Longmeadow Cemetery
We have often
admired the
skillfully carved
gravestones in the
Longmeadow Cemetery.
Most made from
locally quarried
redstone (or
brownstone), a
particularly
fine-grained
sandstone, they have
withstood the years
of weathering.
Evocative symbolism,
old-fashioned names
and archaic
spellings fascinate,
as do the familiar
verses: “Death is a
debt to nature due,
which I have pay'd
and so must you,”
and the not so
familiar verses from
poets popular at the
time like this one,
"The Age of Man is
but A Span/His days
on Earth A few/At
Death he must
Embrace the Dust/And
Bid this World
Adieu." The rows of
small stones remind
us of the
devastation of
childhood illnesses
now prevented by
vaccinations, and
the impressive table
stones tell us of
the social and
financial standing
of the town’s
prominent citizens.
"At Death he
must/ Embrace the
Dust/ And bid his
world Adieu"
Have you ever
wondered about the
more mundane details
of death in the 18th
and 19th
centuries—what were
people buried in,
what did they wear,
and who buried
them? What happened
in the winter when
the ground was
frozen? Where did
they get the verses
and poems carved on
the stones? Who
paid for the
gravestones, and
what if the deceased
couldn’t afford one?
The Longmeadow
Historical Society
has been conducting
research to try to
learn more about
some of the less
fortunate citizens
of the town.
Records are
relatively easier to
find about the
famous, the
prominent, and the
wealthy; but if you
were female, black,
poor or sickly, it
is much harder to
find a lasting
record of your life.
We have uncovered
records detailing
the care of the
poor, including
paying for a
recently deceased’s
final preparations.
Walter White most
often was mentioned
for constructing the
coffins. Others
were credited with
weaving the shroud.
Walter Coomes'
ledger: "to paying
Simion Newel
(Simeon Newell)
for grave stones for
Aurelia B. Coomes"
and "to paying Gorge
Rennals (George
Reynolds) for
coffin"
A fortuitous find at
the Lyman and Merrie
Wood Museum at the
Springfield
Quadrangle shed more
light on the
nitty-gritty job of
burial. This find,
a ledger belonging
to Walter Coomes
(1766-1842), covered
the time period of
1821-1842. Coomes
was the local
gravedigger for
Longmeadow, and he
made note of over a
hundred burials he
performed during
those two decades.
Costing between $.75
and $2.50, and often
free for children,
he was a busy man.
An intriguing fact
emerged from this
ledger--of the
nearly 150 notations
of burials, only
about 60% of those
deceased currently
have a stone in the
cemetery (or in
nearby East
Longmeadow
cemeteries). What
does this mean? It
may be a clue to how
many people didn't
have a permanent
marker, or perhaps
some of these
markers no longer
exist. The
Longmeadow Cemetery
Association has
conducted Ground
Penetrating Radar
(GPR) scans of the
older portions of
the cemetery. These
scans did reveal
evidence of burials
in areas without
gravestone markers.
Much more research
needs to be done.
Gravestone for Naomi
Woolworth and her
son, Joseph
who died on the same
day in 1760.
She at age 39 in
1760 and he at 6
days old
