Old Cemetery in Mendon, MA

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A view of the entrance to Old Cemetery from the road

Mendon is one of the early Colonial towns in Massachusetts, founded in the 1660s from land purchased and otherwise acquired from the Nipmuc. The town has quite a few interesting historical tidbits associated with it, including that the first legal female voter, Lydia Chapin Taft, was born there. Old Cemetery has room to park right in front on the side of the road, which is a plus!

The government gravestone of Stephen Henry Scisco, member of the famed 54th Massachusetts

The oldest gravestones are from the early 1700s and are of the text-only fieldstone variety. The newest are from the early 1900s. The cemetery has a nice variety of slate gravestones from many local gravestone carvers. There are many different styles represented, from winged skulls to urn and willow. There are quite a number of marble slabs as well. I encountered a few military stones for veterans of the US Civil War. GAR Post 22 seems to have been the local chapter. Two of those soldiers were members of African-American regiments, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry and the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry. There were dozens of Revolutionary War veteran markers as well, though many of the gravestones were so covered in lichen it was hard to read them.

I found several stones listing a cause of death, which was interesting to see. Mrs. Chloe Hastings died in 1808 of a quick consumption. Mrs. Jane Staples died of a lingering consumption in 1794. Master Joseph Adams was killed by lighting in 1806 aged only 8 years.

The main reason I visited was to see the portrait stone of Rev. Grindal Rawson that had been documented by Harriette Merrifield Forbes in the 1920s. It has held up quite well in the last 100 years.