A Little Local History

If you had asked me back in high school what my least favorite subject was, I would have said history. I hated it so much that when I needed to take a history class in college, I put it off for as long as I possibly could. I ended up taking a class about the French Revolution that completely changed (revolutionized? ha) the way I looked at history. It all suddenly clicked! And everything suddenly appeared interconnected (which, of course, it had always been). The class talked quite a bit about the American Revolution as well, since it sort of paved the way for the French to follow suit!

Fast forward to today, and I LOVE history! And after teaching fifth grade for a billion years, I have a particular affinity toward the American Revolution. And hey, we live in an old town in Massachusetts now! People here were actually involved in the revolution! There is evidence of it everywhere you go! Crazy!

Anyhow, there was a sign up on Main Street not too long ago, advertising a "Tour of the Five Forgotten Cemeteries" taking place today. I got onto the town historical society's website, and it sounded interesting. I only knew about two cemeteries in town. One of them is very large and much newer-- they still bury people there. The other is right next to the library. At any rate, I was curious about the others! So, after lunch today, we met up at the historical society's headquarters and headed out, caravan-style, to explore the cemeteries. Most of the people there were senior citizens, and I was a little nervous about how the kids would handle it, but we knew we could leave at any time. And as it was, I think a lot of the older people got a kick out of the kids. We all had fun!

The first stop was the cemetery by the library, which is the original town cemetery (just as I thought!). The town was incorporated in 1722, and quite a few of the headstones from the later 1700s are still standing! There are quite a few people buried here who died in the Revolution, as well as the French and Indian War. Here's one headstone, just for kicks. This fellow, James Smith, died in 1787 at the ripe old age of 63. Not bad for the eighteenth century!

The next stop was a smaller one on the edge of a lake. The locals were saying that this cemetery used to be where you had to go to get to the old rope swing that went out into the lake, haha! This particular cemetery was very private-- I never would have known it was here! It was owned by a small group of families. One headstone (actually, an obelisk) memorialized a young man who died of diptheria and tuberculosis at the age of 22. Thank goodness for modern medicine, right?

After that, we went to the most hidden cemetery EVER... with the most interesting story to go with it! We parked on the side of a major road, right by someone's driveway. No sign of a cemetery. There was a tractor parked there, with a trailer and hay bales inside, to carry the people who were too old (or in our case, too young and too tired) to walk down the quarter-mile, densely-wooded path that was nearly invisible next to this person's driveway. If you ask either kid, this "hay ride" was the BEST part of the day, haha! It was pretty fun, actually.

As an aside-- the woman in the red shirt was talking to us as we drove down, and she looked SO familiar. It was driving me insane, because I just couldn't figure out how I knew her. I finally asked, and we figured it out-- she works at the farm stand (where we buy our milk) every Friday. So I have seen her there a handful of times-- including last week! It really was driving me crazy.

Anyway, we got to the end of the trail, and still couldn't see a cemetery. Ruth (red shirt lady) actually stood up in the hay trailer and talked about it for a while. It was the Putnam family cemetery, which is a name I had seen around town quite a bit. But two things were especially interesting. One is that the Putnams still live in town (they are like bazillionth-generation residents) and Ruth's grandchildren are among them. The second, and MORE interesting thing, is that the Putnams were key players in the Salem witch trials. After the trials were over, the remaining family members left Salem and settled in our town. You can read about Ann Putnam on this website. Crazy, CRAZY stuff! But they continued to a be a prominent family in our town, even after that. I repeat: CRAZY! We got off the trailer and hiked about 100 yards up a hill to see the very small cemetery, but the history part was just so cool!

The next cemetery I don't know much about, because that was when Maya announced that she needed to go potty. When we were in the middle of nowhere (yet surrounded by people-- nearly 50 people came out for this event!). I did get this picture moments before she made the dreaded announcement, ha!

We ended up getting in the car and driving down the road a ways, until I found a trail leading into the woods where I could take her. Yes, my girl-child went potty in the wilderness. AGAIN! Still something Nikos has yet to accomplish, haha! Anyway, we got back to the cemetery just as everyone was leaving, so we got into the caravan and headed off to the fifth cemetery. This one was not too far from our house, nestled in the trees alongside a road I travel on a regular basis. I had no idea it was there!

The presenter here was very good, and was herself a descendant of some of the people buried there. She talked about this end of town (the East end), and how it was mostly populated by Scots-Irish immigrants back in the day because 1) the English didn't want them to be involved in political decision-making (so they wanted them farther from the town hall), and 2) they were considered "expendable" (as well as good fighters), and acted as a buffer between the town and the Native Americans nearby. I've said it before and I will say it again: crazy!!

At that point, it had been over two hours and we were all pretty beat. The final stop on the tour was the farm stand where I buy our milk. When we got there, the historical society paid for everyone to have a dessert and a drink! I was shocked! We're not talking about a cookie and a cup of water... Gus and I each had a brownie sundae, and the kids each had a scoop of ice cream (from a local dairy). Other people enjoyed slices of homemade blueberry pie, apple pie, or strawberry-rhubarb cobbler. It was SO GOOD! And so perfect on this warm spring day!

While we ate, we got to talking with a few of the historical society members. As always, they knew exactly what house we were talking about, when we told them where we lived. They were very excited about it, haha! One lady told me that a Dr. DuFault used to live in our house, and that he was the head doctor for the state sanitarium nearby (which has long since closed down). I guess the historical society has made it their mission to compile histories on all the homes in town built before 1900, but they haven't gotten to ours yet (at least, she didn't think they had). But they were all so friendly, and I totally plan to pop in and check out their files sometime, to see if they have ANY information on our house. It was built in 1830, so there must be something-- old pictures, records, anything. I think it would be so neat to have the "full picture" of this house's history. I can't wait to learn more!

Anyway, it was a great day, though we were exhausted by the time we got home. We had planned to break in the new grill for dinner, but we weren't even hungry, after the amazing treats we got at the farm stand. Oh well... Tomorrow is supposed to be just as warm and beautiful as today. We will grill then!