Burial-grounds. 363 



55 ; Ebed S. Stoddar, 1852-54 ; Daniel Lincoln, 1854-55 ; Robert 

 W. Lincoln, 1855-59; Stephen Stowell, 1855-58; David Cain, 

 1858-59 ; Charles Spring, 1859-60 ; Stephen Stowell, 1859-63 ; 

 David Cain, 1860-67 ; Andrew J. Gardner, 1863-68 ; Ezra Bick- 

 nell, 1867-79 ; Henry Binney, 1868-72 ; Ebed S. Stoddar, 1872- 

 73; Andrew J. Gardner, 1873-81; Alphonso Cain, 1879, and 

 annually re-elected since ; Henry Binney, 1881-82 ; Lewis Stod- 

 dard, 1882-88 ; Eben W. Cain, 1888. The President, Secretary 

 and Treasurer are also Directors, ex officiis. 



Superintendents : Ezra Bicknell, 1874-79 ; Andrew J. Gardner, 

 1879-81 ; Alphonso Cain, 1881, and annually since. 



HIGH STREET CEMETERY. 



This well kept and conveniently located burial-place for the 

 inhabitants of the south part of the town has been enlarged twice, 

 and within the past twenty years has been greatly improved and 

 beautified. But as is the case with all our ancient graveyards, its 

 early history is somewhat obscure. Tradition says that it was 

 originally used as a burial-place by Indians ; and in support of this 

 theory it is said that Indian remains, rolled up in blankets and 

 lying face downward, were exhumed here at the time of its 

 first general renovation. By others it is claimed that these 

 remains were in tarred blankets, — that they were of persons 

 who died of small-pox in flingham soon after the war of the 

 Revolution ; but as the Indians had neither blankets nor tar to use 

 before the locality was inhabited by Englishmen, the reliability 

 of the tradition is questioned.. In neither instance, however, do 

 these statements detract from the antiquity of this cemetery, for 

 there were families bearing the surnames Bacon, Chubbuck, Dun- 

 bar, Jacob, Russell, Tower, Whiton, Wilder, etc., residing here 

 several years before 1681, when the new meeting-house was 

 erected ; and without doubt these families found it more con- 

 venient to have a burial-ground in their locality than to put up 

 with the inconvenience of conveying their dead a distance of 

 three or four miles. The oldest stone in this yard from which 

 any information can be gained was designed and is inscribed as 

 follows : — 



HERE LIETH 



BURIED Y e BODY 



OF JANE RUSSELL 



WIFE TO GEORGE 



RUSSELL AGED 



AB™s ht 83 YE ars 



DIED FEBRUARY 



Y 23, 1688 



