Cemeteries of Dartmouth, Ma.

[aneaglesangel]

I had a great time!! This is a cemetery on private property, I was lucky enough to be with a member of the Rod and Gun Club, so I was allowed to see it!! This is the Thomas Collins Cemetery! The earliest stone here is 1836, and there are a whopping six stones here!

[aneaglesangel]

More Tom Collins!

[aneaglesangel]

These are from the John Collins Cemetery. In my wonderful new book, "Burials and Burial Places in the Town of Dartmouth, Massachusetts" it lists 14+ stones with an earliest death date of 1834.

[aneaglesangel]

John Collins continued.

[aneaglesangel]

Now this one is not in the book, and looks as if it hasn't been touched in hundreds of years. I didn't realize it wasn't listed in my book, so I'm going to have to go back and grab all the names I can read! I think it's important to keep track of these things, it sure helps when you're trying to locate a ghost. It is interesting, it's overgrown on the side of the road, and the iron gates are still intact. Once you enter, you can see noone has trod inside there for many a day. I believe it's on private property, so if you find it, please don't trespass. I happened to be with a resident of the area, and he knows most of the people out there, so didn't have a problem with being on the property of friends, but I'm sure they wouldn't like strangers to be wandering around on their land!! I'm going to find out if this place is known and let ya know what I find out about it. Seems it was all people from the "Wilson" family buried there. I'm calling it the Wilson Family Cemetery, until I find out otherwise!

[aneaglesangel]

Wilson's continued.

[aneaglesangel]

OK, so I liked the fact it looked so old and forlorn and overgrown. More Wilson.

[karlsaves]

man i love the pics looks like a lovely day in the cemetery

[lildebcc]

Every day in a cemetery is a lovely day!

>^o.o^<

[aneaglesangel]

I hear ya lildeb!! (It's always a good day to hang out in a cemetery, unless of course, you happen to be one of the residents, LOL!) It was a great day for tramping around in cemeteries!! The weather was great and I always find these little plots so interesting!! This area was first populated in the 1600's. By 1675, there were about 37 family houses throughout all of Dartmouth, and ALL of them were burned down by the Native Americans, due to King Phillips War. As we were driving around searching for these cemeteries, I noticed so many rock foundations, and the owner of the house says there are more distributed throughout the woods. I didn't realize it at the time, for I just had a meeting with the Dartmouth Historic Commission last night, and was lucky to receive a draft of a pamphlet they're putting out about the history of Dartmouth, and some of its earliest villages. I was thinking it would be nice to put some of it down.

This area was called "Hixville" in its day, due to the Reverand Daniel Hix being sent in to open the "First Baptist Church" which is now called "First Church" and has a very old cemetery next to it. These families were spread out over a huge land mass and didn't want to travel very far to go to church. The closest church for them was in Rehoboth, which is a couple of towns over. It must have been quite a trip in the days of wagons and horses!! It was also the site of a stage coach run (which I didn't know) and later a trolley stop (which I also didn't know).

So as I type, you see the reason for the family plots. Here in Dartmouth, the population was very small. To put a deceased family member in a public cemetery was probably quite a bother, considering you'd have to transport the body by wagon. So there are many plots that bear only one family's name scattered throughout the town. I was shocked and amazed to find out that the population of Dartmouth remained relatively small up until the 1900's when people from New Bedford began to move into the town because it was considered a 'nice place to live'.

I think when I read this after seeing all those old rock foundations without a house above it, I found the cause for such a dramatic haunting in this home. It isn't the house, which I knew from the beginning, it was just too new, it's the land it sits on. When I first started investigating the house, I had images of Indians running through the woods. I figured it was my imagination, since I've always been fascinated by the Native American ways, but then, why were they holding torches and looking so angry?? Hmm, well I guess they were about to burn down some houses, weren't they?? I'd like to do a better piece on just the King Phillip's War, it's very interesting, and my area plays a key part in the war. Which up until now, I had no idea the war was fought so close to home. War always seems so distant and far away to me, up until now. It happened in my stomping grounds, in the woods I so love to wander, and it is most likely affecting good friends of mine, by joining them in their home. Very interesting stuff!!

I am also happy to announce that the Wilson Family Cemetery is a sort of new discovery. It's not listed in Judy Lund's book on burials in Dartmouth, because she didn't know it was there. She was very excited about it, and I made sure I gave her a good description of where it's located, and how overgrown it is, and how far back you have to walk to find the actual stones. I gave her all the names I could off the stones and promised to go back and get as many more as I could! I'm sooo loving history all of a sudden!!! Woooohooooo!!!

[Nebel]

There is one cemetery in Dartmouth I find quite ironic. It is near the mall and placed right next to a lazy boy furniture store! is this some kind of sick joke? I mean, it is pretty funny, but a little um...rude?

[aneaglesangel]

Well at least they left this historic cemetery where it is rather than uprooting it and moving it to another location. With all the building and stores going up out there it's a wonder they didn't move it. I know exactly what cemetery you're talking about and it predates the La-z-boy store by quite a few years!! Sadly we can't stop progress but at least we can still respect the dead. Maybe as people go shopping they'll remember the long history Dartmouth has!