203 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
ANCIENT HISTORIC CEMETERIES OF MONTPELIER 
HUBBARD MEMORIAL, GREENMOUNT CEMETERY, MONTPELIER, VT. 
Karl Bitter, Sc, 
Among the most interesting of the 
ancient historic New England ceme- 
teries, whose memorial stones are mark- 
ers of history and records of monu- 
ment.'d craftsmanship, are the burial 
grounds of Montpelier, Vt, The first 
public burying ground of the town of 
Montpelier was bought in 1794, seven 
years after the first settlement of the 
town, at a cost of thirty shillings. 
Col, Jacob Davis, the founder of the 
town, is buried in the Elm street ceme- 
ter}-, but it is doubtful if a dozen men 
in Montpelier know' today where to find 
the grave of the first settler of the 
town. Just inside the gate is a marble 
tablet in a fine state of preservation, and 
beside it is a flag, a marker calling at- 
tention to the fact that it is a soldier’s 
grave, for Col. Davis was a Revolu- 
tionary soldier. 
Col. Davis’ headstone is a plain marble 
tablet with a modest inscription, “Col- 
onel Jacob Davis, w'ho died April 9, 
1844, aged 75.” Not a line or a word in- 
dicates his rank in civil life. 
The Elm Street Cemetery was used a 
little over forty years. 
Green i\Iount Cemetery was a gift to 
the town by Calvin Jay Keith, who 
made the bequest in his will and who 
died in 1853. Mr. Keith w'as unmarried 
and had acquired a considerable fortune, 
principally by settling estates in the 
South. An act establishing the cemetery 
and creating a board of five commission- 
ers to have charge of it w'as passed by 
the Legislature in 1854 and accepted by 
the town at the annual March meeting 
in 1855. 
Mr. Keith also left $500 for a monu- 
ment to himself to be erected by his 
executors, and a marble “cottage” shaft 
now stands near the entrance to the 
grounds bearing the simple inscription : 
“Calvin Jay Keith, Died at Montpel- 
ier Sept. 28, 1853, Aged 52 years.” 
“This cemetery had its origin in his 
bequest.” 
Bequests of moderate amounts have 
been made from time to time for the 
general purposes of maintaining the 
cemetery, and some specific sums have 
been left in charge of the commission- 
ers to care for certain family lots. The 
finest bequest since the cemetery was es- 
tablished is that of John E. Hubbard. 
When Mr. Hubbard’s uncle and aunt, 
Martin and Fanny Kellogg, died they had 
made mutual wills, leaving, among other 
bequests, a sum of money for the erec- 
tion of gates at the entrance to the 
cemetery. Mr. Hubbard contested the 
will and the matter was finally disposed 
of under a compromise, by the terms of 
■which he w'as to erect a public library 
and provide a small fund for its main- 
tenance. Mr. Hubbard expended more 
money than he was required to in erect- 
ing the library, and when he died he 
ga\-e practically all his fortune for pub- 
lic purposes. A large endowment fund 
was left for the library, the old Hub- 
bard pasture w'as given for a park with 
a small sum for purposes of immediate 
improvement and another modest 
amount for maintenance. Instead of the 
gates which his uncle and aunt had de- 
sired to give to the cemetery he decided 
on a mortuary chapel and left $30,000 
for that purpose. The building has been 
erected at the entrance to the cemetery 
by the commissioners and is one of the 
finest pieces of architecture to be found 
in the state. 
iMr. Hubbard's monument is also a 
fine piece of work. It is of granite and 
bronze and was designed by Karl Bitter. 
On the granite walls of the exedra is 
chiselled this selection from Bryant's 
Thanatopsis : 
“So live that when thy summons comes 
to join 
The innumerable caravan that moves 
To the pale realms of shade where each 
shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death. 
Thou go not like the quarry slave at 
night 
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained 
and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust approach thy 
grave 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his 
couch 
About him and lies down to pleasant 
dreams.” 
In the center is a bronze figure, while 
at the left is the Hubbard family monu- 
ment, a granite angel in front of a cross 
looking down in pity on the graves of 
the Hubbards below. 
Whoever is interested in the history 
of his town should visit Green Mount 
Cemetery and walk through its silent 
avenues to e.xamine the ancient stones 
and find who have been buried there, 
prominent in their day and now almost 
forgotten, to note the achievements, 
modestly set forth, of the men who 
helped to make Montpelier. 
ANCIENT HEADSTONE TO COL. JACOB DAVIS. MONTPELIER. VT. 
