TOWN HILL CEMETERY - 1882 | NEW HARTFORD TRIBUNE

PUBLISHED IN THE NEW HARTFORD TRIBUNE FRIDAY MAY 5 1882

Page 2 | New Hartford in Old Times | Number 15.

Passing east, about 20 rods from the house of Henry A Kellogg, where formerly stood the old tavern kept by Capt. Benjamin Wells, we reach the entrance of the Town Hill Cemetery, which has a history ante-dating the incorporation of the town in 1738. In 1735 the proprietors of New Hartford purchased of Eleazer Goodwin 5 acres, 3 rods of land, bounded west and south by highways on Town Hill, and sequestered it to the public use "for commons forever". On this ground the church and school house stand, and in 1738, Sept 8th and 9th, Israel Loomis and Matthew Gillet, by order of the town, surveyed and laid out 2 acres of the tract for a burial place, for which, and altering a highway, they received the compensation of 12 and 20 shillings.

So far as can be ascertained, Stephen Kelsey, who died April 2, 1745, in the 71st year of his age, was the first person buried in the pioneer's cemetery. His tombstone still remains in a good state of preservation, the inscription being quite legible, though that of "Mrs. Dorothy" his wife, who lies beside him, buried a years later, is amost effaced. There is a significant entry in the town records of March 1745, a few days before Mr. Kelsey's death, a vote is recorded making an appropriation "to purchase a decent cloth for a burying cloth", which would seem to imply that no previous need had arisen for such a covering for a bier.

The ground in the cemetery is full of springs, and greatly affected by frost, to this is probably owing the fact that many of the ancient stones are thrown out of place, and some of them entirely leveled. The granite, of which most of the early tombstones were hewn, does not retain inscriptions in a legible condition as well as either brown stone or marble, and some of the names and dates on monuments which have retained their perpendicular position, are entirely obliterated and cannot be deciphered by the most patient scrutiny. As far as can be found, the only graves of the first settlers which are traceable, are those of Stephen Kelsey, died in 1745; Ensign Caleb Pitkin, died in 1768, and Joseph Merrill in 1788. Although there is no regular division into lots, still the settlers seem to have been buried in family clusters, and one can conjecture where probably lie the fathers, by the graves of the second and third generations.

A son of Deacon Martin Smith, who died in 1749, lies in the center of a little unmarked space, where probably repose the ashes of the first Deacon and Sarah his wife, and others of the name, whose tombstones have yielded to frost and storm. By the side of the second Jonathan Marsh, who died in 1802, at the age of 87, and Mrs. Theodosia, his wife who died in 1795, aged 70, is a space for two graves, probably those of Jonathan Marsh the elder and his wife. In what seems to have been the early Seymour plot, only one partial inscription can be traced, that the wife of Uriah Seymour. The grave of the first Douglass cannot be found, but a fallen stone bears the name of Samuel Douglass, who died in 1791, in the 51st year of his age, probably a son of the pioneer.

The names of Flower, Gilbert, Spencer, Steel, Andruss, Loomis, Wells, Richards and Kellogg are all found on moss-covered stones, but none of the first generation. The original family names, which the writer has been unable to trace in the old burying lot, are Watson, Gillet, Olcott and Shepard.

Here lie the three of the four pastors of the Town Hill church—Rev. Jonathan Marsh, pastor 55 years, died in 1794, aged 80; Rev. Amasa Jerome, pastor from 1802 to 1813, died in 1832, aged 57; Rev. Cyrus Yale, pastor from 1814 to 1854, with an intermission of three years, died in office in 1854.

Among those who served their country in the Revolutionary war, here buried are, "Maj. Abil Merrill, who died May 10th, 1776, Aet. 63. A lover of verteu, a friend to his country, and all good men." In the eastern part of the yard, under two overhanging firs, stands a marble slab marking the graves of Hon. Aaron Austin, who died in 1829, aged 84, and Esther his wife, died in 1826, aged 78. Col. Austin was on of the ablest men in New Hartford ever produced, eminent as a soldier, a civil officer and a citizen, yet the inscription on his tomb tells none of these things.

Col. Seth Smith, son of Deacon Martin, a distinguished officer of the Revolution, must be buried here, by the side of his wife whose monument is traceable, but nothing marks his resting place.

In 1853 Rev. Cyrus Yale took in hand the matter of making repairs and necessary improvements in the old burying ground, and issued the following notice to the public, which was probably read from the pulpit and posted on the signboard. A copy of this notice in Mr. Yale's hand-writing is in possession of Mr. H. A. Kellogg, to whom we are in debted for permission to copy it here.

NOTICE.

In the early days of New Hartford a cemetery was established on Town Hill. This was the only public place of burial for three-forths of a century. Here lie the ashes of the original families of the town for nearly three generations. But the stones which mark the family graves of familiar and honored names from all parts of the original ecclesiastical society are some of them broken, and other lean at different angles; while the whole ground shows marks of neglect and needs a surrounding fence.

In view of the above facts, all persons in New Hartford who feel an interest in the object, and especially those who have friends buried in this ancient cemetery, are respectfully invited to meet and consider if some voluntary measures shall not be taken to show due respect for our dead, and not let the place of our fathers [illegible] the waste.

The following paper was then drawn up, in response to which was subscribed $179.

Provision having been made for the erection of a new and substantial fence around the cemetery on Town Hill, New Hartford, we the subscribers promise to pay to Mr. Henry A. Kellogg the sums annexed to our respective names, to be applied by him to the improvement of said ground, under the general direction of Mr. Yale.

New Hartford, Aug. 30, 1853

The names appended to the paper are as follows:

James Merrill, Roger H. Mills, $10.00 each;

Anson Hawley, E.M. Kellogg, H.A. Kellogg, V.W. Kellogg, C.D. Kellogg, R. Rood, Prosepina Goodwin, Daniel Royce, Ira Merrill, Marshall Merrill, Edmund Watson, James L. Watson, James F. Henderson, Norman Kellogg, Isaac P. Steel, Norman Merrill, R.M. Merrill, Cynthia Marsh, Elizabeth Marsh, Ralph Merrill, Luther Loomis, Phidelis Benjamin, Asa Tyson, H.A. Atwood, Chester Ryder, Wm. Steele, $5.00 each;

and Elijah Spencer, John Spencer, R.M. Butler, $3.00 each.

Two deeds, bearing date of April 24th, 1854, from Charles D. Kellogg to New Hartford school society, are recorded, the first, of a strip the whole length of the north side of the burying ground, five feet wide on the west side, and the other a strip on the south of the burying ground, 36 feet in width and 25 rods in length, both for an extension of the cemetery.

The improvements made at that time consisted of breaking out stone, (of which over 200 loads were taken away), grading the ground, and cutting and digging up trees and bushes, with which the yard was choked, some of the white birches being 30 feet high, and 6 or 8 inches in diameter. It was proposed to divide the ground into lots and sell them, but Rev. Mr. Yale said that should not be done, it should remain as heretofore, a free burial place. He paid for the extension himself, it being almost his last work for New Hartford. After his death, in May 1854, his son, Cyrus Yale, expended about $1,000 on the cemetery, some $600 of which were laid out on the Yale family lot, and the remainder built the substantial fence around the entire ground. Each succeeding year the children of Mr. Yale attend to the mowing and trimming of the ground, at their own expense.

In 1880, a motion was introduced into town meeting, that the old burying yard be kept in order by the town, and rejected on the ground that if this were done, all the other cemeteries within New Hartford limits would ask for similar appropriations. This indicated that the peculiar proprietorship of the town in the old cemetery was not understood. Unlike all others, this belongs to no association or ecclesiastical society, or private parties, but to New Hartford, a legacy from the fathers, "sequestered forever," and should be religiously reverenced and kept in order in memory of the pioneers whose last resting place is on its western slope

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