Hi Betty, I travel to Maine quite a bit. The old small graveyard on 95 is in the Kennebunk area I believe. I have often wanted to stop and check it out, but never have. Cheryl ---- Original message ---- >Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:00:15 -0600 >From: mamiddle-request@rootsweb.com >Subject: MAMIDDLE Digest, Vol 5, Issue 55 >To: mamiddle@rootsweb.com > > > >Today's Topics: > > 1. Old Graveyard in Tewksbury (Betty) > 2. Beacon obits (Dennis Ahern) > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >Message: 1 >Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:38:30 -0400 >From: "Betty" <bbffrrpp@comcast.net> >Subject: [MAMiddle] Old Graveyard in Tewksbury >To: <MA-CEMETERIES@rootsweb.com>, <MAMiddle@rootsweb.com> >Message-ID: <EA8844FE7CE54FB6BA34DA99CE7D516A@betty94bfd0f73> >Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; > reply-type=original > >Hello, > >There's been an old graveyard in Tewksbury that I've wanted to walk around >for 10 years. It was so nice outside yesterday that I didn't want to walk >around inside a store. One reason I hadn't visited it before because it >is not a convenient place to park and walk in. It's at the intersection >of 2 busy streets, Main St. and Shawsheen St. (Rt. 38). Another problem >yesterday, one of the streets was closed because of flooding. And, when I >got up into the property, I saw that flooding was right up against the other >2 sides of the graveyard. 3 of the stones were within inches of the >water. > >I had thought that there might be a KIDDER stone there, and I was correct. >It was for either Jedidiah or Jeruthedah (sp?) KIDDER, and the smaller stone >for his wife, Abigail. The largest set of stones was for the THOMPSON >name. There is no obvious name for this graveyard but I can guess it >might be referred to locally as the Thompson graveyard. Some of the >usual names were there, if you know the history of Billerica (Tewksbury >annexed off in the 1730's). > >This graveyard is not in the best condition; it could use some clean-up >and making several stones stand up again. The only other visitor in the >graveyward was a "garden snake" - another sign of SPRING ! (And a flock >of ducks or geese flying down into the "swollen pond.") > >Just an FYI for you. > >Betty (near Lowell, MA) > > > >(I'm on a non-genealogy Town List, and this town has had a lot of flooding - >because of its location. They were talking about the year they had as >much flooding and it was 1996. But, if my memory is working, I think >there was another spring of bad flooding a little after that. I seem to >remember that there was so much water that .. gravestones .. were being >uprooted and moving. And, in one case, some stones in possibly a cemetery >in Winchester were seen - floating away down a swollen stream. It >might have been beside the current train tracks - and those tracks were >built in early-1800's to go along the route of the "Old Middlesex Canal.") > >.. By the way, last fall I noticed an old graveyard right on the edge of >Rt. 128 in the Peabody area. And, a few weeks ago I took a Sunday-drive >on Saturday and drove to Maine. While on Rt. 95, I noticed a very tiny, >old graveyard - right alongside that major highway. Nothing was around >it. It might have been in the Falmouth or Yarmouth area. > > > > > >------------------------------ >