Old Town Burial Ground
Address: Grove Street, Sandwich, MA 02563
Latitude/Longitude: 41.755639 , -70.501007
Web site: click here
Pricing: Free
Description:
Whether you are a history buff or not, a tromp through the Old Town Burial Ground is an interesting and quite scenic experience. Located on the shore of Shawme Pond in the heart of Sandwich Village, this is a lovely and tranquil spot.
Once used as the town burial site, this cemetery is a historic record of the first families to settle the oldest village on Cape Cod. The earliest grave in the cemetery dates back to the first interment in 1639. Town records show that the remains of over 1,600 past residents have been buried here.
There are both headstones and footstones throughout the cemetery commemorating the passing of individuals and families. They are constructed of a variety of materials including brownstone, granite, marble, slate, zinc, concrete, and some are a combination of these. With names like Fessenden, Nye, Tupper, Freeman, Basset, Chipman, Hall, Burgess, Dillingham, and Pope, this burial ground represents a “who’s who” of the people responsible for the establishment of the village of Sandwich. You will find on the centuries-old gravestones, old-world given names that you don’t usually find on modern-day head stones; names like Mehitable, Remember, Experience, and Keziah for women and Micah, Silus, Titus, Lemmuel, Ebenezer, and Elisha for men.
Buried here are soldiers from the revolutionary war and the civil war. On certain holidays, the burial sites of soldiers will bear an American flag placed there by volunteers. It is quite a moving sight watching the flags flutter in the breeze as a reminder of the sacrifices made to insure the freedoms that we enjoy today.
In 2012, a restoration process began at the cemetery to preserve this treasure for future generations. Some of the first stones selected for restoration are those commemorating the lives of Benjamin Fessenden, Edward Pope, and Joanna Foster. If you are in the Village of Sandwich, be sure to visit this burial ground and take a walk through history.
From the Author: I love walking through this little cemetery. It is just up the street from our 1750 Inn at Sandwich Center and on the shore of Shawme Pond. It is so quiet and peaceful and the old wagon path used to cart caskets into the cemetery for burial is still visible. There is such a reverent sense of the history of the village in this place. I especially like reading the names on the stones and trying to picture what the people were like. Among those resting here are Jonathan Basset, the builder of the home that is now our bed and breakfast inn, and some members of the Hall family, who owned the property from 1750 until 1929. We feel so fortunate to now inhabit the place where these people once resided.
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