This text is part of:
“ [427] burying-ground.” This custom of burying the dead in tombs grew so fast and strong that almost every family had a tomb, or part of one. This prevented the erection of gravestones, and thereby deprived posterity of all the knowledge derived from these authentic records. It was the custom, in the earlier times, for a family to choose the spot in the burying-ground where they would gather their dead; and for others to invade this spot was considered an outrage on social rights and Christian feelings. In the old burying-ground, there are many remains of this arrangement; and we trust that no sacrilegious hand will now be laid on these sacred relics. In the south-west corner of that ground, the slaves were buried; but no monumental stones were raised! Are there as many gravestones now standing within the old burying-ground as were there fifty years ago? We think not. Where are they? Can the mouths of the tombs answer? There were six tombs built in 1767 by private gentlemen. Benjamin Floyd was the builder. They are those nearest the front gate, on its western side, and are under the sidewalk of the street. The bricks of which they are built were made in the yard west of Rock Hill. The common price of a tomb has been one hundred and two dollars. Though many new tombs had been built, and some little additional space secured in the old burying-ground, still there was need of further accommodations for burial; and the town therefore voted, May 11. 1812, to request the selectmen to consider what further provisions could be made. This led to the appointment of a committee in May, 1813. A new burying-place seemed to be necessary; and the committee so reported. No definite action was had until May, 1816, when another committee reported, that the land which the town had purchased in Cross Street, near Mr. Turner's ship-yard, for the position of an alms-house, had better be used as a burying-ground. The town acceded; and then ordered that the land be laid out in lots, that a proper fence be built around it, and that trees be planted in such number and order as to make the enclosure appear as such a place should. March 7, 1853: Voted to remove the pound on Cross Street, and extend the burial-ground to the line of said street, and build thereon a suitable iron fence, with stone basement. The next movement for another burying-ground was March 6, 1837, when the town passed the following: “Voted ”
John Wilson and son. 22 School Street. Boston. 1855.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.