History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

Apiit Sth, 1784, aged 6 niunths. The parents' Joy in life wa.-i lost in (h'ath. To be found in Christ.*' Another : "To the Jlemory of Mf3 Althea Lanison, wife of The Key! Mi- Jose pi i I.anison, and Dau*f of tlie Rev^ M'- .James "Wetniore. Rector of Rye in . • New Y'ork Province, Wlio departed this Life ye 6^^ of Voh^ 17CG, Aged U Yeais." Another: " In menu)ry of Samuel S'lnirr, Essq., Who departed this Life 27*1' Blay, 18(11, Aged 8G years. " Praises on tombstones are but vainly spent. Assured life to come is our best muuunieut." Another: " In mcniory of Noah Jarvis, son of Mr. Isaac & Mrs. Lydia Jarvis, who died May y^ 19, 176C in y" 9'*' year of his age. " He on the waves of watere graves The last breath he di<l fetcli : la bloomitig yontli to tell the truth, Death did him (luicUIy snach." There was an old burying-ground on Mill Plain, thought at one time to contain the oldest stones, but the boundaries and the site are now only traditional. All that remains of it are five tombstinies,"^ whieh will probably be set in the old Fairfield ground. As land ^vas plenty, there were no i)artieular l»ound- aries given at first to the burying-grounds, but peo- ple, with a very few exceptions, buried their dead in rows, in a general lot. As the Fairfield ground was the most eentral and Hie first church was located ■■ These stones contain tributes to (1) (2) (3) W (5) " Mr. Abiaham Adams who dec'd Aug. ye 9'^, 1720. in ye SO'*" year of hi.t age." " Mre. Rebecca Brown, dee'd Juno ye 3'', 1730, In yo "o'*" year of her ago." "Mr. Benjamin Lines, Dec'd Febniary ye 21*', 1732, In ye 44*'' year of his age." " David Jennings, son of Mr. Josliua and Mrs. Rebecca Jennings, Dec'd March ye 9"', 17;i.'i, Agfd H) months.'' " Mrs. Esther Lonl, aged G7 years." 338 HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. tlicro, it was natural that it should be the most used. Tlic one on Mill Plain \vn.s in the rear of or near the first K])iseoi)al cluireh. In all proUability, the burials made tliere were on "common or undivided land," wliieh in time wius apportioned to various individuals, and, as generations succeeded, these portions passed to diflerent owners; and, being disused for burials, all traces of this ground are lost. Mr. Frederic Stur- ges owns the original site of it. Another reason : The second Episcojial churcdi being l)uilt near Mr. Henry Rowland's, the burying- ground in Fairfield was used jointly by the two de- nominations. Tlie old ground being filled, a new i>ue was a necessity ; but, as the town would not harmo- [ nize on the location, two cemeteries were laid out '< simultaneously, — one to accommodate Black Rock and sudi other jjortion of Fairfield a.s would prefer a burial there, and the other to accommodate South- port, Mill Plain, and Fairfield. The former (once owned by Mr. Jonathan Lewis, who possessed all that s(|Uare) WiW in the rear of the Methodist church ; the latter was on the Southport road, opposite, in later years, the original site of St. Thomas' (Catholic) church. These cemeteries were calculated for a certain num- ber of lots capable of holding a specified number of persons, for each of which lots a sum of three dollars gave a " warranty deed, fee simple," for all time. Many " took up" a lot without paying ; others pur- chased, and they or their posterity are holders of the deeds. As Green's Farms and the Pequonnock ground were originally in Fairfield, the early inhabitants were buried in them. A very few gravestones were erected I)revious to 1700, but they were not in general use till about 17."iO or 1740. The grounds mentioned above, with (ireenfield ground (Greenfield was the name given to Fairfield Northwest Parish Oct. 12, 1727), contain the dead wlio.se burials occurred from the above dates till 1827. The first interment in the East ground is marked by a stone which contains: "The (Jmve of Eliza Durr, wife of Sillininii Burr, wliu lU«l Fell. H, 1H27, ngc<l 31 yeare." The first interment in the West ground was that of ]{obert Pike, in lt<:!0. There is apparently a large vacant space in one corner of the old ground, which would make it appear to a stranger as if there wa.s no necessity for a new ground, but on investigation it will be found that this iiortion wiLs used exclusively for slaves and the poor. The old way of settling a town was to select a site for a church, a towu-nouse, a school, a burying- ground, and a green or parade-ground, and these were for the public benefit. Buying a burial-plot in this country is a recent custom, except in large cities. Southport, Mill Plain, and Fairfield placed their dead in this old ground for years. Some bodies have been removed to other resting-places, but the most of the illustrious dead of Fairfield for" two hundred years lie here. In 1865 the citizens who possessed due reverence for their ancestors had a mortar-laid wall built to preserve this old Fairfield burying-ground. It is a wonderful coincidence that many of the original owners (and their descendants for three or four generations) of the "colonial" houses lie in this inclosurc. Fairfield West Parish (now Green's Farms), like Stratfield, had a graveyard of its own ; likewise Fair- field North Parish (now Greenfield) had aground to itself, but the latter has more antiquity, as it is said this was an old Indian burying-ground. The Indians buried their dead six feet deep, but they permitted the whites to use their ground, providing they would not bury deeper than four feet. As the Indians jntssed away the whites continued to use it till it was full, and then they would have been obliged to extend this old ground or lay out a new cemetery had not Southport obviated that neces- sity by creating a cemetery of grand proportions for a rural community. The East ground was well occu- pied, the old, or middle, was disused, the West in- adequate, and Greenfield ground was full ; so a num- ber of Southport gentlemen — Mes.srs. Benjamin Pom- eroy, William W. Wakeman, Jloses Bulkeley, Warren D. Gookin, .Jonathan Godfrey, Edwin Sherwood, John A. Alvord, Oliver H. Perry and his sister Delia, George Bulkeley, and Frederic Marquand — formed an asso- ciation, Dec. 20, 1S()5, under the Statute Laws of Con- necticut, and purchased a portion of land lying be- tween Greenfield and Southport, along the bank of Mill River. This has been laid out in beautiful walks and drives. The land being undulating, it is diversi- fied by " glade and glen" and groves. The grounds are sold to parties wishing to i)urcha.se, and in con.se- quence many people of wealth have contriltuted freely towards making their final re.sting-places compara- tively as attractive as their earthly dwellings; so that the Oak Lawn Cemetery — named from a huge oak near the entrance — is rich in copings, indosures, monuments, and tributes to departed friends. Here arc stately monuments erected to the bearers of the names of Ponicroy, AVakeman, Bulkeley, (Jookiii, Sherwood, Alvord, Perry, Black, Nichols, Beers, McLean, Osgood, Jennings, Hull, Dimon, Goodscll, Ogden, (iodfrey. Banks, and many others. A ]Mirtiim of the Eitst burying-ground is elegantly laid out, with the inelosures of coping and velvet turf. In the sunimcr the dead appear as if incliised in a .sarc(>idiagus of flowers labeled in beautifully carved marble. Here are the names of Sanford, Curtis, Pheljis, Thorp, Gould, Lyon, Rowland, Hull, Brown, FAIRFIELD. 339 Jonniiifrs, Betts, Smith, Stiirfros, Jones, .Tovsup, Cofis- well, Kogers, Wilson, and Tiiiri-, licsidcs liosts of others, many of whom were tin- occu]iaiits of tiie lieau- tiful mansions of Fairfield wliieli have lieen standing from a quarter to half a century. It is not an uncoinmon oeeurrenee to find the mem- bers of a family buried in three cemeteries, which does not greatly facilitate the work of tlic hist(jrian or the genealogist. In the old ground this iuscriptioii is fonncl : " w. I'. Tills Monument is fii-ctoti liy Slr-i. Jlt.lly Pike to coniincniorafe her llii.sli.inil, Mr. William ^ikl^ •who died April 1", l.SW.!, in the ."»5''i year of his age." In the West ground a stone is " Sli.ieil to tlie memory of Molly Pike. widow of William Pike. whoih'lialtcd this life loth Sept., I.s:i4, A^ed 74 YearH, After having diselmrged a ntothei's duty to ir. ehildlen. " Behold, ami sec what death has done ! This is the luco we all must fun, Kepent in time, while time .von have: There's no repentauec in the grave." In the old ground is iound ;i stone erected *'In ^leniory uf Cap' Eliphalel Tliorp, who diparted this Life Sept. I", ITUJ, in the 5U Year of his Age." He died fjf yellow fever; he was father of Jlrs. Molly Pike. 8he married (1) .Toiiathan Darrow, who was taken prisoner by the British, and died on their prison ship. He left one son, .Tonatluin. In 1779 his motlier took him and her sister and their colored fe- male slaves to the woods and remjiined till the danger was over. She married (2) William Pike, who w;is lieutenant under fien. Wasliington. Of their four- teen children there are two living, — Capt. Julius Pike, of Southport, who formerly ran a packet from Charleston to New York, now is in his eighty-third year, tind his sister, Cliarlotte, widow of Jtimes Perry, of Fairfield Woods, now eighty-.seven. These chil- dren were born in .Southport. Three of them were lost at sea, — one a young man eighteen years old ; another, Capt. William, who started on a voyage with his vessel from Charleston and wtis never heard from afterwards ; Capt. Robert, who lies buried near his motlier, and has this inscription to his memory : " The Grave of Capt. Uohert Pike, who (ieparteil this life on Ilarm-gat Iteaeh. After humanely pie.serving the lives of his eiew from shipwreck in the inejnorahle gale on the li f Ileei-ml.er, ls:!0, aged .IT years, 11 int.nths, and ft days. "Behold, vain moitals, Ih-eting forms Beneath this ihiy-eold sod; Here lies, a prey to naneeous worms. The noblest work uf Gv)d." Ill this West ground is this inscription: " In nn-inoiy of t'apt. John F. Langley, who \va.s liorn in New Market, N. II., Nov. 20"", ISP.l, and, together with his erew, waJ4 lost on