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Center
Cemetery
by David Driessens
Much of Branford’s history and tradition comes to light
in its several old cemeteries. Three of them span the
centuries from the town’s beginnings. Besides Center
Cemetery, there are Mill Plain and Damascus Cemeteries.
For a history
buff, there is probably no more fascinating place to
pursue a search, than an ancient cemetery.. It is, at
once, a step into the past, and an educational
experience; a chronological anthology of historical
information, and an appreciation of the stone mason’s
art.
In Branford,
the original burying ground was adjacent to the first
log meetinghouse. When a new meeting house was built on
the Green in 1701, the same year which saw the founding
of the small “collegiate school” destined to become
Yale, the old house was taken down. Its footprint has
been free of tombstones ever since, save for an ancient
millstone, given by F. Sherwood and Mary (Hitchcock)
Boyd, as a memorial to those first settlers. Surrounding
the memorial is more than three centuries of the history
of the town and it’s a people. The place is Center
Cemetery.
Far from
being a melancholy or depressing way to spend an hour or
so, a walk through any old burying ground is a rich and
fascinating encounter with the history of the place. In
the case of Center Cemetery, one cannot help but absorb
the history of three and a half centuries of which we
are all part.
The fore
section of the cemetery contains the oldest stones and
some of the most unique and artistic as well. Though
most of the very early stones have fallen victims to the
ravages of time and weather, one has been preserved from
1694, marking the resting place of William Rosewell,
Esq. Some epitaphs are caustic or loving remembrances
and one or two are even cryptic messages to those who
remain.
Ebenezer
Linsley’s stone of 1787 reads: Behold and see as you
pass by as now so once was I / as I am now so you shall
be / prepare to die and follow me.
But here are
the loving words inscribed on the Rev. Samuel Russell’s
stone: In slumber bound, fast by his side / the tender
part, his pious bride reclines her head. Seven of the
towns ministers rest there, along with their wives and
most of their children. The Rev. Samuel Russell, the
settlement’s third minister of 1687-1731 lies beneath a
table stone with his wife Abigail…”his virtuous
consort”.
Here too, are
the stones of Nathaniel and Thankful Harrison whose
house is now the home of our historical society.
Nathaniel died in 1760…on his birthday.
Many of the
graves are those of veterans of the War of Independence
including seven at Mill Plain, nine at Damascus and 19
in Center Cemetery. Buried at Center Cemetery are John
Baldwin, Gideon Goodrich and Aaron Bradley who were
killed during the British invasion of New Haven in July
of 1779.
George
Baldwin is here, he was the town blacksmith whose forge
was on a sandy hillock about where Trinity Church now
stands. There is the handsomely carved stone of Rosewell
Saltonstall, grandson of Governor Gurdon Saltonstall,
who lived out his life in a great mansion on the shore
of the lake named for his grandfather.
The stone of
Martha Yates says that she died of smallpox at age 33 in
the year 1777. The small stones alongside are those of
her two daughters: Polly who died nine months before her
mother, and Sally, eleven months old, who died five days
after her mother; poignant and loving reminders.
In the front
row of stones facing Montowese Street is the grave of
the widow, Anna Barker, and a most unusual story. She
was Anna Williams, daughter of the Rev. Warham Williams,
the first minister of the Northford Church. She married
the minister of the Branford church, the Rev.Jason
Atwater in 1784. He succumbed to tuberculosis ten years
later, and the widow Atwater married his successor, the
Rev. Lynde Huntington who, unhappily succumbed to the
same malady…ten years later. In the congregation was a
recent graduate of Yale who was to be ordained to the
ministry, and was called to a church in Middleboro,
Mass. Before leaving Branford, Rev. Joseph Barker
married the widow Huntington. The Rev. Mr. Barker went
to his reward some ten years later, and his widow
returned to Branford where she died in 1832 at age 73.
Her tombstone is unusual in that it lists, in order, her
three husbands. “Anna Barker, widow of Rev. Jason
Atwater, Rev. Lynde Huntington, Rev. Joseph Barker.”
But, no walk
at Center Cemetery would be complete without a stop at
the grave of the last Indian to live in Branford. He was
Asa, called the “faithful Indian,” whose stone is some
twenty-five paces left of the flag pole in the cemetery.
He died in 1885 at age 87.
Finally we
come to the stone of Lt. Aaron Steven Lanfare who
distinguished himself during the Civil War, and earned
the Congressional Medal of Honor. During the War Between
the States, he captured the battle flag of Florida’s 11th
Regiment, a feat of uncommon valor and bravery. He was
born in Branford in 1824 and died, at sea, in 1875, His
stone, seen from Montowese Street, is close by the wall
at Rice Terrance.
There are
dozens of names whose families are still residents of
Branford after 350 years including Rose, Harrison, Ward
and Page; Linsley, Russell, Baldwin and Pond. There are
Barkers, Frisbies, Bartholomews and Tylers. Who does not
know of Blackstone, Hoadley, Plant and Palmer, all of
whom gave the town its character and flavor, in their
time? These are the people who populated our town in the
days long past. All left their mark upon our town, and
its mark which makes our town special.
The legacy of
small town New England has been handed down to us by
those hardy men and women. As we move into the next
century, let us remember our roots…from wherever we have
come, and pass that legacy to our children, and to
theirs. And if you should stroll through one of the
quiet, peaceful graveyards of Branford, perhaps you
might hear the lines of this verse whispered softly on
the air:
Walk softly, ye who
wander here.
Tread lightly as you
go.
Hear the echoes of the
past
Across the silent
years.
This rolling meadow,
grassy plain.
Besides the tidal
river.
This place wherein our
Fathers sleep,
Beyond the restless
day.
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