, and there are more of my Barrows and Ellis cousins laid
to rest here.

This is the headstone of Lothrop Barrows,  my 2nd cousin 5x removed. It's right
 at the entrance to the cemetery, on the right hand side as you enter through the
gate by the Church. I didn't realize it at the time but there's something wrong with
this picture that I took. Lothrop Barrows was a Captain in the Massachusetts
State Militia and he died on 6ul 1857. The medallion on the flag holder is one for
a member of the Grand army of the Republic, the Civil War Union Army veterans'
organization. My guess is it was uprooted from it's proper location either by the
wind or human hands and was put here by mistake by someone trying to show respect.

LAKENHAM CEMETERY, CARVER MA., 26APR 2012

Lakenham Cemetery in Carver, Ma. sits a little bit further south on Rte 58
from Plympton, I haven't found a date for when it was established but many
of the  headstones date from the early 18th century. It sits on a hill on a
sidestreet overlooking Rte. 58 with a view of the cranberry bog on the other
side of  the highway. There are more of my distant Barrows, Dunham and
Ellis cousins buried  there but again the headstones, many of which are the
work of George  Soule and his family,  are weathered and difficult to decipher.
I was however, able to find the gravestones of my 6x great grandparents
George Barrows and Patience Simmons, and of George's second wife, Hannah
Ransom.

A monument to some Dunham cousins at the cemetery entrance.

Gravestone of Patience Simmons Barrows.1672-1723

Hannah Ransom Barrows 1671-1758

George Barrows.1670-1758

The view down to Rte.58 and a cranberry bog beyond.

THE CEMETERY AT THE GREEN, MIDDLEBOROUGH MA, 25APR 2012

After my visits to the Hillcrest and Congregational Cemeteries on Rte 58 in
Plympton, I drove over to Middleborough to the Cemetery on The Green. It's
located on Rte 105 across the street from the First Congregational Church
and has also been known as the Parish Burial Grounds. The first burial
there was in 1717 and as at Hillcrest, there are cousins from my Barrows,
Benson, and Ellis lines buried there.

The view across Rte 105 towards the First Congregational Church

Some of my Barrows cousins.

And some Ellis cousins

As in most cemeteries the older graves are at the front and the newer ones at the
rear. But this new monument seems out of place, almost like the black monolith
at the start of the 2001:A Space Odyssey movie:

My favorite modern gravestone

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH CEMETERY, PLYMPTON MA., 25APR 2012

Across the street from Hillcrest Cemetery in Plympton is the First Congregational
Church. Behind the Church is a cemetery that was established in 1834. It's quite
a bit smaller and shadier than Hillcrest and there are a few Ellis cousins buried
there.

HILLCREST CEMETERY, PLYMPTON, MA.: "THE HARBOURS OF GOD"

One of the things my visits to the cemeteries and graveyards of Plymouth
County over last summer brought home to me was the importance of the
sea in 18th and 19th century New England. Most people think of Boston,
Salem and other towns in the northeastern part of Massachusetts when
they think of the era of the "Yankee Clippers". But some of the earliest
ships were built along the North Riverand they were owned and manned
by crews from the surrounding towns.

I found an example of one Plympton family's coonection to the sea when
I visited Hillcrest Cemetery last April. There's a large square monument
at the front of the cemetery close to the roadside which memorializes
the family of William Marshall Bisbee and his wife Catherine Warren
Harrub. Bisbee men sailed and died upon the sea in the 19th century
and one had an illustrious career with a foreign government.

The front, facing west, simply gives the family name:

On the North Side (on the left had side as you stand in front), the
inscriptions read:
Capt. William Marshall
Died January 1859 in his 54th year
in command of the ship Eceria, bound to China
And was buried off the N.W. Coast of Australia.

Catherine Warren Harrub, his wife
died August 1887 in her 80th year.

Their children
William Wallace, died Sept. 1834  in his 2nd year.
Rachel Magoun, died Feb.1846 in her first year.

Then on the South Side (right hand side):
Felicia Hemans, died March 1847 in her 3rd year.

William Wallace, Lost overboard from the ship Esther May
of which he was Second Mate off the Cape of Good Hope,
homeward bound from Manilla , December 1859 in his 21st year.

Capt. Aelius Marcellus, died in Shanghai, China, Sept 7, 1901
                              in his 60th year.
Late Harbour Master and Coast Inspector at Shanghai;
He served in the Imperial Maratime Customs Service
                          For over 30 years.

Finally on the East Side (the back of the monument):
Eva Bisbee born April 16, 1851 Died March 13, 1938
Ida M. Riehl(Eva's  Bosom Friend)
But whether they die on the seas or shore
Or lie under the water, or sand, or sod,
Christ give them the rest he keeps in store
and anchor their souls in the Harbours of God

The story of this family caught my imagination. I was especially
struck by Catherine enduring the deaths of  her husband and four of her six
children. Her husband and one son died on opposite sides of the world, and
she probably never saw her only surviving son again after he went to sea.

And how did Aelius Marcellus Bisbee from Plympton, Massachusetts in the
United States become the Harbour Master in Shanghai, China?