USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Athol > History of Athol, Massachusetts > Part 39
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Cummings, John N. Cummings, Joseph W.
Currier, Norman L.
Dame, Frederick R.
Dane, Earl R. Davis, Howard A. Dawson, Roy R. DeFazio, Ernest L. DeGrace, Gerald J.
Demarzio, Thomas
DePratti, Dominick R., Jr. Desmaris, Norman G.
Duteau, Joyce
Duteau, Robert C.
Dyer, Robert J.
Eaton, Elbridge Perley, Jr.
Ecklund, John
Elwell, Arthur G.
Emmett, Donald H.
Cloutman, Rodney F. Codding, Alvin L.
Codding, Ray H Cole, Sylvia E. Colo, Herman T.
Compton, Frederick E., Jr.
Connors, Patrick J. Cook, Carroll N. Cooke, Roy F., Jr.
Cordingly, Ralph P.
Cote, Ronny C.
Cormier, Robert H.
Fegeau, Richard L. Ferman, Alvin A. Ferrari, Raymond J. Fish, Roland J. Fisher, George E. Flagg, William A. Fletcher, James E. Floran, Eunice Flourent, Joseph A.
Fountain, Donald L. Fountain, Richard J. Fountain, Robert C. Freeman, Rodney B.
474
Calvi, Paul J.
Cameron, David F.
Cameron, Owen J.
Canuel, Ernest L.
Casella, Joseph
Dugan, James J.
Duguay, Albert J.
Callahan, Robert W. Calvi, Carl M.
Doiron, Everett J.
Dombroski, Charles E.
WORLD WAR II
Gallagher, Edward F. Gallagher, Richard J.
Kakitis, John H. Kakitis, Leon H.
Gallant, Joseph H. Gallien, Armand L.
Kalinen, Edward V.
Karluk, Bernard J.
Gasson, Frances M.
Kasputis, Anna M.
Gates, David R. Gates, Paul R.
Kendall, Roger B.
Geikie, Frank, Jr.
Kennedy, Richard M.
Gelinas, Richard N.
Kessler, Richard D.
Gelinas, Robert A.
Kessler, Woodrow M.
Gerry, Daniel L.
Killay, John C.
Gervin, Peter A.
Killay, William H., Jr.
Gillis, William E.
Kimball, Curtis M.
Gilmore, Alan J.
King, Leonard E.
Gilmore, Richard F.
Kloss, Terry P.
Gionet, Yvon J.
Kolapakka, John A.
Girard, Philip M.
Godin, Girard J.
Godish, Leon M.
Goewey, John L.
Labrie, Joseph A.
Lachance, Ernest L.
LaFlame, Henry J. LaFlamme, Charles G.
LaFlamme, Wilfred E.
Lajoie, Albert W.
Landon, Harvey D.
Landry, Alban
Landry, Jean L.
Landry, Joan
Landry, Joseph A.
Landry, Nora
Lanteigne, Joseph F.
Lanteigne, Ned
Laperle, Joseph R.
Lawsky, John R.
Lawton, Elwyn T.
Lawton, Kirke B.
Lawton, Richard O.
LeBlanc, Ferdinand A.
LeBlanc, Norman R.
Le Duc, Joseph E.
Lee, Ernest J.
Lee, James M.
Lee, Richard E.
Leete, Earl O.
Legrand, Lester E.
LeMote, Norman N.
Leonard, Robert F.
Lewis, Harry R.
Lilley, Walter G.
Lillie, Guy R. Logan, Vernon G.
MacAllister, Alan R.
MacDonald, Chester A. MacDonald, Vernon B. MacKnight, Edwin A. MacKnight, William P.
475
Hachey, Neil A. Hackre, Harold
Hager, Rodney J.
Hall, Richard R. Hamlett, Frederick S.
Harris, Arthur J.
Hastings, Donald E.
Hathaway, Duane D.
Hause, Ronald E. Hayward, Gordon A.
Henrich, Neil J. Hickey, Leonard E.
Higgins, Charles W. Higgins, Dana F., Jr.
Hill, Marguerite F. Holloway, Robert R., Jr.
Holman, Carl P. Hood, James S. Hounsell, Roy E. Howard, Roy E. Howe, Charles E. Hunter, John S. Huntoon, Leon A.
Jamison, Forrest B., Jr. Jenna, William W. Jewett, Frederick C. Jonaitis, Anthony J., Jr.
Koroblis, Edmund F.
Koroblis, Richard D.
Goewey, Robert E.
Graham, Pearl D.
Grant, William J., Jr.
Grigaliunas, Daniel J.
Grits, Bernard G. Grover, George E., Jr. Gunn, Richard K. Gunter, David A.
Kasputis, Nellie
HISTORY OF ATHOL
MacLean, Edwin W.
Noel, William F.
Maher, Thomas F.
Mallet, Ernest L.
Oberg, Owen H. Obue, Ernest J.
Mallet, Joseph A.
Ori, Mario V.
Mallet, Josepn D.
Osborne, Arthur C.
Mallet, Roger W. Manewich, Leo A., Jr.
Osborne, Eugene R. Ovitt, Earl R.
Mangan, Thomas B.
March, Allen C.
Marcoux, Emma A.
Paquet, Arthur A.
Margadonna, Robert E.
Paquet, Richard C.
Parker, Dane W.
Parker, Edmund C.
Mariotti, Harvey L.
Paro, Linwood A.
Maroni, Theodore A.
Parsons, Richard A.
Marquis, Edward H.
Paulin, Ernest J.
Marquis, Leo A.
Peppard, Wayne E.
Martin, James B.
Perdikas, Theodore S.
Masiello, Anna
Peters, James H.
Mason, Earl P., Jr.
May, Eugene C.
May, John N.
Pike, Carole A.
Mayo, Brian H.
Pisciuneri, Joseph E.
McCarthy, Albert L.
Mccluskey, Robert P.
Pluff, Addison Ellsworth
McGuirk, Alvin L.
Poppe, Roy D.
McIntosh, William J.
Mckenzie, James E.
McPherson, Gardner E.
Poulin, Richard E.
Meehan, James W.
Poulin, William
Meehan, Kenneth J.
Pratt, Rexford N.
Merrian, Wesley L.
Mickunas, Algis
Michunas, Juozas
Miller, Ellen
Miller, Thomas E.
Minty, Clifton C.
Minty, David W.
Minty, Robert R.
Monaghan, James E.
Morandi, Edward V.
Reed, Melvin S.
Morandi, Richard A.
Reilly, William E.
Morris, James S.
Renwick, John M.
Morrow, Charles H.
Renwick, William N.
Moschini, Americo Mundell, Donald E. Musante, Joseph M.
Myers, Harold E.
Myers, Kenneth W.
Nelson, Charles A. Nelson, Frank H., Jr. Nelson, Louis A., Jr. Neward, Anthony F. Noel, Joseph W. R.
Ricard, Ernest I. Rice, Charles P. Richards, Kenneth G. Richards, Raymond E. Rimsa, Peter J. Roach, Albert P. Roberts, Stanley W. Robertson, Alexander M. Robichaud, Edward F. Robichaud, Ernest J. Robichaud, Frank A.
476
Quinlan, Thomas C. Quintin, Bernard L. Quintin, Lawrence R.
Rathburn, Henry C. Record, Roger P.
McGuirk, Charles F.
Porter, Walter J., Jr.
Posk, Francis J. Posk, Robert S.
Prindle, Robert E.
Puscus, Frank C.
Picard, Martin J. Pietrowsky, Joseph A.
Plotkin, Sherman P.
Marquis, Raymond J.
Paulin, Fernand
Marion, Arthur J.
Marion, Henry C.
Osborne, Donald L.
Mallet, Howard S.
WORLD WAR II
Robichaud, Gerald J.
Tait, Barbara
Robichaud, Lawrence A.
Tait, James Mackinnon
Robichaud, Richard R.
Taroli, Arthur P.
Robinson, Edward C.
Tedford, Henry H.
Robinson, John
Tedford, Jay E., Jr.
Robinson, William E., Jr.
Theroux, Edward R.
Rouleau, Robert G. Rou.elle, Richard
Thomasian, Peter J.
Ryder, Robert R.
Thompson, Kenneth R.
Savage, Arthur F., Jr.
Savage, Kent B.
Tonjes, John
Savoy, Alfred J.
Tracey, Robert S.
Savoy, David R.
Truehart, Donald P.
Schnurr, Jay Whitford
Tuttle, William E.
Searles, Raymond C.
Twichell, Nathaniel H.
Sessions, Gordon E.
Tyler, Anne
Shaw, Edward O. Sibley, Robert L.
Valley, Leonard C.
Sibley, Lynwood D.
Vareika, Donald C.
Sinclair, William A.
Vatkevich, Joseph D.
Skevington, Clive H.
Vaughn, Irving L.
Smith, Ernest Henry
Vysocky, Sylva E.
Smith, John R.
Walker, Virgil
Soucie, James H.
Walsh, James W.
Soucie, Leon E.
Wheeler, George P.
Spooner, Roger A.
White, Harry C.
Springer, Gordon H.
Whitney, Leon E., Jr.
St. Hilaire, Arthur J.
Wickham, Peter T., Jr.
Stangvilla, Joseph L.
Wilcox, Herbert G.
Stembokas, Julius A.
Wilkey, Kenneth H. Williams, Edward F.
Stephens, Lewis C.
Willy, Clyde E.
Stinson, John D. Stinson, Richard J. Stone, Paul J.
Winters, Atwood C., Jr.
Stone, Richard H.
Woessner, Robert J.
Stowell, David W.
Wood, David R.
Stowell, Douglas M.
Wood, Wendel! B.
Stowell, Roger L.
Worth, Walter J.
Stratton, Earl R. Strong, Donald E.
Wright, Richard E.
Young, Walter R.
Sweeney, Edward H. Sweeney, Timothy L. Sweet, Walter J.
Ziguloski, Joseph E.
Salahna, Stanley T.
Thomson, Gordon A.
Tolman, Arthur H.
Shanley, William L.
Valley, Charles E. L.
Soucie, Donald R.
Wilson, Warren C.
477
Therrien, Leonard R.
Thomson, Elden M.
CHAPTER XXX BURYING GROUNDS
THE Pequoig pioneers, realizing that mortality is the com- T mon lot of all peoples, early made provisions for a resting place for their dead.
In the vote of the Proprietors passed September 2, 1741 decreeing the distribution of an additional fifty acres of land to each Proprietor's right, the surveyor Abner Lee certified that to the right of Jonothan Marble's lot No. 30, then owned by Samuel Kendall, was added an additional eight acres "ye eight acres to Lyee in common for a Buring Place and Meeting house place, if ye proprietors shall think proper to put them too." This eight acres adjoined Mill Brook and extended across Hapgood Road in the general locality where the Hapgood School now stands.
Evidently the Proprietors thought proper to utilize this land as indicated in their vote for near their first meeting house they set aside a portion for a burying place. We have no definite idea of the number of burials made there but we have in a pamphlet reporting the proceedings incident to the re- dedication of this cemetery on July 4, 1859 all available infor- mation concerning it.
Among those interred here are listed Robert Oliver, William Oliver, five children of Capt. Ephraim Stockwell (who lived on a farm west of Prospect Hill within the present limits of Phillipston), Joseph Twichell, David Twichell, and several members of the Morton, Graves, and Nutt families. The last interment is said to have been the remains of Samuel Fair- banks who died on June 3, 1777.
We have no very clear idea of the route of the first highway through our town but all available information indicates that it led from East Pequoig Hill (Pleasant Street) westerly near this old church site and thence on down the hill, across the river at the fording place just below the mouth of Tully River and thence up the hill to West Pequoig Hill, now largely within the limits of Orange.
From the first the easterly settlement was more quickly and thoroughly developed, yet apparently the pioneer location of
478
BURYING GROUNDS
the church and churchyard was established some little distance west of the thriving easterly "village" as a concession to the dwellers to the west. After the loss of the first building the predominant East Hill made no more concessions but took the second Sanctuary unto itself, leaving the first location to re- turn somewhat to its former condition as a part of the primeval wilderness. Even the cemetery was allowed to revert to private ownership and the cattle in the pasture to roam at will over the bones of the pioneers. Finally the ploughshare did further violence to its sanctity. In his address at the Centennial of the first Church in 1850, Rev. Mr. Clarke, its pastor, alluded to this discreditable situation. At length in 1858 definite action was taken to restore this ancient burial place as far as possible. A deed of a plot including all then discernible graves was obtained from the then reputed owners, Mr. Ethan Lord and Mr. Amos Leander Cheney, who stipulated that the land must be kept fenced and that a suitable monument be erected there.
Our townsman, J. Smith Drury, carved the monument stand- ing there out of Athol Granite, providing a suitable receptacle for several historical documents. On July 4, 1859 under the leadership of Col. Thomas Townsend our townspeople marched to the old cemetery where after appropriate remarks by Col. Townsend, a reading of the votes of the town by Farwell F. Fay, a short speech by Esq. Charles Field and an address by Rev. John F. Norton, several documents comprising over three hundred pages of printed matter were placed in the prepared cavity in the stone by Mr. Moses Chase, aged 88, the oldest person present. The monument was then raised onto its pedestal by means of a rope pulled by the school children of Athol. After short remarks by a half dozen citizens and three High School students the benediction was pronounced by Rev. Alpheus Harding of New Salem, the people returned to the residential areas of the town, and the graves of the pioneers were left in solitude.
Mt. Pleasant Cemetery
With only a fording place for a crossing of our Millers River necessity required another burial place accessible to those re- siding west of it. Mt. Pleasant Cemetery was quickly provided. Like the more easterly yard, we know not when it was first used as a burial place, but as the grave of Ezekiel Wallingford is definitely marked there it must have been in use at the time of his untimely death at the hands of the murderous savages on August 17, 1746.
479
HISTORY OF ATHOL
One of the pioneer settlers of 1735, Mr. Samuel Morton, chose for his abode the location known to this generation as the "Sawyer Farm" on South Main Street, his cabin being lo- cated at approximately 487 in that street.
Tradition says that the land was donated to the community by Mr. Morton and as intimated above probably was in use before 1741, but twenty years or more elapsed before the land was officially set apart for public use. Presumably the chaotic conditions of all our early records coupled with the absence of a local surveyor caused this delay, but eventually in July, 1762 Esq. Charles Baker of Templeton who lived on what we know as the "Miner Place" in the southwesterly part of Phillipston, determined the metes and bounds and furnished the following description which is recorded in the Proprietors' Book, Vol. 2, page 93.
"Athol, July, 1762.
This Plot contains two acres and is laid out for a burying place on the North side of the River and Lyeth by the way Side that goeth from Samuel Mortons to Tully Bridge and is Bounded as follows beginning at a Cherry tree the South east corner thence Running North 16 rods then west 20 rods to a stake then South 16 rods to a Stake then East to the corner first Mentioned and it bounds every way of undivided Land. Surveyed by Charles Baker."
The statement of the surveyor that the tract was taken out of a larger area of undivided land and therefore did not adjoin Mr. Morton's holdings seems to refute the story of his largess.
This yard, known to past generations as Lower Village Ceme- tery, was the only available cemetery in the westerly part of the town until the opening of Silver Lake Cemetery. There were buried Ephraim and Aaron Smith and several generations of their descendants, Samuel Morton and his son Dr. Joshua Morton, Capt. Thomas Lord and his wife Leonard (Smith), Aaron Oliver and likewise many of his family, Perley Sibley and at least four of his sons, Esq. Eliphalet Thorpe and some of the sons, and Jonothan Kelton and a number of his descend- ants. Here Moses Hill, the pioneer on the Townsend Road, buried two of his children who died of the dysentery epidemic of August, 1777.
From the beginnings of the "Factory Village" around 1810 until Silver Lake Cemetery was opened in 1877, this was the only easily available spot for burials in the westerly part of
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BURYING GROUNDS
the town. Although not extensively used in these latter days, yet there are perhaps a half dozen interments a year there.
The oldest grave stone in the yard marks the grave of Ebenezer Goddard who departed this life November 29, 1752 in his 49th year. Eventually a receiving tomb was built near the center of the plot but it fell into disuse long ago and was finally removed.
In the southeast corner of the yard the Fish family early in the nineteenth century built a large tomb which for some years was the only one available in the villages for winter use and by some arrangement was used by the town. In this old tomb were interred the bodies of members of the Fish family as they died. Eventually in 1870 the late Sally Fish caused the granite tomb adjoining the old tomb to be erected and removed thither all bodies of her family from the old tomb. After the Bullard Tomb in Silver Lake Cemetery was completed in 1884, the old vault was closed and subsequently filled and the lot so graded as to remove all traces of it.
After the opening of Silver Lake Cemetery a not incon- siderable number of families removed the bodies of their dead to the new yard but the old cemetery continues to be used by many families residing in the so-called Lower Village and terri - tory west of it.
The Chestnut Hill Cemetery
The first settler in the entire northeasterly part of our town was Capt. John Haven of Framingham who took up his abode on the farm known to a recent generation as the Daniel Bullard Place. Late in life he said that when he established his home on Chestnut Hill there was known to him no white settlement between his home and the Canadian line. We have not the exact date of his arrival but the record on our town books of the birth of his daughter, Grace, on December 26, 1747 is an indication that he was domiciled here before that time. How- ever, as he became Town Clerk upon the organization of the town in 1762, he may well have recorded a birth in his family which occurred while he resided in Framingham.
That there was quite some settlement in that area previous to 1762 is evidenced by the fact that the first highway laid out by the new town was our Royalston Road and the second, our Gulf Road. -
A very reliable tradition is that very early burials from this area were in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, but at length, August 10,
481
HISTORY OF ATHOL
1778, Capt. Jonothan Kendall at the insistence of ten residents on the hill yielded a portion of his broad acres for a burial place. Subsequent burials not only from Chestnut Hill but all of East Hill, some of the Dyer Road, and many from the Fryville area were made there. In his conveyance of the plot, Capt. Kendall reserved the right to graze his sheep there. In 1844 his grandson, John Kendall, gave the town a deed of the whole tract previously used and the addition of a third of an acre on the west side of the yard.
There have been few burials here during the last twenty years, but the cemetery is well cared for and its appearance does credit to the town.
Old Pleasant Street Cemetery
I search in vain for the exact date when this burial place was first used, but I do find in the town records that at the annual meeting of the town in 1767, the warrant includes this article: "to come into some measures to Provide another Bury- ing place for the Town and to act thereon as the town shall think proper."
This article was "passed over" but on May 19 of the same year, £5.4.0 of the money "Granted for the Repairs of High- ways" was set aside to be worked out on the Burying Places under the direction of Ichabod Dexter and Robert Marble, Surveyors of Highways. As Mr. Dexter lived on Moore Hill Road in the westerly part of the town and Robert Marble on Pleasant Street, it would seem that the then two existing ceme- teries were in effect allotted one each for special attention.
As the oldest inscribed grave stone in this Pleasant Street Cemetery is at the grave of Calvin Humphrey who died in 1773, it is probable that this God's Acre was consecrated later than May, 1767 and earlier than November, 1773.
For three score years after this yard came into use, it was the principal cemetery of the town. Here was buried in 1811 Capt. John Oliver whose body lay in his house on Lyons Hill nine days after his death because of the "deep snow" that made travelling impossible. Here in adjoining tombs were interred the first and second pastors of the Church of Christ in Athol, the remains of the latter having subsequently been removed to Highland Cemetery. The third tomb there was that of the Joel Morton family.
The Highland Cemetery
For fully seventy years after it was opened a few years prior
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BURYING GROUNDS
to the Revolution, the Old Pleasant Street yard sometimes called the First Church Burying Yard proved to be adequate for the most populous section of the town, but eventually available space became scarce and there was a demand for a new grave yard. After a period of investigation it was generally agreed that a tract "south of Mill Brook" belonging to Samuel Sweetzer was the most available and thereupon arrangements were speedily made and on February 12, 1843 the older or westerly section of this yard was deeded to the town.
The town acquired in 1889 the present easterly portion of this tract of Sarah P. Brown and in the succeeding years the present small lake was excavated there and the whole tract laid out and beautified. The late Dr. James Oliver took an active interest in this latter proceeding and much of the beauty and symmetry there is due to his sagacity.
By vote of the town in 1886 the northeast corner of the Sweetzer purchase was set apart as a park and a soldiers' Burial Lot. Around the monument on this lot for two generations the Grand Army Post gathered on Memorial Day to pay tribute to their dead.
1916 Jerome Jones of Boston donated five hundred dol- lars and Mr. and Mrs. Wilson H. Lee of Orange, Connecticut one hundred dollars towards the ornamental pillars at the entrance and for some other changes at this cemetery.
Roman Catholic Cemeteries
Until the coming of the railroad here in 1847 Athol was almost exclusively Protestant, but the workmen on the railroad enterprise were largely Irish emigrants, adherents to the ancient Roman Church.
They were first housed on the flat south of the right of way of the railroad and west of Bearsden Road, but that settlement quickly vanished after the road was in operation. When work was begun in the Factory Village several of these laborers built humble homes on the "Patch" which is now lower South Street, and there they lived throughout their lives. These emigrants, soon followed by others of their race and faith, felt warranted in establishing a church of their own. They were ministered to by the priest of the Otter River Church.
Negotiations were entered into and the abandoned Baptist Church situated at No. 1782 Main Street was purchased. But these people needed not only a church building where their
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HISTORY OF ATHOL
faith was exclusively taught, they needed as well a consecrated ground where they might lay their dead.
Evidently they chose the tract adjoining Vine Street, then owned by Benjamin C. Skinner. Whether they solicited public aid in buying this land or a fair minded populace decided that equity demanded that they be helped, I do not know but for one reason or the other the project came to the official at- tention of the voters in 1867, and thereupon the town approp- riated "two hundred fifty dollars to provide a Catholic Burying Ground if it can be done legally." As no record appears of this expenditure I would guess that the decision was that legally the public money could not be so expended.
Clearly acting within its legal rights, the town in 1869 did provide for the building of a road to that yard. In later years, now known as Calvary Cemetery, this yard is made use of occasionally for burials.
As our Catholic population has increased, the need for more adequate burial lots has become apparent and the church management has provided for the need.
The church bought on January 26, 1909 an area in the westerly part of the town adjoining Brookside Road, Gage Road, and the Boston & Maine Railroad, developing it along modern ideas of cemetery landscaping and opening it for use in 1911. Here, not only Athol but Orange and other adjoining towns bring their Roman Catholic dead.
Comparatively recently a receiving tomb has been erected along the southerly boundary of the tract. This yard is of- ficially known as Gethsemane Roman Catholic Cemetery.
The Stratton Cemetery
From early days the predominating family name in the southeasterly part of Athol was Stratton. Thus the cemetery opened early in the last century off Adams Road bore that family name. It evidently remained in private ownership until at length in an article for the November town meeting of 1860, the town was asked to buy this cemetery land of one Hiram Haskell and also to purchase the tomb belonging to the estate of Ebenezer Stratton and the heirs of Jonothan Stratton. At that meeting the matter was referred to the Selectmen to get a price for the land and for the tomb, but I find no further recorded action on this matter.
The cemetery has for many years been listed as one of the
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BURYING GROUNDS
public grave yards of the town. I would presume that some adjustment was made in that busy period incident to the out- break of our War Between the States.
Unknown to the general public, there have been a very few burials here in recent years. With about eighty marked graves, there are perhaps twenty more burials that are unidentified. The first death recorded on these grave stones is that of Mary Elizabeth, daughter of William and Mary Meecham, who died March 22, 1840.
The Fay Cemetery
For more than a century succeeding the incorporation of our town a considerable percentage of the residents in the southerly part of the town bore the name of Fay. Early burials by this family were in the Old Pleasant Street Cemetery, but evidently around 1830 some arrangement was made with Mr. Joseph Fay for a small tract of land for a cemetery. In 1844 it would appear that Mr. James Sullivan Fay, then the owner of the Josiah Fay farm at the four corners south of this ceme- tery, offered this yard to the town. Our Selectmen were authorized to take a deed of it and provision was made for fencing it.
Thirty graves and a receiving tomb are discernible there, but no burials have been made for several years.
So far as information from the graves informs us, the first burial there was the body of Mr. Josiah Fay who died March 16, 1834. Both he and his wife are still interred there. Yet when some thirty years ago his niece and adopted daughter, Abbie Mason Morgan, erected a memorial to these two, she acquired a lot in Silver Lake Cemetery and there the memorial stands.
The Pleasant Street Cemetery
I find a few references in the town records of proposals to establish a cemetery in the Doe Valley area but cannot learn that anything was actually accomplished until 1870 when a tract of several acres was acquired of D. Austin Ellinwood and named The Pleasant Street Cemetery. The tract was forthwith fenced and made available for burials and has been frequently used since its acquisition.
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