Gloucester’s cemeteries and the people who bring them to life
Carl Gustin
Walter McGrath’s enthusiasm and dedication are obvious. McGrath talks passionately about preserving the grounds and the stories of Lanesville’s Cove Hill Cemetery. You sense the same dedication and enthusiasm from Russell and Melissa Hobbs about Langsford Cemetery and Richard and Kathy Clark about Clarks Cemetery. McGrath, the Hobbs and the Clarks were among more than a dozen volunteers participating in a recent meeting of the Gloucester400+ burial grounds and cemeteries committee.
Thanks to the efforts of a growing group of volunteers, and help from Gloucester’s Department of Public Works, many Gloucester cemeteries will be on full display with remarkable stories, based on extensive research, told by knowledgeable guides during tours from June through October.
The focus will be on families, fishermen, quarrymen, military veterans, farmers, artists, innovators, entertainers, philanthropists and the women and children whose lives helped define Gloucester’s 400-year history. The stories trace social, economic, and cultural diversity that began with the opening of the First Parish Cemetery in 1644 and continue today.
Cemetery tours have become popular. A Washington Post story last October explained why “tombstone tourists … love a good cemetery.” A travel website pointed to advances in technology when it reported that “Tourists are finding cemetery visits among the top attractions on TripAdvisor ...”
Richard Clark tells the story of restoring the monument for Alexander Benson at Clarks Cemetery. Richard and his wife, Kathy, with the help of others, spent weeks clearing invasive 7-foot tall Japanese knotweed. They discovered three pieces of the gravesite monument and then carefully restored it. A biography of Benson, posted to the cemetery website late one evening prompted a quick response from a resident of Western Massachusetts. A week later Benson’s great granddaughter and granddaughter visited Benson’s restored gravesite. “That visit and subsequent ones by other family members make all of that hard work truly worthwhile,” recalls Richard.
Russell and Mellissa Hobbs volunteered “many years ago” to help clean First Parish Cemetery. Their interest grew after Russell, working as a volunteer, photographed the inside of a tomb that revealed long lost gravestones. Now the couple is preparing to guide visitors through Langsford Cemetery. They’ll focus on the stories of the Langford, Sargent, Munsey, Duley and Haraden families. Family photographs collected by Russell and Melissa will be displayed on stands built for the occasion by Russell Hobbs.
Walter and Joyce McGrath will be tour guides at Cove Hill, the cemetery they adopted about 25 years ago. Walter and Joyce have maintained the site and restored and preserved some 50 headstones and markers. For their efforts, they received a citation from the city and were recognized by the Daughters of the American Revolution. For Walter and Joyce, the stories of those buried at Cove Hill trace the history of Lanesville from its earliest days through the peak of the quarry industry until today.
There’s much more to see, more history to appreciate and more opportunity for others to get involved: Discover the 38 Revolutionary War veterans buried at First Parish Cemetery with Sandy Barry as your guide. Her “travel through time” will also explore the lives of Isabel Babson, Gloucester’s first midwife in the 1600s, and Capt. Miles Barnes who was shipwrecked near Salt Island in 1796, and many others.
Learn from Courtney Richardson about the remarkable history and architecture of Oak Grove Cemetery and its luminaries, including artists Fitz Henry Lane and John Twachtman; opera singer Emma Abbott; architect Ezra Phillips; historians John J Babson, James Pringle, and Joseph Garland; philanthropists Samuel Sawyer, Lucy and Catalina Davis, and Addison Gilbert; and fishing captains Ben Pine and Lemuel Firth.
See demonstrations on carving, cleaning, and restoring gravestones at First Parish Cemetery.
Honor the fishing community at Fishermen’s Rest in Beechbrook Cemetery.
Discover from guides Dani Stotzer and Lois Hamilton the history of West Parish’s Bray Cemetery, as well as the lives of an African American named Robert Freeman, a soldier of the Grand Army of the Republic and one of Gloucester’s first European settlers.
Listen to Sharron Cohen describe the discovery of some 120 people buried in the “City Home Lot” at Seaside Cemetery between 1905 and about 1930. Learn how many who were “buried shoulder to shoulder” mostly worked in two industries critical to Gloucester’s development — fishing and quarrying.
Committee chair Christine Maney reflected on the committee members who also volunteer at cemetery properties to clean and reset stones, help with landscaping, and conduct research. “I’m reminded of a song in ‘Hamilton’ – ‘who lives, who dies, who tells the story.’ Well, we tell the story. It’s up to us and future generations to keep the stories alive.” Anyone interested in helping keep the stories alive can reach Christine at gloucestercemeteries400@ gmail.com.
Carl Gustin is a Gloucester resident and columnist.
One of the restored Freeman headstones before it was set in the Freeman family burial plot in Gloucester’s West Parish Bray Cemetery in October. The stones mark the only known surviving graves of free African Americans who lived in Gloucester during the 18th and 19th centuries.
PAUL BILODEAU/Staff file photo