Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide to the Old Burial Grounds Ashby, MA
Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide is a blog hosted by The Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery written and researched by Corinne Elicone and Zoë G. Burnett. Our intention for this blog is to rediscover the out of the way and obscure graveyards that surround us, as well as to uncover new histories among the more well-trod grounds of prominent burial places. With this blog as a guide, visitors can experience cemeteries in a new way. As important landmarks of cultural heritage, our hope is that interest in these quiet places will help to preserve and educate us about our past and, ultimately, everyone’s shared future.
OLD BURIAL GROUNDS | ASHBY, MA (1767)
Just west of Townsend is the picturesque town of Ashby, Massachusetts. Tucked behind the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church on the town Common is the Old Burial Grounds Cemetery. Established with the town’s incorporation in 1767, its oldest death date listed is 1773 and the latest 1907. Peppered with grumpy cherubim tympana, the cemetery also boasts many architecturally impressive urn motifs. Among the former is the sad story of Bethnel Jones, whose graphic epitaph describes his death “Crusht under a SawMill wheel” in 1782. Simpler marble stones are prevalent, including that of centurion Lydia Miles (d. 1845), as are the floreate lunette carvings that more often appear on footstones in the area.
Most notable amongst the graves is that of Prince Estabrook (c. 1740 – 1830), a Black veteran who fought in the Battle of Lexington and Concord, during which he sustained a musket ball injury to his shoulder. Estabrook served many tours during the Revolutionary War with the Lexington militia and the Continental Army. Born a slave, he was granted his freedom yet remained in the paid service of his former slaveholder following the war. In the late eighteenth century the household moved to Ashby, where Estabrook was originally buried outside of the cemetery wall. He was reinterred within the grounds in 1930, an action conflicting with Ashby’s reputation as a “sundown town” up until 1973. With an almost non-existent Black population in 2019, Estabrook’s final resting place in Ashby is all the more significant.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Z.G. Burnett is a writer and editor with a background in early American history and material culture. She has been published by The Attic on Eighth, Ivy-Style, and The Vintage Woman Magazine. Combining her passion for the paranormal and everything pink, Z.G. is currently working on her first personal style guide.
If you are a representative of a cemetery or a cemetery historian and would like to see your cemetery featured in this blog please email Corinne Elicone at celicone@mountauburn.org
Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide to the Shaker Cemetery Harvard, MA
Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide is a blog hosted by The Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery written and researched by Corinne Elicone and Zoë G. Burnett. Our intention for this blog is to rediscover the out of the way and obscure graveyards that surround us, as well as to uncover new histories among the more well-trod grounds of prominent burial places. With this blog as a guide, visitors can experience cemeteries in a new way. As important landmarks of cultural heritage, our hope is that interest in these quiet places will help to preserve and educate us about our past and, ultimately, everyone’s shared future.
THE HARVARD SHAKER “LOLLIPOP” CEMETERY | HARVARD, MA (1791)
The Shakers, as we know them today, were self-described members of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing founded in 1747 in England. The name “Shaker” actually began as a rather derogatory term bestowed upon them from outsiders who were disturbed by their strange “dancing” rituals and referred to them as the “Shaking Quakers”. In the 1840’s the Harvard Shakers created a dancing space at the top of Holy Hill (now a walking trail) and perform their worship, which included dancing, and symbolic bathing and feasting. The Shakers were extremely progressive on matters of gender equality for their time. From the very beginning, women took on spiritual authority alongside men, and were even the founding leaders of the sect such as Mother Ann Lee, who led the first group of Shakers to America during the revolution. In their communities, Shakers practiced celibacy, pacifism, a communal lifestyle, equality of the sexes, and simple living with an emphasis on technological innovation.
Just around the corner from the Harvard Shaker Cemetery you can visit the historic Shaker Village with original structures still standing. Now inhabited by regular homeowners, the historic shaker village was a small farming community organized into four “families”. The Shakers did not recognize biological familial relationships, meaning that when one joined the Shakers one’s mother and father, sisters and brothers would no longer be considered as such. Instead, the community was divided into four families, “North”, “East”, “South”, and “Church” which had their own dormitories, still standing in the Shaker Village. The “Church” family consisted of the Elders and Eldresses, who acted as the leaders of the group.
By the early 20th century, The Harvard Shaker community was dwindling. Previously, 200 strong, the Shaker Village only had a handful of inhabitants left. In 1917, the community decided it was necessary to sell the buildings in the Harvard community and move to a new Shaker community in Mt. Lebanon, New York. One of the Harvard Shaker buildings was sold to Clara Endicott Sears who is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Sears moved to Fruitlands and established a museum there. It is currently the only Shaker building in Harvard that is open to the public.
Upon arriving at The Shaker Cemetery you will notice an extremely uniform and organized system of burial in place. Unlike many of the other burial grounds at the time, the Shakers were meticulous in their planning of the cemetery. Organized into two blocks with a promenade down the middle, the (over 330) burials are organized by row and column and have been scrupulously catalogued by members of Historic Harvard.
The other, most prominent detail you will notice upon arriving at the cemetery is the extremely unique monuments to the dead. These peculiar shapes have lovingly been dubbed “Lollipop” tombstones because of the thin post and rounded top that juts out of the landscape. The “Lollipops” are made of cast iron and were recently restored by the Harvard Historical Commission. Cast iron, as a material, rusts easily and does not generally fare well in New England weather without maintenance.
Curiously, the “Lollipop” tombstones were not the first grave markers erected in the cemetery. When the cemetery was founded in 1791 and up until 1879 there were simple slate or marble tombstones to mark the graves of the Shakers. However in 1879, the Shaker community of Harvard decided to replace these slate markers with the unique cast iron monuments we see today, although some original markers do still stand–some in disrepair.
I was originally drawn to Ms. Crouch because I was enchanted by her first name: Mehitabel, nicknamed “Hette”, which I absolutely adore as a name–but little did I know the great story behind it. Mehitabel Crouch was one of the few children raised in the Shaker community in the early days of it’s migration to the United States. Since the Shakers were celibate they relied solely on newcomers to grow their ranks and thus children and babies were not as common. She along with nine other young children were raised in the “Church” family and were by all accounts dedicated and pious Shakers. However, by the time the children turned 20 only two of the original nine remained Shakers. Mehetibel was the last of the handful that “went away” (a Shaker phrase referring to leaving the faith) to see the world. Spending only one year away from the Shakers in the real world, Mehetibel had certainly had enough. She went back to the Shakers and resumed her old way of life, dying as a Shaker in 1821 at the age of 41.
A big thank you to Margaret Green, Roben Campbell, and Melanie Clifton-Harvey for their time, research, and expertise on all things Harvard Shaker.
If you are a representative of a cemetery or a cemetery historian and would like to see your cemetery featured in this blog please email Corinne Elicone at celicone@mountauburn.org
Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide to Old Burying Ground & Hillside Cemetery Townsend, MA
Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide is a blog hosted by The Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery written and researched by Corinne Elicone and Zoë G. Burnett. Our intention for this blog is to rediscover the out of the way and obscure graveyards that surround us, as well as to uncover new histories among the more well-trod grounds of prominent burial places. With this blog as a guide, visitors can experience cemeteries in a new way. As important landmarks of cultural heritage, our hope is that interest in these quiet places will help to preserve and educate us about our past and, ultimately, everyone’s shared future.
OLD BURYING GROUND & HILLSIDE CEMETERY | TOWNSEND, MA (~1730)
Near and dear to my heart is the Old Burying Ground in my hometown of Townsend, Massachusetts. It’s the first image of a graveyard that comes to mind, and the old section of the nearby Hillside Cemetery isn’t far behind. Townsend, a once industrious little town on the New Hampshire border, is now a picturesque pass-through, unless antiques or farm stands are on your mind.
The Old Burying Ground is situated on Highland Street, across from Old Meetinghouse Hill Road, on the site of which my friend and I used to play as children. Little ghouls that we were, we also frequented the graveyard. It was here that I first became acquainted with the wealth of funerary art hosted by our little town, dating from at least the 1730s to the early nineteenth century. From death’s heads to a full figure angel to architectural and decorative urns, this little graveyard runs the full pictorial gamut of early period marker decoration. Stones by Lowell’s B. Day, L. Parker, and earlier Worcester-style artisans are in abundance. Mostly consisting of local founding family plots, the Old Burying Ground hosts many veterans of the Revolutionary War, and quite a few victims of a smallpox outbreak. Early photos of the Old Burying Ground suggest that graves may have been moved to Hillside Cemetery to increase property on either side, or they may have only moved the stones.
Further down Highland Street toward Townsend Common is the Hillside Cemetery, a sprawling operational burial ground watched over by the Nutting family mausoleum on Fessenden Hill. Perhaps the grandest monument in the cemetery, citizens started buying plots on the right hand side when the Old Burying Ground became too crowded. Standard nineteenth century motifs are the norm, with forgotten family vaults now making mansions for rabbits on either side of the hill.
The most notable interrant is as prominent as he is unexpected; beneath a monolithic cube of granite lies Henry Price (1697 – 1780), who is credited with bringing Freemasonry to America in 1733. Having lived in Townsend from 1766 to his death, Price’s remains were moved from the Old Burying Ground by the Freemasons in 1888. Each May, a delegation makes the pilgrimage to Townsend for Memorial Day. Although, the monument is impressive, one must wonder at the design of his original gravemarker.
If you are a representative of a cemetery or a cemetery historian and would like to see your cemetery featured in this blog please email Corinne Elicone at celicone@mountauburn.org
Introducing “Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide” Blog Series by Corinne Elicone and Zoë G. Burnett
Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide is a blog hosted by The Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery written and researched by Corinne Elicone and Zoë G. Burnett. Inspired by Andrew Kull’s New England Cemeteries; a Collector’s Guide, our intention for this blog is to rediscover the out of the way and obscure graveyards that surround us, as well as to uncover new histories among the more well-trod grounds of prominent burial places. We began during a pandemic, when the need to social distance while experiencing the outdoors was (and still is) crucial. With this blog as a guide, visitors can experience cemeteries in a new way, perhaps learning something new about the roadside bone garden in their hometown or planning a roadtrip to other sites in the area. As important landmarks of cultural heritage, our hope is that interest in these quiet places will help to preserve and educate us about our past and, ultimately, everyone’s shared future.
NEW ENGLAND CEMETERIES – A PRIMER
Mount Auburn, as old and foundational as it appears to us today, was actually formed in contrast to an even older era of burial grounds. Colonial Burial Grounds of the 17th and 18th centuries, similarly to Mount Auburn, had their own style, their own missions, and their own problems. When European settlers first landed in the New World in the early 1600s burial grounds were not sentimental places. In fact, the Pilgrims took little care to even mark the graves of the deceased, and it wasn’t until the 1650s that stone markers for graves would become the norm. Death in the time where Calvinism was the dominant religious belief amongst European settlers was a rather hopeless situation. The fate of your soul in the afterlife had already been pre-determined at birth. There was nothing that you or your family could do to change your fate, including having proper christian burial services and erecting a monument to your memory. It was simply superfluous. But yet, stone monuments did become common sights in New England Burial Grounds from the 1650’s until today.
EVOLUTION OF GRAVESTONE ICONOGRAPHY
In the later half of the 1600’s through the 1700’s Memento Mori would reign supreme in New England burial grounds pocked with slate tombstones. In Boston, The Granary and King’s Chapel burying grounds became gruesome and terrifying sights as they were filled to the brim with more and more dead New Englanders. In the early 1800s, concerned with the growing hazard of fetid “miasmas” wafting through the air from these sites of mass death and suffering, a group of amateur horticulturalists desperately sought a way out of this grim and detached tradition. Their proposed solution would become the meticulously manicured, delicate, and sentimental garden cemetery named Mount Auburn – placed deliberately away from the claustrophobia of industrializing Boston in the natural rolling farmlands of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
To understand Mount Auburn Cemetery is to understand what came before it. To interpret the landscape as a deliberate response to the aching so many felt for collective mourning, remembrance, and preservation of legacy, not only as a rapidly developing new nation, but also as people rapidly developing medical science, and philosophical identities where death and grief did not have to be relegated to pits of mass despair.
We hope throughout this series you learn about the burial grounds that inspired Mount Auburn and even (in some cases) the burial grounds that were inspired by it.
BLOG POSTS
- Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide to the Old Town Cemetery in Mansfield, MA
Possibly the burial ground of Mansfield’s first parish, settled in 1658, many graves in the Old Town Cemetery predate the town’s 1775 incorporation. Continue reading - Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide to Spring Brook Cemetery in Mansfield, Massachusetts
Spring Brook Cemetery, consecrated in 1860, has a clear boundary between the old and the new… Continue reading - Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide to the Old Burying Ground of Groton, MA
Just off the main road going through Groton’s historic town center is the Old Burying Ground, where its citizens were buried since 1678, a period from which wooden markers sadly do not survive. Continue reading - Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide to Life Forest Conservation Cemetery
Something a little different for our readers today: tombstones turn into trees at a conservation cemetery founded in the year 2020 Continue reading - Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide to Walton Cemetery in Pepperell, Massachusetts
The earliest graves show fearsome skulls with eye sockets bored deep, and soon ornate winged skulls give way to infant-like craniums flanked with crossbones and odd, swaddled faces. Continue reading - Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide to Rumney Marsh Burial Ground Revere, MA
Little precious details appear to be the reward of curious cemetery sleuths meandering the grounds at Rumney Marsh: tiny skulls, little imps, mysterious circles, a broken stem of a flower. Continue reading - Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide to the Old Burial Grounds Ashby, MA
Peppered with grumpy cherubim tympana, the cemetery also boasts many architecturally impressive urn motifs. Continue reading - Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide to the Shaker Cemetery Harvard, MA
In 1791 the eccentric Harvard community of Shakers started laying plans for a place to bury their dead. Continue reading - Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide to Old Burying Ground & Hillside Cemetery Townsend, MA
It was here, in Townsend that I first became acquainted with the wealth of funerary art hosted by our little town, dating from at least the 1730s to the early nineteenth century Continue reading - Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide to Burial Hill Plymouth, MA
It’s 1620, and a group of religious English radicals arrive on the shores of the New World in a small, smelly, wooden floating world. Or at least, it’s new to them. Immediately, they will need a place to bury their dead. Continue reading
Check this page every so often for new entries!
A NOTE ON CEMETERY ETIQUETTE
Mount Auburn as the landmark and organization it is, has very clear expectations of the behavior of its visitors. There are no dogs allowed in the cemetery, no bike riding or picnicking, no climbing the trees, no touching the monuments – the list goes on. This is to say that some of the burial grounds we will explore in this series do not have clear guidelines for you and your friends and family to adhere to. However, this does not mean that all activities should be fair game. Burial Grounds, Cemeteries (ancient or new) are places of memory and emotion, unspeakable loss and tragedy and are, on-the-whole, fragile outdoor museums. If you decide to bring your dog to these places, please also think of where the dog will do its business, and whether that will be on someone’s grave – marked or unmarked. If you decide to bring a picnic, please carry in and carry out. If you decide to climb the trees also realize that if a branch breaks, you could not only hurt yourself, but also irrevocably damage a 400 year old stone that remains the only physical manifestation left of a person who lived and died centuries ago. This all being said, some cemeteries and burial grounds do have posted rules and guidelines. Be sure to check on their website or look around for a posted sign when you arrive.
Many of the burial grounds we plan to feature will also be in more remote, rural areas. These sites are no less precious than their more prestigious peers, and should be treated just as delicately if not more so. You might be the first person in months to visit, and often that shows. Vandalism and litter are sad but common sights, dilapidated stones even more so. If the gates of a graveyard are locked, then visiting hours are indeed over. Fence-hopping is not only dangerous for you and the stones, but is also likely to get you in trouble for trespassing if spotted. Many cemeteries prohibit the practice of stone rubbing, Mount Auburn included, and in places that are less well-kept you must use your own best judgement. Although a harmless activity when done properly on an undamaged stone, it takes only seconds for the paper to tear and get wax on the stone, or even for the stone itself to break off. Markers covered in lichen or made of flaking slate should be avoided. Photography is an easy alternative in these cases, and upon later review you may find even more details that you hadn’t initially seen. Even in the tranquility of these places, you must also be aware and vigilant of your surroundings. Bring a friend along, or at least let someone know your activities and whereabouts for the day. There are many safe, fun ways to engage with these cultural landmarks. All that’s needed is curiosity, a bit of common sense, and sometimes a strong stomach.
Happy Exploring!
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
CORINNE ELICONE
Corinne Elicone is the Events & Outreach Coordinator at Mount Auburn Cemetery. She curates Mount Auburn’s “death positive” programming, online video content, and historic walking tours of the grounds. She is also Mount Auburn’s first female crematory operator in their near 190 year history.
ZOË G. BURNETT
Z.G. Burnett is a writer and editor with a background in early American history and material culture. She has been published by The Attic on Eighth, Ivy-Style, and The Vintage Woman Magazine. Combining her passion for the paranormal and everything pink, Z.G. is currently working on her first personal style guide.
if you are a representative of a cemetery or a cemetery historian and would like to see your cemetery featured in this blog series please email Corinne Elicone at celicone@mountauburn.org