New Hampshire Old Graveyard Association
September 8, 2001
The
fall meeting of the New Hampshire Old Graveyard Association was held at Hollis,
NH on September 8, 2001. President Joan Casarotto presided. Sharon Howe of
the Hollis Historical Society welcomed us. She presented a brief history of
the area. Massachusetts conducted a survey of the lands in the Merrimack Valley
as far north as Lake Winnipesauke. They found rich agricultural lands under
cultivation by the Indians. Accordingly Massachusetts granted the town of
Dunstable to be an outpost in the wilderness. King Phillips War in 1676 caused
many settlers to leave due to Indian attacks.
After
the war settlement resumed and the population reached 50 families by 1730.
The West Parish of Dunstable was soon established. The meetinghouse for the
new parish was built on the site of the present church in the center of Hollis.
The first minister was called in 1743. The town of Dunstable was divided into
four towns: Merrimack, Hollis, Monson and Dunstable. Monson eventually gave
up their charter. About all that remains of that town today is the town cemetery
that is now the north cemetery in Hollis. The Pine Hill area was originally
part of Dunstable, but was annexed to Hollis. The Pine Hill cemetery dates
from the time it was part of Dunstable.
Clark
Bagnall read the minutes of the summer meeting. Trina Purcell noted that some
of the methods for cleaning gravestones used by the speaker, Roger Syphers,
were not recommended. His use of chlorine bleach and a stiff brush are generally
considered too harsh.
Doris
Ashton, Corresponding Secretary, reported that she had good response from
her call for articles for the Rubbings. Keep up the good work.
Jean
Mertinooke read the Treasurer’s report. She reported a balance of $2,109.58.
Her report was filed.
Louise
Tallman reported that Bob Goodbye, Archaeologist at Franklin Pierce College
has human bones from three graveyards in New Hampshire. They were dug up by
Howard Sargent is 1977 and written up in Man
in the Northeast. A trailer park owner in Lee persuaded him to dig up
old graveyard. Bob Goodbye feels that they should be returned too Lee. Louise
recommended that he approach the town of Lee for funds. They should never
have been dug up at all.
Louise
also reported on the Philbrick graveyard in North Hampton. It is laid out
on two levels with a wall in between. The lower level contains Locke burials. A nearby house is about to be replaced. Fred
Currier, a descendant of the family, wants to donate the graveyard to the
Locke Family Association. Terry Knowles will be consulted to resolve the legal
questions this raises.
Trina
Purcell reported that our application for a grant of funds for storage for
our archival materials was denied. She may resubmit.
Clark
Bagnall gave the Computer Committee report. The new database is complete and
can be used for entering gravestone inscriptions. We have a volunteer to transcribe
Greenland. Some of the data from the old database still require conversion.
We need to be looking at establishing our own web site. Rootsweb can provide
a free web site.
Our
speaker was Joan Tinklepaugh who spoke on her experiences as part of a group
that recorded the cemeteries of Hollis. The project was started in 1997 and
included six cemeteries. The recorded all burials on worksheets from which
they were transcribed to a computer database. The stones were photographed.
Additional information was included on each individual such as birth and death
dates, parents’ names, whether they were married or single, occupation and
town service. 3000 individual burials were recorded compared to a population
of 7000.
Sources
came from a variety of places. The vital records were incomplete. Records
for 1830 to 1887 were missing. Obituaries from the local paper, the Hollis
Times, and the Nashua Telegraph were gathered into scrapbooks. Town meeting
records, school records and printed genealogies were all consulted. There
were questionnaires that had been filled out as part of the town’s bicentennial.
Old letters and wills were used, but some people were still not found.
The
software used was Family Reunion database, which featured unlimited storage
for notes. It took a year to enter the data. Married women are indexed by
their married name and then reindexed by their maiden name in a separate index.
The database is available to genealogists at the Historical Society. They
have maps for all but the East Cemetery.
While
recording North Cemetery the heard voices and wondered if they were hearing
ghosts. The voices proved to be an echo from a nearby hill. South Cemetery
is “High Society”. Every one buried there lived within a mile of there. There
are 600 stones and a few unmarked graves. A few stones are missing. There
are DAR records for this cemetery and records of burials start in 1908. There
are six tombs built by Luther Hubbard. The Worcester family tomb was one of
these. Jesse Worcester has a gravestone with the family genealogy inscribed.
Jesse was a colorful character. Jesse and his father Noah were supporters
of Mr. Emerson, the minister. They did not like his successor, Ely Smith.
A confrontation arose which resulted in Jesse being kicked out of the church.
John H Worcester was a grandson of Jesse. He was a casualty of the Civil War
at age 21. He wrote letters home that give a sense of his character. He made
efforts to send home the body of another dead soldier.
The
Flagg lot belonged to Timothy Flagg. He had two daughters, Abigail and Harriet,
who were school teachers and never married. He and his brother went to California
during the gold rush. The brother stayed; Timothy returned. He sent letters
home from California complaining of the low moral standards he found there.
The
Tenny family lived on a farm nearby. The family consisted of Ralph and Phebe
and there children. The father and the son both had wives named Phebe. The
William Tenny III stone tells story of daughter Caroline, a missionary who
died in San Francisco. Her husband died in a shipwreck soon after. A son who
went to Kansas City, Missouri is also mentioned. “Barney”, as he was known,
was actually George C. Barnaby who for many years served as the caretaker
for the Eastman family. It is unknown if he is related to the other Barnabys
in town.
The
Hayden family is buried in North Cemetery and is one of the original families
in town. They adopted a nephew Daniel Hayden and he is the Civil War hero
buried in North Cemetery. He was wounded twice including a head wound. He
had to walk thirty miles with this wound. After the war he returned to Hollis
where and had two children. One child died and the other, a daughter Bertha,
became quite controversial. She contributed
much to the town history. She was the second woman on the School Committee
and drove a team for the Hollis Fire Department. She never married.
Another
grave in the cemetery contains triplets. The babies and their mother all died
within a span of ten days. Also buried in this cemetery is a man named Hezekiah
who was the victim of the only murder in Hollis. He was a large man who was
hit over the head with a chair in 1833. His murderer, a man named Rufus, set
his cell on fire and died.
Pine
Hill Cemetery was started in the late 1700s. The Farley family, descendants
of Captain Caleb Farley, are buried here. The earliest graves are those of
two infants. Captain Farley was married three times but he never lived with
his third wife. Norman Howe is the Civil War hero in Pine Hill. He is mentioned
in the letters of John Worcester. He died shortly thereafter, and his body
was returned to Hollis. Louisa Rideout Jewett was a sister of Norman’s mother
and was married to Francis Jewett. They were divorced and he remarried. Their
son Perley was always bitter towards his father because of the divorce. He
always referred to him as “Mr. Jewett” and threatened the “knock his head
off”. Perley served in the Civil War and died of disease. He has a memorial
stone in Pine Hill.
The
East Cemetery was started in the 1850s by newcomers to Hollis. The land was
donated by Augustus Lovejoy, a blacksmith. His parents are buried in this
cemetery. Charles H Farley, Second Lieutenant, Company H is buried here. He
was a friend of John Worcester and died of wounds at Lake City Florida. Charles
Stratton, a midget, is also buried here. He had two wives. The fate of the
second wife is unknown as she is not mentioned in his obituary. Kenny Marble
has an interesting gravestone with a carburetor. He ran an auto repair business
and was killed in a motorcycle accident. The cemetery also contains a piano
gravestone.
The
final cemetery mentioned was a small graveyard of the Absolom Lawrence family.
His second wife was from Hollis. The family originally lived in Massachusetts,
but the moved to the other end of their farm, which was just over the line
in Hollis.
After
this very interesting talk, the business meeting resumed. A Nominating Committee
was appointed consisting of Ingrid Smith, Barbara Benoit and Kay Beij. Members
were reminded that we need meeting places for our 2002 meetings.
After
lunch we toured the Central Cemetery.
Respectfully
submitted,
Clark
H Bagnall
Recording
Secretary