Mansfield Center Cemetery | |
Location | Jct. of Storrs and Cemetery Rds., Mansfield, Connecticut |
---|---|
Coordinates | 41°45′43″N72°11′46″W / 41.76194°N 72.19611°W |
Area | 1.5 acres (0.61 ha) |
Built | 1693 |
NRHP reference No. | 92000905 [1] |
Added to NRHP | July 24, 1992 |
Mansfield Center Cemetery is a small cemetery in the Mansfield Center section of Mansfield, Connecticut. Established in 1693, it is one of the few surviving elements of Mansfield's early colonial settlement history. It also has a distinguished array of funerary markers carved by acknowledged master's across eastern Connecticut. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. [2]
Mansfield Center Cemetery is located south of the modern center of Mansfield, at the southeast corner of Storrs and Cemetery Roads. It is a roughly rectangular area 1.5 acres (0.61 ha) in size, ringed by a fieldstone wall. A line of trees separates the cemetery from Storrs Road, and there is a gate with stone posts providing entrance to the ground. The cemetery grounds are densely filled with burial sites, with the burials uniformly oriented with the head to the east, and headstones with the carved face to the west. Many 18th and 19th century markers carved of a variety of materials featuring elaborate designs dot the grounds. The oldest dated marker is for Exercise Conant, who died in 1722. [2]
Mansfield was settled as part of Windham in 1690 and was separately incorporated in 1704. The site was set aside for use as a cemetery as early as 1693 and it remained in general use for that purpose until the 1870s. [2] The cemetery's 18th-century gravestones, decorated with cherubim, geometric designs, and a variety of funerary symbols, are considered to be illustrative of the rich artistic tradition of funerary stone carving in colonial New England. More than 180 stones have been attributed to identifiable stone carvers, including such 18th-century masters of the craft as John Hartshorne, Obadiah Wheeler, Benjamin Collins and his son Zerubbabel, Gershom Bartlett, John Huntington, the Manning Family, Jonathan Loomis, Aaron Haskins, Stephen Spaulding, Elijah Sikes, and John Walden. Two primative carvings exist by local carver James Hovey. 19th century carvers represented include the Upswept Wing Carver, Caleb Huntington, Thomas Welch, the Warrenville Carver, and Orivlle Griswold. [2]
Mansfield Center is a village within the town of Mansfield in Tolland County, Connecticut, United States. The village is the basis of a census-designated place (CDP) of the same name with a population of 947 at the 2010 census. The CDP includes the original settlement of Mansfield, Mansfield Center or Mansfield Village, as well as the village of Mansfield Hollow. Mansfield Hollow State Park is also located within the boundaries of the CDP.
Windham is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. It contains the former city of Willimantic as well as the communities of Windham Center, North Windham, and South Windham. Willimantic, an incorporated city since 1893, was consolidated with the town in 1983. The town is part of the Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region. The population was 24,428 at the 2020 census.
A gravestone or tombstone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. A marker set at the head of the grave may be called a headstone. An especially old or elaborate stone slab may be called a funeral stele, stela, or slab. The use of such markers is traditional for Chinese, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic burials, as well as other traditions. In East Asia, the tomb's spirit tablet is the focus for ancestral veneration and may be removable for greater protection between rituals. Ancient grave markers typically incorporated funerary art, especially details in stone relief. With greater literacy, more markers began to include inscriptions of the deceased's name, date of birth, and date of death, often along with a personal message or prayer. The presence of a frame for photographs of the deceased is also increasingly common.
Ye Antientist Burial Ground is a cemetery in New London, Connecticut, bounded by Hempstead Street on the west and Huntington Street on the east, running from Granite Street to approximately Bristol Street. It has been known by several names over the years, many spelling variations on Ancient Burial Ground. It is one of the earliest graveyards in New England and the oldest colonial cemetery in New London County. The hillside lot of 1.5 acres and adjoins the site of New London's first meeting house. The settlement at the time was called "Pequot Plantation" until the name changed in 1658. From the burial grounds, the visitor has a broad view to the east of the Thames River and, on the far shore, the heights of Groton, Connecticut.
Northeastern Connecticut, better known as the Quiet Corner, is a historic region of the state of Connecticut, located in the northeastern corner of the state. No official definition exists; the term is generally associated with Windham County, but also sometimes incorporates eastern sections of Tolland County and the northern portion of New London County.
The Rumney Marsh Burying Ground is a historic cemetery on Butler Street between Elm and Bixby Streets in Revere, Massachusetts. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. It was the first burying ground of an area that now encompasses Revere as well as neighboring Chelsea and Winthrop.
The Nipmuck Trail is a Blue-Blazed hiking trail system which meanders through 34.5 miles (55.5 km) of forests in northeast Connecticut. It is maintained by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association and is considered one of the Blue-Blazed hiking trails. There are two southern trail heads in the south of the town of Mansfield, Connecticut. The southwestern terminus is at a road shoulder parking place on Puddin Lane, and the southeastern terminus is a DEEP parking lot on North Windham Road at the southeast corner of Mansfield Hollow State Park. The northern terminus is at the north end of Breakneck Pond along the Massachusetts border in Nipmuck State Forest. Camping permits may be obtained for up to five separate locations for backpacking.
Cypress Cemetery is an historic cemetery at 100 College Street in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Established sometime in the 17th century, and still in active use, it is the town's oldest cemetery, with a wide variety of funerary art dating from the 17th to 21st centuries. The cemetery's oldest portion was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.
The Revolutionary War Cemetery, also called the Old Salem Burying Ground, is located on Archibald Street, just off state highway NY 22 in the village of Salem, New York, United States. It is a 2.6-acre (1.1 ha) area with over a thousand graves, at least 100 of which are those of Revolutionary War dead or veterans.
The First Church of Christ and the Ancient Burying Ground is a historic church and cemetery at 60 Gold Street in Hartford, Connecticut, United States. It is the oldest church congregation in Hartford, founded in 1636 by Thomas Hooker. The present building, the congregation's fourth, was built in 1807, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The adjacent cemetery, formally set apart in 1640, was the city's sole cemetery until 1803.
Kinne Cemetery, also known as the Glasgo Cemetery and Old Kinne Burying Ground, is a historic cemetery in Jarvis Road in Griswold, Connecticut. The earliest marked stone is for Daniel Kinne who died in 1713. In the 1930s, the inscriptions of 79 stones in the Kinne Cemetery were recorded for the Hale Index. There are around 80 fieldstones with no carving or identification, but it is unknown if this stems from wearing of the gneiss stone or that there were no skilled carvers locally available. The seven carvers that have been identified are Lebbeus Kimball, Jotham Warren, Josiah Manning, Peter Barker, Mr. Huntington of Lebanon, E. Marston of Mystic Bridge and O. Doty of Stonington. The National Historic Register of Places nomination notes, "the cemetery is significant artistically because the carving on the stones gives many good examples of the funerary art that was characteristic of the 18th and 19th centuries in New England." The cemetery is notable because of the burial of Isaac C. Glasko, the namesake of the village of Glasgo, and a prominent African American land-holding man who ran a blacksmith shop that was important to the marine industry of the area. The cemetery was made a part of the Connecticut Freedom Trail in 1995 and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 12, 2001.
The Duck River Cemetery, also known as the Old Lyme Cemetery is the communal burying ground of the town of Old Lyme, Connecticut. The earliest surviving grave marker dates from 1676 and was carved by William Stanclift, Renold Marvin's gravestone. The Stanclift shop remained popular into the 1740s carving both headstones and table slab monuments. Wealthy customers also opted for stones carved and imported by the skilled carvers of Boston and Newport including The John Stevens Shop, Hans Christian Geyer, and John Homer, the latter two of Boston. Brownstone carvers of the Connecticut River Valley include those by the Thomas Johnson Shop, William Holland, Ebenezer Drake, John Johnson, John Isham, and David Miller. Two Eastern Connecticut schist markers by John Hartshorne and Josiah Manning are also present. By the dawn of the 19th century, Chester Kimball of New London, Connecticut, Charles Dolph, and later the Ritter Shop of New Haven, Connecticut were carving in the neoclassical urn and willow style, also shifting into marble. A tidal stream known as the Duck River and a salt marsh bisect the burying ground.
Bergin Correctional Institution was a low-security state prison for men in Storrs, Connecticut. It was built in 1988 as the Northeast Correctional Institution and received its first inmates on March 13, 1989. After briefly closing in 1997 and reopening in 1999, the prison closed for good on August 12, 2011, due to years of declining prisoner population.
The Ireland Street Cemetery is a historic cemetery on Ireland Street in West Chesterfield, Massachusetts. The cemetery contains 185 stones, dating from 1772 to 1996, most of which date to the 18th and 19th centuries. It is one of the town's oldest cemeteries, and contains the work of three significant funerary carvers of the late 18th and 19th centuries. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
Funerary art in Puritan New England encompasses graveyard headstones carved between c. 1640 and the late 18th century by the Puritans, founders of the first American colonies, and their descendants. Early New England Puritan funerary art conveys a practical attitude towards 17th-century mortality; death was an ever-present reality of life, and their funerary traditions and grave art provide a unique insight into their views on death. The minimalist decoration and lack of embellishment of the early headstone designs reflect the British Puritan and Anglo-Saxon religious cultures.
The Fenton River runs through Mansfield, Storrs, and Willington, as well as small parts of Windham, all but the latter in Tolland County, Connecticut spanning 18.895 miles. It feeds into Mansfield Hollow reservoir at its end, making it a tributary to the Mount Hope, Natchaug, and Willimantic rivers. The Fenton River is fed by several smaller brooks, streams, and creeks.
The Lawton-Seabrook Cemetery is a small private cemetery at 7938 Steamboat Landing Road on Edisto Island, South Carolina. It is notable for its high-quality brick perimeter wall, and for its funerary markers, which are attributed to local master carver Thomas Walker and his family. There are only seven original gravestones, with additional otherwise unmarked potential graves marked by modern stones.
Gershom Bartlett was a stone carver who carved tombstones in colonial Connecticut and Vermont. His carved gravestones are widespread in colonial burying grounds in eastern Connecticut as well as towns in Vermont and New Hampshire near the Connecticut River.
The Wethersfield Village Cemetery is a historic burying ground in Wethersfield Connecticut that was started in 1638, and is the second oldest burial ground in Connecticut.
Zerubbabel Collins (1733–1797) was a carver of stone gravestones in New England in the 18th century. He has been called "one of the most important carvers represented in Vermont in the years after the American Revolution" and "one of the most talented [gravestone carvers] of his time".