Colrain — Burial-Places
Extracted from "History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, Volume II," by Louis H. Everts, 1879.
Of the numerous burying-grounds in the town, the oldest is the one on what is called "Meeting-house Hill," about a mile east of Coleraine Centre. This ground was laid out in 1743, just south of the first meeting-house, which was built in 1742. The ground is now in a bad state of repair and sadly neglected. Doubtless there were burials there as early as 1743 or previous; but if the graves made there then, and for thirty years afterward, were marked by. headstones, time and man's neglect have extinguished the signs by which the early resting-places of the dead might be found to-day, for the oldest head-stone to be seen there now bears date 1775. Among the earliest traceable inscriptions are the following:
Hugh Riddel, 1775; Joseph Wilson, 1777; James Wilson, 1777; Eleanor Williams, 1781; Esther Bell, 1782; Lieut. John Thornton, 1783; Wm. Miller, 1783; Agnes Stewart, 1784; Capt. Benjamin Clark, 1786; Anna Caldwell, 1788; Thos. Bell, 1789; Joseph McEwen, 1791; Margaret Wilson, 1795; John Patterson, 1797; Robert Miller, 1798; Eleanor Patterson, 1796; Abraham Peck, 1798; Deacon Thomas McGee, 1798; James Bell, 1793; Ann Riddell, 1790; Rev. Sand. Taggart, 1825.
|