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Cemetery
Woodside Cemetery, Westminster, Worcester, MA
Forest Hills, Fitchburg www.foresthill@net1plus.com, Don
Champagne, Superintendent
Riverside-Fairview Cemetery, 56 Milbury St/Providence Rd, Grafton,
01519
508-839-8522 http://www.town.grafton.ma.us
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Epitaphs from the Cemetary of Worcester Common
http://www.worcestermass.com/graves/
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To: MAWORCES-L@rootsweb.com
Subject: Blackstone Town Cemetery
Hi Listers,
The Blackstone Town Cemetery is on Mendon Road in Blackstone and after the old
Lincoln School and before the cross road at Lincoln Street. I guess that most
don't realize that the cemetery in the front is the town cemetery and the older
overgrown cemetery in the back is probably the old Quaker Cemetery in
Blackstone. Most of my recent family are buried there.
Jon Normandin JonNormandin@aol.com
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From: Adele Just [adelejust@earthlink.net]
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 3:21 PM
To: MAWORCES-L@rootsweb.com
Subject: Burial Ground on Mechanic Street This information I intended to
forward to Barbara and Gloria, but it may be helpful generally if it can be
found in the list archives for later researchers. I have selected pages from
"Inscriptions From The Burial Ground On Mechanic Street" that were photocopied
for me in Massachusetts in June by a fellow researcher. The inscriptions are
alphabetical, and the end of the "W" section occurs on page 120. An "Addendum
to the Inscriptions from the Old Burial Grounds in Worceser, Massachusetts;
1879" begins at page 124, and "Additional Names and Inscriptions Found in The
Burial Ground On Mechanic Street" begins on page 128. This last is also a
listing of inscriptions that are alphabetical. Most of the pages photocopied
for me are selective and are specific to my own research at Worcester, but here
are highlights from additional pages with explanatory/descriptive information:
"The following [a very short list] were buried in the Mechanic Street Ground,
and afterwards removed to other Cemeteries": [other Cemeteries here were not
named, but other material indicates removals were to Rural Cemetery at
Worcester and Hope Cemetery.] "The following inscription was taken from a stone
now standing in a field near Nelson Place in the northern part of the city, in
which locality once stood the pest house": [This was an inscription for a Mrs.
Elizabeth Blake wife of Mr. Increase Blake who died of small pox Novr ye 22d
A.D. 1792, aged 61 years.] The removal of remains from the Burial Ground on
Mechanic Street occurred as the result of a proposal to extend Foster Street
along the northern border of the cemetery, pursuant to an order passed by the
Board of Alderman on February 17, 1877. The City Council dealt with various
orders in this connection on May 7, 1877; July 16, 1877; and February 18, 1878,
including the necessity of "obtaining more land for the enlargement of Hope
Cemetery." "The contract for removing the remains was awarded to Messrs. George
Sessions & Sons, experienced undertakers, and under their superintendence
1116 bodies were taken up and deposited in other places of burial, most of them
in the lot provided by the City at Hope Cemetery." Over 300 names were printed
in the first collection of Inscriptions, and the Addendum added 100 more names
which were "obtained from coffin plates, from head stones which had been
overlooked in the previous survey or were found buried benetah the surface, and
from friends and relatives of the deceased who visited the ground in search of
their remains." "To render this publication, to a specified time, complete, the
record of deaths in Worcester from 1717 to 1825,--omitting, of course, the
names which appear in the Inscriptions,--has been copied from the books in the
office of the City Clerk, and is herewith supplied." Finally, on page 141
appears an item for: Mrs. Phillis Winslow, a. 91, d. April 7, 1836. Colored.
Mother of Peter Rich, Sr. I have perhaps 30 pages of what is at least 144
pages, with an index mentioned, and there may be other items specific to this
research project contained within this book of Inscriptions. I think this book
may be available to review online either through Heritage Quest or the Godfrey
Library in Connecticut, although I have not yet checked Ancestry.com. The
Burial Ground on Mechanic Street was "decommissioned" in the 1870s and the
gravestones were laid flat and buried. I also received a handful of pages from
what seems to be a book, "Rural Cemetery," by The Proprietors of Rural Cemetery
(cemetery bounded by Rural Drive-south, Grove Street-west, North Street, and
Prescott Street-east). Rural Cemetery 180 Grove Street Worcester, MA (508)
754-1313 One page contains three paragraphs on the history of Rural Cemetery,
one of which is pertinent: "Progress, however, did not dim the importance of
those who had gone before, and, in 1837, Edward D. Bangs noted the sad
condition of the town's cemeteries. The oldest, at what is now Thomas and
Summer Streets, had been decimated, that on the Common neglected, and the
others were threatened by the burgeoning community. This sad condition, he
felt, was because 'no provision had been made for individual ownership.'" The
first burial occurred at Rural Cemetery in 1838. I also have a couple of pages
pertinent to my own research from "Rural Retrospect" by Tymeson which is at the
Worcester Public Library, and it has burials from 1838 to 1956. [Call Number
474.431/T986ru] Adele/Seattle
From: GENTRIE@aol.com
Sent: July 13, 2006 5:15 PM
To: MAWORCES-L@rootsweb.com
Subject: Black African American Cemetery B & G
I have read (thanks Owen Murphy) that the first town (1717) cemetery in
Worcester was in the area that is now Thomas St. (north off Main St.) near
where it met Back St. (now Summer St.). According to Owen the remains were
never removed, when it was closed. You are more likely referring to the
Mechanic St. Burial Ground, first used in 1795. The lower Mechanic St. (also
off Main St.) area was known as Guinea, and it was for a time (certainly by the
mid-19th century) an area where African-Americans lived. There may have been a
section that tended to hold black Americans in any of the cemeteries, but there
was not, to my (not particularly vast) knowledge a cemetery for blacks. When
the Mechanic St. BG was closed (1878) most of the remains went to Hope.
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