Rural Cemetery is located on 180 Grove Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. More than 13,000 people are buried at the cemetery, including congressmen, mayors, governors, and professional people. [1]
The cemetery was incorporated in 1838 on the quiet outskirts of town, at the suggestion of Edward D. Bangs in 1837 to serve as the town's cemetery, the older cemeteries having been neglected, overpopulated, or trampled by livestock. David Waldo donated rolling, treed land he purchased for $1400 in September 1837. It was located on the road leading to Holden from Worcester, which was previously owned by Judge Timothy Paine. The state legislature passed the bill and signed by Governor Edward Everett to incorporate the "Proprietors of Rural Cemetery in Worcester". A portion of the land was set aside for a garden and the design included shrubs, trees and "other rural ornaments". [2]
A key goal in the founding of the rural cemetery was to create an ongoing memorial to the people who had passed [3] in the trend established by "America's first garden cemetery" or "rural cemetery", Mount Auburn Cemetery which was founded in Massachusetts in 1831 with classical monuments set in a rolling landscaped terrain. [4]
It has been the care of all ages of the world, and of all nations of men, to mark with tokens of affection and respect, the disposition of the remains of the dead.
— Levi Lincoln, Massachusetts Governor at the dedication ceremony. [3]
By the 1860s rural cemeteries could be found on the outskirts of cities and smaller towns across the country. [5]
It was originally situated on 24 acres, and is now 40 acres in area. [6]
Levi Lincoln Sr. was an American revolutionary, lawyer, and statesman from Massachusetts. A Democratic-Republican, he most notably served as Thomas Jefferson's first attorney general, and played a significant role in the events that led to the celebrated Marbury v. Madison court case. He served two terms as the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, acting as governor for the remainder of Governor James Sullivan's term after his death in December 1808. Lincoln was unsuccessful in his bid to be elected governor in his own right in 1809.
Levi Lincoln Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from Worcester, Massachusetts. He was the 13th governor of Massachusetts (1825–1834) and represented the state in the U.S. Congress (1834–1841). Lincoln's nine-year tenure as governor is the longest consecutive service in state history; only Michael Dukakis, John Hancock and Caleb Strong served more years, but they were not consecutive.
William Barrett Washburn was an American businessman and politician from Massachusetts. Washburn served several terms in the United States House of Representatives (1863–71) and as the 28th governor of Massachusetts from 1872 to 1874, when he won election to the United States Senate in a special election to succeed the recently deceased Charles Sumner. A moderate Republican, Washburn only partially supported the Radical Republican agenda during the American Civil War and the Reconstruction Era that followed.
Rockwood Hoar was a Representative from Massachusetts, the son of Massachusetts US Senator George Frisbie Hoar.
Emory Washburn was an American lawyer, politician, and historian. He was Governor of Massachusetts for one term, and served for many years on the faculty of Harvard Law School. His history of the early years of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is considered a foundational work on the subject.
Eli Thayer was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1857 to 1861. He was born in Mendon, Massachusetts. He graduated from Worcester Academy in 1840, from Brown University in 1845, and in 1848 founded Oread Institute, a school for young women in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is buried at Hope Cemetery, Worcester.
John Randolph Thayer was a representative from Massachusetts. He was born in Douglas, Massachusetts, and attended the common schools and Nichols Academy in Dudley.
Alexander Hamilton Bullock was an American lawyer, politician, and businessman from Massachusetts. First a Whig and then a Republican, he served three terms (1866–69) as the 26th Governor of Massachusetts. He was actively opposed to the expansion of slavery before the American Civil War, playing a major role in the New England Emigrant Aid Society, founded in 1855 to settle the Kansas Territory with abolitionists. He was for many years involved in the insurance industry in Worcester, where he also served one term as mayor.
The Massachusetts Republican Party (MassGOP) is the Massachusetts branch of the U.S. Republican Party.
Charles Grenfill Washburn was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts.
Dwight Foster was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts. He served as Massachusetts Attorney General and was an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Levi Hubbard was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. Born in Worcester in the Province of Massachusetts Bay to Jonas Hubbard and Mary (Stevens) Hubbard, he attended the common schools. He moved to Paris in Massachusetts' District of Maine in 1785, where he farmed and served in local offices including selectman and treasurer of Oxford County.
William Whitney Rice was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.
The Joseph Davis House is a historic house at 41 Elm Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. The Shingle style house was built in 1884 to a design by the Boston architectural firm of Peabody & Stearns, and is one of the most elaborate of that style in the city. It was built for Joseph Davis, the son of prominent Worcester lawyer Isaac Davis, and was home for many years to William Rice, president of the Washburn and Moen Company The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It now houses professional offices.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America.
The Rural Cemetery and Friends Cemetery are a pair of connected cemeteries at 149 Dartmouth Street in New Bedford, Massachusetts United States. They occupy an irregular parcel of land more than 90 acres (36 ha) in size on the west side of the city. Established in 1837, the Rural Cemetery was the fifth rural cemetery in the nation, after Mount Auburn Cemetery, Mount Hope Cemetery, Mount Pleasant Cemetery, and Laurel Hill Cemetery. In its early days it was criticized as lacking some of the natural beauty afforded by rolling terrain; the early sections were laid out in rectilinear manner on relatively flat terrain. The cemetery was a popular burial site, including notably the landscape artist Albert Bierstadt and Governor of Massachusetts John H. Clifford.
The 100th Massachusetts General Court, consisting of the Massachusetts Senate and the Massachusetts House of Representatives, met in 1879 during the governorship of Thomas Talbot. John B. D. Cogswell served as president of the Senate and Levi C. Wade served as speaker of the House.
The 1871 Massachusetts gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 1871. Incumbent Republican Governor William Claflin did not run for a fourth term in office. He was succeeded by Republican U.S. Representative William B. Washburn, who defeated Democrat John Quincy Adams II.