Established in 1773, Old Village Hill Cemetery, that quirky, hilly burial ground, has character and many stories to tell. In October 1771, just a few months after our July 1771 town founding, the District of Williamsburgh “voted that Simeon White, Samuel Fairfield and John Nash be a ‘Committee to Lay out the Land’ for a burying place.” By 1773, the fledgling town had its first cemetery on this rather uneven land from Jesse Wild’s farm. And for almost 150 years, until 1914, townsfolk were buried on this hill, graves marked with stones that reflect the changing style of carving.
A recent October morning and a November late afternoon provided the prefect times for a quiet walk through the cemetery to look at the gravestones. This time it was the various designs carved on the sandstone, brownstone, marble, and slate tombstones that caught my eye.
The 1792 stone for Nehemiah Cleaveland has a large, winged cherub carved on the rounded top. This simpler more hopeful design evolved from the skull or winged death’s head designs, which were stark reminders of mortality. Any early stones that may have had skulls have been obliterated by our Massachusetts winters. Six-year-old Seth Frost’s 1796 stone is starkly simple, with just the outline of a face—perhaps signifying the parents hope for his afterlife. Anna Mayhew, Deacon Zechariah Mayhew’s wife, has a lovely urn and pinwheels and stars carved in relief on her 1816 stone. The urn is a more classic symbol of grief or mourning, as is the weeping willow on the square 1827 stone for daughter Catherine Hayden. Ashbel B. Bartlett’s 1832 square stone was erected by his parents, Simeon and Elizabeth, for their adult son. This stone has an open Bible, the source of all wisdom, under a carved arch with “There is rest in heaven” carved around it, with two suns in the corner. The Nash family obelisk is bittersweet. While the shape of the stone derives from the Egyptian symbol for eternal life or heaven, one side is full of inscriptions for infants and young children, and below, Dr. Alvan S. Nash, who died at age 24 and is buried in Dunkirk, New York.
There are so many gravestones to discover and early townsfolk to meet in the Old Village Hill Cemetery. Stroll through the peaceful burial place every season and uncover something new each time. You can also visit the Old Village Hill Cemetery online at Find a Grave, filled with photographs and information added by town historian Eric Weber: https://www.findagrave.com/…/old-village-hill-cemetery.
Daria D’Arienzo, Meekins Archivist and photographer. #throwbackthursday;#tbt.
Posted to Facebook 11/13/2025
