Andrew Share 1763-1847 - Revolutionary Soldier, who gave land for Cemetery, School House and Methodict Church, buried here.
The pioneers of this section settle on land that was once a part of the Indian Reservation. The State took land from the Indian Reservation in 1817. It was called the "Purchase of 1817." Most of the burials in the old Cemetery were residents of the land which was a part of this 1817 Purchase.
At an early date it was known as the New Reservation Cemetery, and as time passed, it was known as the East Hill Cemetery, and as Miss Flora A. Morton tells us it was finally agreed by the residents in the area about 1929-30 to call it Sentinel Heights Cemetery, after the locality name which had been called Sentinel Heights in honor of an old resident who had early planted a row of trees across his property, which was on the Hill near the old Cemetery, and in the years that had passed the trees having grown tall and stately, and when viewed from a distance people had said they looked like Sentinels.
The history of the Cemetery has been presented by Families living in the area and having owned lots in the Cemetery. It was felt best to write this History up according to Lots that had been purchased in the Cemetery when it was first established, about 1815.
The first burial in the Cemetery was on 28 April 1816, Susannah Snow, infant daughter of Asa and Dorothy Wheeler-Snow, who was born on 11 October 1813 and died: 25 April 1816.
Acknowledgement is here given to Miss Flora A. Morton, who kept the cemetery records for many years and caused the information of the Cemetery to be preserved. Many hours were spent in writing letters, and filing away facts as she discovered them. She was very active in getting funds from descendants of those who are resting in the old Pioneer Cemetery. She opend her home for what she called "old home day" for the descendants of the buried in Pioneer Cemetery, for the purpose of raising funds in which the Cemetery could be used in 'repairing the Cemetery,' as she called it. At the present time I do not know how much money was collected, but I have heard that enough was obtained to build a new fence around the plot as well as an attempt to cut grass, trees and brush from the Cemetery, this was accomplished with the help of the Town of LaFayette. I gratefully dedicate this project, which I have attempted, to Miss Flora A. Morton, which could never have been accomplished without her untiring effort during the decade of 1928-35.
Lot No. 1 Henry Root, then J. Tullar Northway & Lewis Cook
Lot No. 7 Dubois
Lot No. 8 Safford & Walters
Lot No. 19, North 1/2 Whitford
TO BE CONTINUED
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6 December 1996
4 April 1999