August 18, 2018

Lothrop Hill Cemetery, Barnstable: The Old Part

There are lots of old cemeteries around here and I love to explore them.  Sheila & I met up one day to check out the Lothrop Hill Cemetery on Rte. 6A in Barnstable.  It's a huge place and the graves in front are the ones that are really old, dating to the 1700s.



Sheila traces her family tree back to when the Cape was first settled.   She counts the Linell Family as part of her ancestry.


Some stones are badly damaged by weather and lichen.





I have been unable to find any information about Dannie & Fannie.  I don't know if they were children or husband & wife.


It's been my observation that people in the old days lived a lot longer than we think they did.  You always hear that people died young in the 1700s but most of the stones show ages well into the 60s and 70s, even 80s.


This stone about knocked my socks off.  Chester Jones' father, Willie, built my childhood home in 1889.  Chester was one of, I think, four Jones children that were deaf.  At least that's the info I've ferreted out over the years.  I did a lot of research in the 80s (pre internet) and found out through an interview with an elderly woman who knew the Jones family that Chester's bedroom was the one I grew up in.





A lot of the plots have been decorated and some of the branches have chimes and bird houses.







6 comments:

  1. lots of character and history there. Very interesting. Neat pics and picks into the past

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    1. Thanks! They are definitely neat to browse and it's always a very quiet walk too.

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  2. A mill wheel for a grave stone? Unique idea!
    I used to love walking around and reading the headstones.

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    1. We thought so too! The stones that are in Part 2 of this cemetery post are really something too.

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  3. Never been one for cemeteries, but there is one in Beaufort, NC where a soldier was buried standing upright. I don't remember why now. Yes, the cartwheel is very unusual. Interesting you found people living to a ripe old age.

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    1. Russell doesn't like cemeteries either. He always calls Sheila & me 'dead lovers' cause we love to explore them. haha He's just happy I have a friend that likes to do that with me so that he doesn't have to.

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