| Brookdale Cemetery | |
|---|---|
 The pond and fountain at the entrance to Brookdale Cemetery | |
 | |
| Details | |
| Established | 1878 [1] |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 42°15′01″N71°09′56″W / 42.250283°N 71.165558°W |
| Type | Public |
| Owned by | Town of Dedham |
| No. of graves | 28,000+ |
| Website | Brookdale Cemetery Viewer |
| Find a Grave | Brookdale Cemetery |
Brookdale Cemetery is an historic cemetery in Dedham, Massachusetts, United States. [2] [3] More than 28,000 people are buried there. [3] Mother Brook runs behind it. [4] [5]
For nearly 250 years after it was established, Old Village Cemetery was the only cemetery in Dedham. [6] As immigrant workers moved to Dedham to take jobs in the mills along Mother Brook, it became clear that another cemetery would be needed. [7]
Seeing a need for greater space, the Annual Town Meeting of 1876 established a committee to look into establishing a new cemetery. [8] The committee, composed of the selectmen and Eratus Worthington, Eliphalet Stone, Royal O. Storrs, Winslow Warren, Edwin Whiting, and Alfred Hewins, was charged with determining how large the cemetery should be, locating land for it, and all other matters. [8] Town Meeting accepted the committee's recommendation on October 20, 1877, and appropriated $8,150 to purchase 39 acres from Thomas Barrows [lower-alpha 1] and Thomas Motley with additional land from Walter E. White [13] for a total of 40 acres. [1] Several of those involved in the creation of the cemetery were the agents and superintendents of the mills along Mother Brook. [7]
More than 10 acres of underbrush and trees were cleared in 1877 and more than a mile of roads were built. [14] A plan of lots was laid out with roads named for trees, and paths named for shrubs or flowers. [14] There were two points of entry, from East Street and Brookdale Avenue, [1] with the main entrance leading to Ash Avenue. [14]
Lots were laid out by Stone to be 15' by 20' and the first was sold in June 1878. [1] The property was surrounded by 700' of picket fence and a stone wall. [1] Three commissioners, appointed by the Selectmen, served three year terms and managed the cemetery. [1] The garden cemetery was intended to be a place of rest and recreation for the entire town. [7]
In March 1880, Town Meeting set aside a portion of the cemetery, just a block away from St. Mary's Church, for Catholics to be buried. [15] [16] The special section was bound by East Street and White's remaining land on the west and Spruce and Maple Avenues on the south and east. [14] Beginning in 1889, 10% of all proceeds from lot sales were placed in the Perpetual Care Fund. [14]
The gateways were constructed of Quincy granite and the gates themselves of Michigan pine. [1] Fences and hedges were not included in the plan, but a pond was dug. [14] [1] Inside the pond is a fountain, dedicated in May 1953 to Ebenezer T. Paul, [17] and which was paid for in a bequest in the will of Ebenezer's wife, Marietta. [18]
The receiving tomb was designed by Frederick R. Storrs [14] inside of a heart shaped recess in a hill just inside the cemetery for those who died during the winter. [1] The Gate Lodge Chapel, built in 1903, was designed by Henry Bailey Alden. [19]
At the base of the hill with the Civil War monument is an oblong piece of granite stating simply, "Hermit." [1] [20] It marks the grave of James Gately, the Hermit of Hyde Park. [1] [20] In 2014, the Town was close to finishing an expansion providing more than 100 grave sites of the cemetery. [3] Without the expansion, it would have been full in another two years. [3]
After the Civil War, Eliphalet Stone donated a choice plot of land upon a hill and a monument to the sacrifice of Dedham's Union soldiers to the local Grand Army of the Republic chapter. [11] [19] [21] [22] On the hill, which was 200 feet (61 m) in circumference, [1] was a monument including four cannons used in the war that were presumably confiscated from Confederate troops. [19] The monument itself is a granite pedestal with the words "Repose," "Mespha," and "Gilead." [1]
Using funds from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Selectmen hired 50 men to work three days a week during the summer months beginning in 1934. [19] The men cut down the hill bounded by Catalpa Walk, Cedar Avenue, and Hemlock Avenue, removed all necessary trees, removed large stones, and graded the land. [19] At the request of the local chapters of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Selectmen designated a hill on the other side of Catapla Walk to bury veterans of the First World War. [19] The work to prepare this land was also done by men employed through an ERA grant. [19] A spot was prepared to place a monument at a later date. [19]
On the grounds are memorials to veterans of the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Fire Department, and veteran John "Roscoe" Maloney, longtime superintendent of cemeteries in Dedham. [22] There are also monuments to all veterans who served in time of war, to those who served in the Gulf War, and to members of the police and public works departments.
Mother Brook is a stream that flows from the Charles River in Dedham, Massachusetts, to the Neponset River in the Hyde Park section of Boston, Massachusetts. Mother Brook was also known variously as East Brook and Mill Creek in earlier times. Digging the brook made Boston and some surrounding communities an island, accessible only by crossing over water, making Mother Brook "Massachusetts' Panama Canal."
The history of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1635–1699, begins with the first settlers' arrival in 1635 and runs to the end of the 17th century. The settlers, who built their village on land the native people called Tiot, incorporated the plantation in 1636. They sought to build a community in which all would live out Christian love in their daily lives, and for a time did, but the Utopian impulse did not last. The system of government they devised was both "a peculiar oligarchy" and a "a most peculiar democracy." Most freemen could participate in Town Meeting, though they soon established a Board of Selectmen. Power and initiative ebbed and flowed between the two bodies.
The history of Dedham, Massachusetts, from 1800 to 1899 saw growth and change come to the town. In fact, the town changed as much during the first few decades of the 19th century as it did in all of its previous history.
Edward Dowse was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. Born in Charlestown in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Dowse moved to Dedham in March 1798 to escape the yellow fever epidemic in Boston. He purchased five acres of land on both sides of the Middle Post Road, today known as High Street. He lived in an already existing house at first, and then built a home on the land in 1804. His brother-in-law was Samuel Nicholson, the first captain of USS Constitution.
Augustus Bradford Endicott was a Massachusetts state legislator and sheriff of Norfolk County.
Major Eleazer Lusher was a politician and military leader from Dedham, Massachusetts.
Edward Alleyn was a businessman and early American politician. He served on the first board of selectmen in Dedham in 1639 and was a frequent representative to the Great and General Court beginning in 1638. He was town clerk for two years, having first been elected in 1639. As a businessman, he was involved with establishing an iron foundry.
The Old Village Cemetery is an historic cemetery in Dedham, Massachusetts.
Col. Eliphalet Stone was an American politician.
William Adams was minister of the First Church and Parish in Dedham.
John Hunting was Ruling Elder of the First Church and Parish in Dedham.
James Gately (1810–1875), also known as the Hermit of Hyde Park, was a 19th-century English-born American hermit. He was born in England in 1810 to wealthy parents. He studied at the University of Oxford. He had a son out of wedlock in 1850. He then sailed to Australia but returned the following year. He was still unable to marry the mother of his son, and so set sail for the United States instead, settling in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
John Dwight was one of the first settlers of Dedham, Massachusetts and progenitor of the Dwight family.
The history of Dedham, Massachusetts from 1700 to 1799 saw the town become one of the largest and most influential country towns in Massachusetts. As the population grew and residents moved to outlying areas of the town, battles for political power took place. Similar battles were taking place within the churches, as liberal and conservative factions bristled at paying for ministers with whom they had differences of theological opinion. New parishes and preciencts were formed, and eventually several new towns broke away.
Francis Chickering was an early settler of Dedham, Massachusetts who served in the Great and General Court of Massachusetts and on that town's Board of Selectmen for 15 years. He was also a teacher in the first public school in America, today well known as the Dedham Public Schools.
The history of Dedham, Massachusetts in the 20th century saw great growth come to the town. It played host to the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, saw the Endicott Estate and a number of schools constructed, a great deal of economic development, and growth in the number of services provided by the Town.
This is a timeline of the history of the town of Dedham, Massachusetts.
Memorial Hall served as both the town hall of Dedham, Massachusetts from 1868 until 1962 and as the Town's monument to the soldiers from the town who died in the Civil War.
The town of Dedham, Massachusetts, participated in the American Civil War primarily through the 630 men who served in the United States Armed Forces during the war. A total of 46 men would die in the war, including in battle, from disease, from wounds sustained in battle, and in prisoner of war camps. The Town of Dedham supported the soldiers and their families both through appropriations raised by taxes, and through donations of supplies sent to the front lines.
Thomas Barrows was a business and civic leader from Dedham, Massachusetts.
