USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > History of old Braintree and Quincy : with a sketch of Randolph and Holbrook > Part 14
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Braintree > History of old Braintree and Quincy : with a sketch of Randolph and Holbrook > Part 14
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INSCRIPTIONS IN THE EPISCOPAL CEMETERY.
Sub hoc Cespici Tumulatur Radulphus, Wilhelmi Shirley, Unper de Wivelsfield, in Agro Sussexiensi, apud Anglos, Nunc de Bostonio, Novanglorum, Armiger. Ex Francisca, (Nuper Barker de Civitate Londinensi,) Uxcore Ejus, Filius Natu Nienimus. Natus Bostonie, 20 Januarii, A. S. 1734. Donatus in hoc Villa, 13 Sextilis, A. S. 1737. " Uti Flos Succisus Aratro."-Virg. TRANSLATION. Beneath this Sod is Buried Ralph, The Youngest Son of William Shirley, Formerly of Wivelsfield, in the County of Sussex, England, Now of Boston, in New England, Esquire. By Frances, (Formerly Barker, in the city of London,) His Wife. Born at Boston, 20 January, A. S. 1734. Deceased in this town, 13 August, A. S. 1737. " Like a Flower ent down by the Husbandman."- Virg.
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[On the reverse side of the tomb-stone will be found the fol- lowing inscription :]
Ralph Shirley, Born 20th January, A. D. 1734, Dyed 13th August, A. D. 1737.
" He cometh forth like a Flower, and is cut down."-Job 14:2.
This son was omitted in Drake's pedigree of Governor Shir- ley's family. He further omits to state what part of England the Governor came from, which by this epitaph appears to have been Wivelsfield, Sussex.1
1740. Here lyes buried the body of Mrs. Dorothy Vassel, wife of Mr. Lewis Vassel, aged 28 years and 9 months, who departed this life August ye 10, 1740.
1743. Here lyes the body of Mr. Lewis Vassel, aged 34 years and 1 month, who departed this life September the 15th, 1743.
1. William Shirley was born in England, and came from Wivelsfield, Sus- sex County, to Boston, about the year 1733. In 1741 he was appointed Provin- cial Governor of Massachusetts, which position he held eight years, or until September, 1749, and was re-appointed in 1753. This administration lasted three years, when, in September, 1756, Spencer Phips was selected for the position. During his term of office Louisburg was taken. Governor Shirley was some- what of a politician, and while the French and Indian Wars (so-called) were going on, whenever he desired an appropriation for the expenses of them, if successful he would say, I desire so-and-so for my expedition; if unsuccessful, I wish for such an amount for your expedition. He rendered his administration of 1754 quite popular by refusing to sign the Excise Bill. In 1755 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in North America, but was soon succeeded by Abercrombie. After being re-called from Massachusetts to England, he was selected as Governor of the Bahama Islands.
In 1770 he returned to Massachusetts, and resided at Roxbury, now a part of Boston, until 1771, when he died, and was buried under King's Chapel in Bos- ton. He was the author of "Electra," a tragedy, and " Birth of Hercules," a "Marsq."
In 1753, a company of merchants of Boston, bought Pulling Point. Their object and intention was to have established here a fishing station. After all preparatory matters had been arranged, and the place prepared for business, the company invited Governor Shirley to go down with them and partake of a social repast. He accepted the cordial invitation. A fine time, and a sumptuous din- ner concluded the festivities of the occasion; at this time, by permission of his Excellency, "Pulling Point" received the name of Point Shirley. From that period Point Shirley has been noted for its good cheer, and the most fastidious epicurean can be served with an unsurpassed variety of choice game, and be provided with the most rare and delicious of the finny tribe.
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1754. Here lyes the body of Mrs. Margretta Etter, the wife of Mr. Peter Etter, who departed this life May the 1st, 1754, aged 30 years and 6 months.1
1761. In memory of Sarah Marquand, ye wife of Peter Mar- quand. She died May ye 31, 1761, aged 81 years.
1772. In memory of Mr. Peter Marquand, who died May 27, 1772, aged 86 years. One of the Pillars of this Church.
1782. In memory of Sarah Cleverly, wife of Mr. Benjamin Cleverly, who died July 26, 1782, aged 70 years.
1789. In memory of Mr. Benjamin Cleverly, who died July 3d, 1789, in ye 78 year of his age.
1793, John Cleverly, who died May 12, 1793, aged 42 years.
1794. In memory of Joseph Cleverly, 2d, who died October 27, 1794, in the 55 year of his age.
1798. Mrs. Molly Cleverly, widow of Mr. Joseph Cleverly, 2d, who died November 8, 1798, aged 57 years.
1773. Erected in memory of Dr. Henry Turner, who died Jan. 21, 1773.
1808. In memory of Mr. Zachariah Marquand Thayer, who departed this life May 24, 1808, aged 56.
Lament me not as you pass by, As you are now so once was I, As I am now so you must be, All flesh is mortal you may see.
1809. In memory of Arthur Pickering, Esq., of the Island of St. Croix, who departed this life April 17, 1809, aged 28.
1815. In memoriam Reverendi Gulielmus Clark, cujus cineres sub hoc capide sunt depositi, olim quibusdam armis apud Dedham. Min- ister Episcopalis at pro annis pluribus ab officio sacerdoti, per cor- poris infirmitatis exclusus molestias varias et dolores, per vitam sustinuit proveindentiae diviae submissus, et in spe ad vitam eternam resurrectiones beatae. Obit. Nov. die IV., A. D. MDCCCXV., ÆEt. LXXV.
1. Mrs. Etter was the wife of Mr. Peter Etter, who was one of the Glass Company that settled at Germantown, and was a stocking-weaver by trade. Mr. Etter was engaged by the Provincial Government at the time of the arrival of the German Protestant emigrants as an interpreter. He also took quite an active part in the town affairs of old Braintree during the Revolutionary period, and was quite severely censured for his royalistic sympathies. Mr. Etter sur- vived his wife some years.
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1772. Here lies buried the body of Mrs. Eleanor Clark, daughter of Mr. Richard and Mrs. Mary Clark of Milton, who died May ye 27, 1772, aged 27 years.
Here mingles with its Kindred Earth, The Body of Manlius, Son of Lucius Manlius and Mary Sargent. Born January 27th, A. D. 1824. Died July 3d, A. D. 1825.
" Suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."-Matt. XxIx., 14.
" To God who gave, thy spirit I resign ; Of all I loved, thy dust alone is mine. Go, little child, Immanuel's promise share, A sainted mother waits her offspring there; A Saviour calls, then go my darling boy, Unsullied yet, and free from life's alloy."
The old Miller tomb is still kept in good condition by the family. In this receptacle of the dead, Dr. Miller, the first Rector of the Church, was entombed, as also have been many of his descendants. The old Boise and a number of other tombs are to be found in this venerated churchyard, but the ravages of time have so erased the inscriptions upon them that they are now illegible. We venture a hope that these inscriptions on the old tombs may be renewed.
1873. [Within the Episcopal Church, at the right of the altar, a tablet has been erected to the memory of Rev. Dr. Miller, bearing the following inscriptions :]
" THEY REST FROM THEIR LABORS, AND THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM."
In memory of REV. EBENEZER MILLER, S. T. D., First Rector of the Church, Son of Samuel and Rebecca [Belcher] Miller ; Born at Milton, June 20, 1703. Received into Holy Orders as Deacon, at London, June 29, 1726; Ordained as Priest by the Bishop of London, July: 9, 1727 ;
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Appointed Missionary for Braintree, New England, by the Society for propagating the gospel in foreign parts, August 26, 1727.
Entered upon his ministry over this church, Dec. 25, 1727; And died Feb. 11, 1763, after faithful service as a pastor of More than thirty-five years.
Also of MARTHA, his wife, Daughter of Thomas Mottram, of Addlethorp, in the County of Lincoln, England. Married at the church of St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster, November 16, 1726, And died at Braintree, [Quincy,] October 28, 1755, In the fifty-second year of her age.
This tablet is erected by their great-grandson, Charles Edward Miller, August, A. D. 1873.
Semper ---- Paratus.
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HALL CEMETERY.
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" Then gentle hands their 'dust to dust ' consign; With quiet tears their simple rites are said;
And here they sleep, till, at the trump divine, The earth and ocean render up their dead."
In June, 1841, the following persons, viz : Justin Spear, Joseph French, Samuel Ela, Solomon Willard, William D. Gray, Asa S. Johnson, Frederick A. Trask, George H. Locke, John Long, Matthew Carroll, and Michael McKendrick, desiring to be organized as a corporate body for the purpose of procuring suit- able ground to establish a rural cemetery in West Quincy, peti- tioned John M. Gourgas, Esq., to issue a warrant to legally organize the association. The meeting was held at the time specified, and proper rules and by-laws adopted, and the officers chosen.
This burial ground is located on Cemetery street. The land was given by the late James Hall, (a wealthy, generous bachelor
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who resided on Adams street,) and was appropriately laid out and adorned by Mr. Willard, and was consecrated in the fall of the same year. This cemetery is pleasantly situated in the neighborhood of the quarries.
Mr. Hall had unbounded confidence in Mr. Willard, and, after the cemetery was laid out, the latter suggested to him that an iron fence for the front was needed. He inquired what it would cost. Mr. Willard replied, " About a thousand dollars." Mr. Hall, jocosely remarking, " You got the land, and now you want the money," gave him the desired amount.
In this rural depository of the dead, some few years after it had been laid out, Mr. Willard raised the " Rejected Column," intended for the New York Exchange, weighing over thirty tons. It was removed by himself and four men, with the aid of his machinery, a distance of more than forty rods, and erected in the centre of the cemetery as a monument, and it forms a most conspicuous and impressive object in the ground. This remarkable shaft was erected as left by the workmen. Mr. Wil- lard deposited in its top a complete set of stone-cutter's tools.
This beautiful garden cemetery makes a fit resting-place for the hewers of stone and artistic workers of monumental granite, whose sculptured monuments adorn and perpetuate the last resting-place of man.
CATHOLIC CEMETERY.
" Earth's tombs are doors to heaven; its graves Types of those fluctuant waves That bear you on to fulness and to bliss."
Before the Catholics of Quincy had purchased a burial-ground for the interment of their dead, they were accustomed to de- posit the remains of their departed friends in the Bunker Hill Catholic Cemetery, at Charlestown. This long distance being very inconvenient, they concluded, in 1841, to purchase a tract of land for a Parish Church and Churchyard. After examining
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several pieces of ground, they decided to secure a lot of Mr. James Hall, in West Quincy, on what is now Cemetery street, (at that time Cemetery street was not constructed.) They immediately prepared the ground for burial purposes. In Sep- tember, 1842, the cemetery was consecrated with due solemnity by Bishop Fenwick, who began the services with the blessing of the water with which the ground was to be asperged.
In closing the recitation of his earnest and appropriate prayer, he urged the Children of the Church to resolve to be good and virtuous, and with God's help to act upon that resolve, so that when their bodies were brought to this holy consecrated ground, their souls would be in peace ; and when the living came there they should never forget to offer up a prayer for the souls of the departed.
The Churchyard, becoming too small to accommodate the in- creasing number of burials, required an increase of land, which was purchased of Mr. Joseph W. Robertson in 1853 ; and some few years ago another addition was made, by purchasing the estate of the late Garret Barry, adjoining the church. This pleasant cemetery now contains about eight or nine acres.
MOUNT WOLLASTON CEMETERY.
" I now shall be peopled from life's busy sphere; Ye may roam, but the end of your journey is here. I shall call! I shall call! and the many will come From the heart of your crowds to so peaceful a home; The great and the good, and the young and the old, In death's dreamless slumbers my mansions will hold.
" And sweetly secure from all pain they shall lie, Where the dews gently fall, and still waters are nigh; While the birds sing their hymns, amid air-harps that sound Through the boughs of the forest-trees whispering around, And flowers, bright as Eden's, at morning shall spread, And at eve drop their leaves o'er the slumberer's bed!"
For several years it had been found that the old cemetery on Hancock street had become too small and crowded, and that it
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was a public necessity that some other place should be provided by the town for a burial-ground.
At the annual town meeting, held in March, 1854, the follow- ing committee was chosen to select a proper site for a cemetery, and report to the town at the adjourned meeting, viz :- William S. Pattee, Israel W. Munroe, Washington M. French, George White, and Wyman Abercrombie. This committee, after due consideration, came to the conclusion to take a new departure in selecting a site for a depository of the dead. Instead of pro- enring some narrow, contracted barren waste, where neither tree, shrub, nor flower would grow, they desired to obtain a tract which would combine all the essentials ; capacionsness, natural beauty, and other requisites for a rural or garden cemetery; which would be more congenial, and in harmony with the natu- rał affections for their kindred and friends. The committee after having visited several tracts of land within the limits of the town, to select a site possessing all the desirable requisitions for a cemetery of the character proposed, finally decided that a portion of the town's farm lying on Sea street, given to the town by the generous and beneficent William Coddington, pos- sessed more of the natural advantages for this purpose than any other that had come to their view.
At the adjourned April meeting, the committee reported that they had selected as a site for a cemetery, that portion of the town's farm lying on the westerly side of Sea street, containing 25 acres, 1 quarter, 15 rods. This report was accepted and adopted. An appropriation was made which enabled the new committee, chosen at this meeting, to prepare about one-half of the land accepted, for immediate interments.
Mr. Brims, Superintendent of Forest Hill Cemetery, kindly volunteered his services to lay out the principal avenues. No man possessed to a greater degree the practical good taste for laying out and embellishing rural grounds than he.
The committee visited Mount Auburn, Forest Hill and other modern cemeteries, and concluded to lay this out on the same principle and plan, by subdividing the land into avenues, paths and lots. Mr. Luther Briggs of Dorchester was engaged to sur- vey and stake out the lots and paths. The lots were to contain
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300 superficial square feet, (the same as in Mount Auburn); avenues for carriages, 16 feet ; paths, 5 feet, and a border of five feet on all the paths, avennes and between the lots. This gave a proper and convenient space to adorn and suitably embellish the paths and lots.
The committee after inclosing the ground, laying out the lots, and constructing the main avenues and paths, found that their appropriation was inadequate to purchase trees, shrubs and flow- ers to adorn the cemetery, concluded rather than exceed the appropriation, to let it pass over for another year.
The granite gateway was designed by Mr. Briggs, subject to the approval of the committee, who selected the Gothic in pref- erence to the Egyptian, considering it more appropriate, as it presented a more cheerful and brighter aspect than the Egyptian, with its dark, sombre and uncheerful look.1
The gate was constructed by Charles R. Mitchell, at a cost of $1,867.00. The wall, by Luke Rideout, for $1,109.66. The
1. " It is very doubtful whether the Egyptian style is most appropriate to a Christian burial-place. It certainly has no connection with onr religion. In its characteristics it is anterior to civilization, and therefore is not beautiful in itself.
" No one will deny the superiority of the Grecian in mere point of beauty. But more than this, Egyptian architecture reminds us of the religion which called it into being,-the most degraded and revolting paganism which ever existed. It is the architecture of embalmed cats and deified crocodiles ; solid, stupendous, and time-defying, we allow ; but associated in our minds with all that is disgusting and absurd in superstition.
" Now there is certainly no place, not even the church itself, where it is more desirable that our religion should be present to the mind, than the cemetery, which must be regarded either as the end of all things,-the last, melancholy, hopeless resort of perishing humanity,-the sad and fearful portion of man, which is to involve body and soul alike in endless night; or, on the other hand, as a gateway to a glorious immortality,-the passage to a brighter world, whose splendors beam even upon the dark chambers of the tomb. It is from the very brink of the grave where rest in eternal sleep the mortal remains of those whom we have best loved, that Christianity speaks to us, in its most trium- phant, soul-exalting words, of victory over death, and a life to come. Surely, then, all that man places over the tomb should, in a measure, speak the same language.
"The monuments of the burial-ground should remind us that this is not our final abode; they should, as far as possible, recall to us the consolations and promises of our religion."-North American Review.
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fence, $528.49. The total cost of the cemetery, at its final com- pletion in 1866, was $4,200.74. The ground was divided into 577 lots. The price of lots to the residents of the town was to be five dollars.
The preparation of the ground had become so far advanced in the fall of 1855, that the committee deemed it ready for the sacred eremony of consecration, which it was decided should be on the first day of November, 1855, but not withont consid- erable opposition.1 The place selected for the exercises2 was
1. The advent of the Know Nothing Party, (so-called, ) in 1855, a secret polit- ical organization, whose avowed principles were strongly anti-Catholic, and who swept the State and town like a whirlwind for two or three years, electing their officers with large majorities, revived in a most bitter and hostile manner a strong opposition to the Catholics. So powerful was this antagonistic sentiment at this time, that a large majority of the Committee on the Mount Wollaston Cemetery were opposed to its consecration, as it was a Popish custom and ought not to be tolerated. Notwithstanding this opposition, the minority of the com- mittee concluded to have the ground consecrated and abide the consequences. Many were so prejudiced in their views that they openly declared that the granite gateway ought to be demolished because it had a cross carved upon it, and one of the leaders of this faction was a member of the Board of Selectmen.
2. ORDER OF EXERCISES AT THE CONSECRATION OF
MOUNT WOLLASTON CEMETERY, NOVEMBER 1st, 1855.
I. INVOCATION,-BY REV. D. L. GEAR.
II. HYMN.
" To thee, O God, in humble trust, Our hearts their cheerful incense burn, For this thy Word, 'Thon art of dust, And unto dust shalt thou return.
" And what were life, life's work all done, The hopes, joys, loves, that cling to clay ; All, all departed, one by one, And yet life's load borne on for aye!
"Decay! decay! 'tis stamped on all, All bloom in flower and flesh shall fade;
Ye whispering trees when ye shall fall,
Be our long sleep beneath your shade.
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under the old buttonwood tree, near Maple Avenue. The day was a beautiful one, and nature had attired herself in the fulness of her crimson autumnal beauty; the gentle southerly wind made the out-door exercises agreeable and pleasant.
The first lots were sold at auction, for the right of choice, May 5th, 1856.1
It was found in 1870, that the lots in the new cemetery had nearly all been taken up, and that an addition to it was required to meet the increased demands for interments. This led the citizens to call a town meeting September 20th, 1870, to consider
" Here to thy bosom, mother earth, Take back in peace what thou hast given, And all that is of heavenly birth,
O God, in peace, recall to heaven."-PIERPONT.
III. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS,-BY WILLIAM S. PATTEE.
IV. PRAYER,-BY REV. W. W. DEAN.
V. ADDRESS,-BY REV. NELSON CLARK.
VI. HYMN.
" Home of the coming dead! The spot whereon we tread Is hallowed ground : Here earth, in sacred trust, Shall hold their sleeping dust, Until her bonds they burst, And rise unbound.
" Here shall the weary rest, And souls, with woes oppress'd, No more shall weep; And youth and age shall come, And beauty in her bloom,
And manhood, to the tomb; Sweet be their sleep!
" Aronud their lowly bed Shall flowers their fragrance shed, And birds shall sing;
On every verdant mound Love's offering shall be found, And sighing trees around Their shadows fling.
" And there's a holier light! Hope, with her taper bright, On every tomb,
Points npward to the sky,
There every tear is dry, There is no mouruer's sigh, Nor death, nor gloom.''
VII. BENEDICTION.
1. May 5, 1856. Numbers 370 and 546 were the first disposed of, and the Hon. Charles F. Adams was the purchaser, at five dollars each. Mr. Holt, No. 322, at six dollars; Mr. Hall, No. 16, at six dollars; Mr. Dow, No. 240, at five dollars and fifty cents; Mr. Whiting, No. 15, at six dollars; Mr. Cndworth, No. 270, at five dollars and fifty cents; Mr. Flint, No. 271, at five dollars and fifty cents; Mrs. Boltenhouse, No. 169, at seven dollars. These were all the lots sold at this time.
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the question of enlarging the ground. It was found at this meeting, after a candid consideration, that an extension was immediately demanded. In accordance with this fact the town voted unanimously to make the addition, and a committee was chosen to directly surround it with a proper enclosure, and pre- pare the ground for burials. This was accomplished in about one year, increasing the number of lots from 577 to 1,007.
It appears by the action of the town that in five years time from the last extension the ground had become too limited for burial purposes, as a committee was chosen to consider the ex- pediency of annexing the almshouse land, on the opposite side of the street, to the cemetery ; also to report whether the pro- visions in this gift of land to the town by Mr. Coddington had been complied with. We have been unable to find that the committee has ever reported on the question. When the rational system of cremation supersedes the present custom of burials, large tracts of land will not be required for cemeteries.
The question of premature burials 1 seems not to have been agitated in this country to any extent; certainly it has not been investigated with that care and attention that it has re-
1. " The precautions used in Frankfort cemetery against unhappy accidents of this kind are simple, and in the event of reanimation would, I imagine, be found effectual. The body is first conveyed to the Chapel, where the funeral service is read by a clergyman of the religion of the individual accounted as dead; it is then removed to a sepulchral chamber, where a lamp is kept always burning. The lid of the coffin is taken off, and upon the top of each of the fingers and thumbs of the shrouded figure are placed small bells, or rather, indeed, thimbles, to which are attached wires communicating with a bell, which sounds upon the slightest movement of either of the hands. In the adjoining room, attendants who relieve each other at regulated hours during the day and night, watch for the sound of this bell. An apparatus is in the attendants' chamber, which is contrived to show whether in the night-time any of them may have slumbered even for a moment!
" I do not know whether I rightly understood the explanation given to us of this machine; but I believe the attendant was obliged to wind it. up every five minutes, and if he failed to do so it would of itself register his omission on a dial to which he had no access. The thimbles, moreover, easily slipped off, so that, as it was his duty frequently to visit the sepulchral chamber, he would at once perceive whether any movement of the hand had oeeurred, which might have failed to set the bell in motion. If no sign of returned life has exhibited itself within a certain number of days, then the sexton takes charge of the body, and deposits it in the grave already prepared for it."
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ceived in European countries, perhaps for the reason that prema- ture interments have not been so fully proved to be a fact as they have in and on the Continent of Europe. In Germany they have become so well convinced that premature burials have taken place from deep lethargy or suspended animation, that great care has been taken to prevent the occurrence of such an unfortunate circumstance.
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