USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Shirley > History of the town of Shirley, Massachusetts, from its early settlement to A.D. 1882 > Part 8
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As a citizen he took a lively interest in the affairs of the town, and an active part in everything pertaining to its general welfare and prosperity. He was a member of several corporate bodies, and was distinguished for his business ability. For many years he was president of the institution for savings, as he was also president of the Merrimac Bank at the time of his decease. The heads of these institutions, together with the members of the Ma- sonic fraternity --- with which he. was also connected-fol- lowed his remains to their final resting-place. He died March 12, 1855.
CHAPTER V.
Burying-Ground - Training-Field - New Cemetery - Hearses-Town Tombs-Record of Deaths.
All considerate persons seem to regard the ground which holds the dust of departed friends, and the place where their own mortal remains are expected to moulder, as next in sacredness to the spot on which stands their al- tar of religious worship. Hence it was almost universally common with the early settlers of New England, to lay out their cemeteries for the dead in as close contiguity with their churches as circumstances would permit. This cus- tom, so adverse to modern taste, was adopted by the early settlers of Shirley.
Before the incorporation of the town those that died within its territory were probably interred in the centre of Groton, the parent town. But one of its earliest move- ments, after it became a distinct municipality, was to select a place for the burial of the dead near the "centre of the district."
In September, 1753, it was "voted that Jonathan Gould, Samuel Walker, Jonathan Moors, William Long- ley, and Jarathmeel Powers be a committee to find a centre for the district, and to find a burying-place." As near as can be ascertained from the town records, this committee reported a place nearly one-half a mile north of the spot afterwards chosen, and where the old or first burying en- closure now is. It was nearly opposite the school-house in District No. I, and adjoining the first meeting-house lot. Here,' says tradition, a few bodies were deposited. But subsequent measures, which have never found a place of record, go to prove that this locality was soon aban- doned, and the one which has ever since been a place of
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sepulture was adopted. Burials were commenced here within one year from the incorporation of the town. A large slate-stone bearing the following inscription marks the place of the first grave: "This stone is erected in memory of the first buried in this yard, Abraham Holden, son of Lieut. Simon Holden, and Mrs. Sarah, his wife, who died April 18th, 1754, aged 11 months."
It appears that the land thus consecrated to a sacred purpose belonged to the "Proprietors of Groton,"-a com- pany formed of the original grantees of the territory of Groton,-for at a meeting of said "proprietors," nearly a year after the date of the above-named death, a proposal was made to give the town of Shirley a piece of land for a "burying-place, where their burying-place now is." Now whether this association had learned that an infringement had been made on their property, in thus appropriating a plot of uninvested ground to the object just named, and so concluded to convey what would be needed by legal forms ; or, whether an application was made by the inhabi- tants of Shirley, for a conveyance of the spot which they had already begun to occupy, cannot now be known; cer- tain it is that a gift of land was voted for this purpose to the town of Shirley,-and extracts from the "proprietors'" records in relation to it are here inserted.
The first extract is an article in the warrant for a meeting of the "proprietors," to be holden March 7, 1755. The warrant bears date, Feb. 17, 1755.
"4ly. To see if the Proprietors will give the district of Shirley a peace of land ( if [it] is now common) for a burying-place, where there burying-place now is, and say how much, &c."
Our second extract is from the records of said meet- ing :
'4ly. Voted to ye District of Shirley four acres of land (where there burying-place now is) for a burying-place and a training-field, in said district, and that ye Proprietors' committee be directed to lay out the same, providing it doth not infringe upon any former particular grant.
JAMES PRESCOTT, Pro'rs Clerk."
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Our third extract is from the book of "laying out, &c.":
"Shirley, April 17, 1755. Then we, the subscribers, pursuant to ye vote of ye Proprietors of Groton, haye laid out a peace of land for a burying-place, &c., in ye district of Shirley, and bounds as followeth: beginning at the northwest corner, at a chestnut tree, thence ye line runs southerly twenty-eight poles, to a red-oak tree, thence east- erly twenty-four poles, to a red oak, thence northerly twenty-eight poles to a ded white-oak tree, thence westerly twenty-four poles to ye chestnut first mentioned ; the same peace of land contains four acres and sixteen poles.
JAMES PRESCOTT, Prop'rs Clerk.
WILLIAM LAWRENCE, THOMAS TARBELL, SAMUEL TARBELL, BENJA PARKER,
Committee."
"True extracts,-attest, CALEB BUTLER, Prop""" Clerk. Groton, March 15, 1839."
This generous gift from the "Proprietors of Groton " was responded to by the inhabitants of Shirley by the fol- lowing vote, passed in a public town meeting convened for the purpose :
"Voted to chuse a committee to return thanks to the Proprietors of Groton, for a Piece of land for [a] burying- place and other uses. Lieut. Powers, Mr. Samuel Walker, Mr. Richard Herington, Capt. Harris, Ensign Walker, was chosen for said committee."
At the time the above grant was made, a place for mili- tary trainings was considered almost as essential as a ceme- tery for the dead ; and hence, it is not surprising that the donors of the land provided for both purposes in their be- quest to the town. The territory thus conveyed to Shirley -forming a square of four acres, as we have seen-has since, by some unknown means, been reduced to a smaller compass. Some have conjectured that this reduction was
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HISTORY OF SHIRLEY.
occasioned by the removal of the road on the west side of the lot. A more careful examination, however, of the facts in the case goes to prove that it was probably done by the destruction of the frail landmarks upon the east boundary. This supposition is strengthened by the fact that only the west part of the territory was needed or used, for the purpose of sepulture, for nearly half a century from the incorporation of the town; the remainder-as well as adjoining lands-being covered with a forest for the longest part of this period. Under the circumstances, how liable, a monument as unstable as a stake and stones, or even a tree, to disappear-together with all personal recollection of its precise locality. This whole matter, of the "grave-yard and training-field," was thoroughly inves- tigated by a committee appointed by the town in 1842, of which Hon. Leonard M. Parker was chairman. Mr. Parker made a very careful and elaborate report, which was entered upon the public records in the town clerk's of- fice, and from which, the above statements were derived.
The land in question-as fully appears by the investi- gation alluded to-is wholly upon the east side of the road which runs north and south by the graveyard. And it is divided nearly in the centre by a road which passes through, east and west. That portion which is north of this road, and upon which the first-parish meeting-house now stands, has ever been an open common, and forms what constituted the training-field. The portion which is south of this road is a burying lot, and has been such dur- ing the existence of the town ; and, for nearly a century, was the only place used or needed for that purpose.
Until the year 1840, or about that period, this ceme- tery was much neglected. It was originally enclosed by a rail-fence, which in a few years perished as do all such frail structures. It was then surrounded by a coarse stone-wall, which remained, under certain dilapidations caused by the yearly frosts, until 1857; when the wall was removed, on the two sides that are bordered by roads, and a fence of split granite posts and iron rails was set up in its place.
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Previous to the year 1840 individual enterprise had planted ornamental trees on these two sides of the ceme- tery, outside of the enclosure. In all other respects these grounds were sadly neglected. The cemetery was given in charge to an unlearned, unskilful undertaker, who located, the graves without order or taste-wherever he could excavate with the greatest ease-and suffered the whole enclosure to be over-run with wild grass and wilder brush-wood. As has been intimated, the walls tumbled from their places and were suffered to lie in their delap- sion ; the monuments which the hand of affection had reared over the dust of relatives and friends were removed from their upright positions, bending backwards and for- wards, inclined hither and thither, and some of them lying prostrate, covered with moss and other accretions of time,-presenting in every feature a most forbidding aspect, and staying the steps of those who seek the place of the dead as one of holy meditation and devout resolve.
As above stated, in 1840 a change came over the scenery of the sacred locality. The selectmen were di- rected by the town, "to make some improvements in the . external appearance of the Burying Yard." The result of their efforts was very creditable to their judgment and taste. The delapsed walls were at first repaired, and sub- sequently removed to give place to the iron and granite fence before mentioned ; the leaning and prostrate head- stones were readjusted; as well as could be done, the grounds were laid out by intersecting walks or alleys, and ornamented with trees and shrubbery. Individual families enclosed lots by fences of ornamented iron and other devices, planted them with flowers, and, in some cases, furnished them with costly monuments. Hence, notwith- standing the uninviting appearance of the "old cemetery" until this change was effected, it assumed an order and beauty beyond what the most sanguine could have deemed possible. It was, however, soon found too small for the population. The grounds that had been set apart for family enclosures were all taken and appropriated, and
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room was with difficulty obtained for single graves. It was therefore deemed essential to have a new cemetery, or to have the old one enlarged. This necessity brought the matter before the town at a meeting holden April 4, 1859, when it was voted "to choose a committee of three persons to select a lot for a burying-ground, and report at the next town meeting. Nathaniel Holden, Jonas Holden, and Israel Longley, were appointed." This committee made a verbal report and were dismissed from further service.
One year later, April 2, 1860, the subject was renewed ; and the selectmen, in connection with Jeremiah C. Hartwell and Thomas Whitney, were appointed a com- mittee to see "if the burial ground in the centre of the town could be enlarged." This committee subsequently reported that a piece of land from the estate of Jonas Longley, situated on the south side of the present burying- ground, could be obtained. Whereupon it was voted "that said committee be instructed to make the purchase at the price that had been stipulated (two hundred and fifty dollars), and that the treasurer be authorized to take a deed of the same." This action was taken Nov. 6, 1860 ; but owing to the trials connected with the war of the re- bellion, which commenced soon after, the matter was laid aside for more than three years ; when, at the meeting in March, 1864, it was again brought forward, and the com- mittee of so long standing was reinforced by the addition of two recruits, viz: Zenas Brown and George Page. This committee reported that they had "purchased of Charles Gerrish of Groton a lot of land ( lately owned by Jonas Longley), situated south and east of the burial ground in Shirley Centre,-one and one-quarter acres-for five hundred and twenty-five dollars; and that the town treasurer has taken a deed of the same." The committee was then discharged, and the town adopted the following judicious arrangement in relation to the future care of the cemetery : "Voted, that Dr. James O. Parker, George Page and Thomas E. Whitney, be a committee to have charge of the burying-ground in the centre of the town,
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with power to enclose by fencing the ground added to the same; to superintend the division and laying out of lots and the manner of disposing of them; to have charge of the burying-ground fund, to receive and appropriate any and all donations that may be made to the burying-ground, or to the town for its improvement, and to have the general care and direction of it."
At the town-meeting holden March 6, 1865, the following communication was presented for the considera- tion of the town.
"DR. JAMES O. PARKER, Chairman of the Committee hav- ing in charge the Burial Ground, &c.
"DEAR SIR :- The purchase of one acre and thirty- nine rods of land, which the town has recently made as an addition to the Burial Ground in the centre of the town, I consider to be insufficient to meet the wants of the public for any length of time, as a place of burial for the dead ; neither is it large enough to admit much space for embel- lishment ; nor can it be laid out to meet the demands of the improved taste of the present day in the usual arrange- ment and adornment of cemeteries.
"To obviate these difficulties,-and to manifest the deep interest which I feel in this ancient burial place, conse- crated as it is with the dust of the first inhabitants of this town, as well as that of our own kindred and friends,-I have purchased the adjoining estate ; and I now propose to offer to the town as a gift, a portion of this estate, indicated as near as may be upon a plan referred to below, provided, the same shall be accepted by the town with the conditions hereunto annexed.
"First. That this land shall ever be considered as a part of the burial ground.
"Second. , That this land, together with the land recently purchased by the town, shall be laid out and im- proved as soon as practicable by the committee appointed at the annual town meeting in March, 1864, (and now
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having charge of the burial ground,) substantially in accordance with the plan prepared by Mr. George F. Meacham, architect, of Boston, herewith presented; and that this committee shall have the sole care, superintend- ence and management of this cemetery, with power to fill all vacancies in the committee, to make all rules and regu- lations deemed necessary for the full execution of their trust.
"Very respectfully,
"THOMAS E. WHITNEY. "Shirley, March 4, 1865."
The town voted to "accept the proposed gift of Mr. Thomas E. Whitney, with the conditions stipulated in his letter offering the same."
The whole of the grounds have been enclosed by a durable fence, and an outline of the work proposed by the architect has been made, and many family lots have been appropriated, furnished with durable enclosures, provided with graceful monuments, and elegantly ornamented with shrubbery and flowers. It is now an inviting retreat for bodily exercise, and for those mental and moral commun- ings which appropriately belong to seasons of relaxation from the cares and business of life. Here the weary, toil-worn pilgrim of physical employment may contemplate the feeble tenure that holds him from the grave, the cer- tainty of death, and the short time that must elapse before he will lie as low as those whose ashes swell the turf beneath his feet, and with them silently await "the voice of the archangel and the trump of God."
In this cemetery sleep the remains of the early settlers of the town, and their children of the next genera- tion, none of whom are now among the living ; here, too, rests the dust of the first minister of the town, (who, for more than half a century, led the devotions at the altar of the public sanctuary,) with the dust of his fellow-worship- pers all around, as though he would remain with his people even in the place of the dead; and here, too,
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moulder the remains of the two physicians who passed their life-season of usefulness within the town. They sleep with those to whom they had administered the heal- ing prescription, but whom their skill could not ultimately save from the grave.
"Requiescat in pace."
As early as 1849 it was found necessary to enclose a new cemetery, somewhere in the neighborhood of the South Village, to accommodate the growing population of that section of the town. A committee, composed of the following-named persons, was appointed to carry the measure into effect : Hon. L. M. Parker, Darius Emery and William H. Crossman.
This committee purchased a locality for this purpose, bordering on the Catacunemaug, rising somewhat abruptly from the banks of that river, gently undulated, and par- tially covered with clusters of young trees. It presents a naturally wild beauty, but under the plastic hand of art it may be made to combine the handy-work of nature with the smoothing process of human invention, in such man- ner as to give it an admirable fitness for the sacred object for which it is designed.
According to the report made by the committee above named, the land is "in the form of an ellipse, which they divided into rings by circular walks; the rings they again divided transversely into compartments, making ninety-eight lots, to be appropriated to individual families." It lies retired from the bustle and noise of business, as though it would abjure the cares and strifes of living men, and at the same time furnish them with a retreat for medi- tation and devotion, which may be regarded a chief char- acteristic of the modern ornamented cities of the dead. It was originally inclosed by wooden palings, and furnished with a cheap and unsubstantial gate. These have given place to more durable fixtures, as will soon appear.
On the 20th of May, 1865, some fifteen years from the laying out of the new cemetery, it was placed, by vote
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HISTORY OF SHIRLEY.
of the town, in charge of a committee that was to have the superintendence of the enclosure, attend to the dis- posal of family lots, and to all the duties that such charge would imply. Leonard M. Parker, 2d, Jerome Gardner and William M. Park constituted this committee.
It was subsequently found necessary to enlarge the area of this cemetery ; and it was accordingly decided that the selectmen should be deputed to purchase such ad- ditional territory as the exigencies of the case required, and to have the whole enclosed by a fence composed of stone posts and wooden rails. But before the fence was erected the wooden rails were substituted by iron, at the suggestion of Mr. N. C. Munson, who has ever been ready, both by his counsel and his purse, to aid in the public improvements of the town. This liberal benefactor of the people's interests was at the entire expense of that part of the inclosure that separates the grounds from the highway,-the front fence of the cemetery, which includes the gateway of the public entrance. Such is the solidity and beauty of the structure here erected by Mr. Munson, that it lays claim to a special description.
Its entire length, including the gates, is two hundred and fifty feet. It has a central concave curve, sixteen and one-half degrees, which includes the entrances, and which occupies sixty-three feet of the length of the structure. In the centre of this curve is a superb Gothic arch, of massive proportions, spanning a carriage entrance nine feet in width. Its columns rest on a granite basis, and it presents, in its gable, a neat trefoil device. It is crowned with a finial in the form of a cross. The height of the arch is twenty feet. On either side of it are entrances for foot passengers, each of which is four feet in width. These entrances are buttressed by columns that are sur- mounted by entablatures, ornamented with the cross of Jerusalem in bass-relief. The whole structure is supported by a granite foundation, deeply embedded in the ground. The columns, arches and entablatures are composed of Nova Scotia sand-stone, and are of such thorough work- manship as to defy the inroads of time for centuries. The
Autoglyph Print, W. P. ALLEN, Gardner, Mass.
ENTRANCE TO THE NEW CEMETERY.
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height of the side entrances from the plane to the crown of the entablatures is twelve feet. The gates are of iron, and of substantial construction. Instead of planting memorials of coeval date in the corner-stone or basement of the work, they have found a place in a cavity of the key-stone or apex; thus reversing the order by which the frail records of an existing age may be preserved for the use or curiosity of a distant generation.
From the abutments of the curve which forms the centre of the structure, lines of granite wall are extended ninety-three feet each way, completing the front enclosure of the cemetery. These walls are capped with sand- stone, and both make a height of three feet, on the top of which is a balustrade of iron, four feet high. The united height of the wings, therefore, amounts to seven feet.
The entire expense of this lasting and highly orna- mental structure was over $5,000. Beneath the conse- crated soil, thus protected, are buried the remains of the honored father of the donor, and there, too, sleep the ashes of six dear children. The structure will in all time remain a memorial of the taste and generosity of its founder, and an ornament to the town.
Both of the cemeteries in the town have been supplied with receiving-tombs, built of granite and finished in the most substantial and workmanlike manner. That in the old cemetery is supplied with a massive door of bronze, presented to the town by Thomas Edwin Whitney, on which is engraved the following pertinent inscription, taken from the prophetic records of the Old Testament :
"Seek Him that turneth the shadow of death into the morning."
The cost of this structure was nearly three hundred dollars. Mr. Whitney expended over two hundred dollars additional, in laying out the grounds on the new part of the old cemetery, and in erecting a wall on its south- eastern boundary.
Down to the year 1817 the town had been without a hearse, or any special convenience by which the dead could
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be conveyed to the place of sepulture. At the annual town-meeting of the above-named year, an unavailing attempt was made to supply this very important defect. The attempt was renewed at the next town-meeting, which occurred in one month, with better success. It was then voted that a hearse be procured, and that a proper building be erected for its storage. This was but a small matter, yet it was one step in the right direction. The building and the hearse served the inhabitants of the town for the space of twenty-eight years, when both became so much worn and antiquated as to be unfit for further use; accord- ingly, the house was demolished and a new and improved one was made in its place, and a new and (what were in that day called) an elegant carriage and harness were prepared for burial purposes at the manufactory of Harvey A. Woods & Co. The expense of the building was eighty-eight dollars, and the cost of the hearse and harness was one hundred and fifty dollars.
After a use of twenty-seven years, of this apparatus for burial purposes, it was found to have fallen behind the existing age of improvements, and that it must be super- seded by something better adapted to the times. Accord- ingly a new hearse was voted into existence, in 1872, at an expense of four hundred and fifty dollars.
Soon after the new cemetery at the South Village was opened, it was found inconvenient to depend upon the undertaker in the centre of the town to superintend burials two miles distant, so that a second official was appointed, and a second hearse was procured to meet the new de- mand; but this outfit lasted but a few years before it was regarded as past its season of fit appearance, and was sup- planted by the one in present use in 1873. The two hearses were purchased at a cost of nine hundred dollars.
This chapter appears to be an appropriate place to insert a record of the deaths that have occurred from year to year, so far as such record has been preserved, since the town has been incorporated. It is greatly to be regretted that in most New-England towns, for the first
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century of their existence, the death records were entirely neglected, or left to the uncertain care of the minister of the town,-who, on account of his spiritual charge of families and his connection with funerals, was expected to take note of death as a part of his appropriate work. Generally they fulfilled this part of their trust with fidelity. But as their records, after their deaths, were sometimes consigned to the waste-basket,-and as towns were often, for long periods, without a settled ministry,-intervals occurred, oftentimes for years in length, when such impor- tant dates and statistics as those which relate to births, marriages and deaths, were wholly omitted in the records of both church and state. For the space of nine years, from the incorporation of Shirley to the settlement of a minister, no such records were made; or, if made, have been lost. And by some accident the record of deaths kept by Mr. Whitney from 1807 to 1815 has disap- peared. Thus, in a little more than one century, there are periods, amounting in all to seventeen years, for which the death-list has been lost, if one was ever made.
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