Written in Stone

“Today we recorded for kith and kin the graves of ancestors past; to be preserved for generation hence, a record we hope will last.”   

The  Recording of a Cemetery  by Thelma Greene Reagan

South Cemetery boasts an array of beautiful and interesting stones, representing a variety of carvers and stone types. There is an unusually large number of blue slate stones that came from the Boston area. Other Connecticut burying grounds don't display so many stones from so far away. South Cemetery claims this special characteristic because many of the people who settled Pomfret were from the Boston area such as  Roxbury and Rehoboth . For example, Rev Ebenezer Williams,  profiled below , was from Roxbury. It is said that the culture as early as before the revolution was particularly refined in Pomfret, as one might find in larger cities closer to the coast. They utilized these connections with Boston, those who could, seeking  fine blue slate  to honor the deceased. Others with means to secure only a local, part time carver might engage  something simpler .

was so remarkably healthy that, in five years, the only deaths occurring were those of three infants, so that the burial ground by the meeting house was scarcely made use of. In 1719, the town voted "That the burying place be removed to a more convenient place," and accepted the gift of two acres of land for this use and service, bounded north by Wappaquians brook and east by the highway, from Deacon Philemon Chandler. The first person interred in the new ground is believed to have been Joseph Griffin, one of the original Mashamoquet proprietors, in 1723. He was followed, in 1725, by Deacon Benjamin Sabin, an early Woodstock pioneer, and one of the most useful and respected citizens of Pomfret. "

From  The History of Windham County  by Richard M. Bayles Published 1889

Near the exit gate of South Cemetery are three remarkable stones carved by Henry Christian Geyer, of Boston. They commemorate Mary Allin Carpenter, who died in 1764, Nathaniel Carpenter, 1768, and their son, Amasa Carpenter who died at the early age of twenty-four, March 6,1773. Amasa’s brother, Elijah Carpenter was executor of his estate.

Boston January 29 1774 Received of Elijah Carpenter by the hand of Seth Grosvenor four pounds ten shillings S. M. which is in full for three pair of gravestones. Henry Christian Geyer.”

Elijah Carpenter and his siblings had the stones carved for their parents and their brother, Amasa in 1774. By 1784 the family farm had been sold in divided tracts by the children and grandchildren of Samuel Carpenter Senior to John Williams, Ebenezer Grosvenor, John Jeffords, James Thurber, Isaac Sharpe and Eleazer May.

His personal estate was calculated in the inventory (see below) of 1773. Although Amasa, being a young man, had not accrued wealth, Elijah was a meticulous executor of the estate who made sure that the two brothers and four sisters received their share after Amasa’s debts were paid. He recorded their receipts in the Administration account in the Probate Court of Pomfret. Amasa was buried next to his mother, Mary, and father, Nathaniel Carpenter in South Cemetery, which was then called Sabin Burial Ground.  

The majority of Sikes' stones were carved on brown tinted schist similar to that used by the Kimballs, though he was known to use grey schist, dark slate, and even marble though the latter was very rare. Sikes would carve nearly 200 stones in Connecticut, most ending up in the extreme western part of Windham County most prominently in such towns as Thompson, Brooklyn, Plainfield, Putnam, and Pomfret.

Spalding would shift to the increasingly popular neoclassical styles and favored urn designs, some very elaborate. During this time, Spalding would become much more popular, placing well over 100 delicately carved urns and willow slates across eastern Connecticut even into many border towns of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It is currently unknown when Spalding died, but it was most likely sometime in the 1820s.

At first, Soule carved on a reddish brown local stone that proved more difficult to cut his usual delicate fine carvings. By 1795 he had begun using a fine dark slate that would remain his material of choice for the remainder of his career, though on rare occasions he would use marble. Soule quickly gained popularity in much of Northeastern Connecticut, quickly finding a market in such towns as Pomfret, Thompson, Killingly, Woodstock, and into Rhode Island, especially in Burrilville, with spread into other towns in CT, RI, and Massachusetts. Through this period he also occasionally shipped markers back to his native Plymouth County.

He began using the increasingly popular urn and willow designs by 1798, all but completely phasing out his cherubs by 1804. Through this period, he would often carve stones featuring detailed centerpiece urns, often flanked with non-willow plants or abstract shapes. Soule would continue carving out of Brooklyn until 1815 when he would move to Chaplin, where he would continue carving on his favored dark slate right until his death in 1835. His grave is marked by an ornate marble tombstone carved by his son Coomer Soule, affectionately named after Beza's brother.

The Sabin Cemetery is one of the finest burial grounds to view the changes in Beza's work, featuring examples of his earliest Connecticut work on the local stone as well as many more on his characteristic dark slate with examples extending well into the urn and willow era including signed stones.

James Jr. would teach his son James Foster III the trade, and by the early 1750s, the latter was producing his own fine death heads and winged cherubim. The Fosters carved many elaborate stones throughout their careers, including those featuring sharp, realistic winged faces, frontal profiles, and even clock designs. Their work reached into the interior of Massachusetts, even spreading as far west as Deerfield, as well as on both sides of Long Island Sound, and into New Hampshire and Maine.

Bartlett's style featured a large face either round or in an almost light bulb shape with a small frown, a bulbous nose connecting with the eyes resembling that of a garment hook and eye, and topped with an abstract crown of righteousness, flanked by three-lobed wings on each side. Bartlett's work seldom varied from this template, though on more elaborate stones he would swap the lobed wings for two massive almost strawberry-like wings, as well as occasionally using several other border patterns.

Their work was most popular in Norwich, as well as many towns in the surrounding region including Preston, Griswold, Stonington, Lisbon, and Montville among others.

Sabin Cemetery remains noteworthy as it is one of the most northerly known cemeteries featuring their work, only surpassed by West Thompson with only two markers present compared to the eight in Sabin.

One of the most striking featuresof the stones produced by the Lambs was their usage of an odd soapstone that varied in color from brown, orange, red, and even pink. Even odder is that while in some cases this material weathered very poorly being prone to delamination, other stones on the same material have held up considerably to the elements and fortunately, all of the stones by the Lambs in Sabin have shown such durability.

The Mannings' popularity extended further with scattered stones West of the Connecticut River, into the border towns of Massachusetts, Long Island, Rhode Island, and even the Carolinas. All three Manning carvers are represented in the Sabin Cemetery.

Stationed in Bennington Vermont, they would discover the high-quality marble of its quarries, and after the war would import marble for use on gravestones for a number of their wealthiest patrons.  When the dawn of the 19th century arrived, the increasing popularity of the urn and willow design would prompt the Mannings to begin carving markers of the new style, though they never completely phased out their iconic winged cherubs. Josiah died an old man in 1806 aged 81, and lies buried under a stone he both carved and signed in the Windham Center Cemetery. Unfortunately, both of Josiah’s sons would die considerably younger than him, Rockwell in 1804 aged 44, and Fredrick in 1810 aged 51.

James Stanclift Sr. was the among the first stone cutters to use stone from the brownstone cliffs near the river at what is now Middletown and Portland, CT. In a deal with the nascent town in 1686 he was granted land at the site in exchange for doing stone work. James II and William inherited the property and continued in the stone cutting trade.

Ebenezer Williams was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts to Samuel Williams and Sarah (May) Williams. His uncle, John Williams was a Puritan minister in Deerfield, Massachusetts from 1664 – 1729 when he and most of his family were taken as Indian Captives in 1704 during Queen Anne’s War.

At age twenty-five, Ebenezer was solicited to become the first settled and much-admired minister in Pomfret. Shortly after Pomfret was founded and the boundaries surveyed in 1713, the first proprietors set about to establish their church, build a meeting house in the “First Society” and settle an orthodox minister. They quickly agreed to invite Ebenezer Williams of Roxbury, Massachusetts, who was a reputable graduate of Harvard and known to be an excellent Calvinist preacher. Reverend Ebenezer Williams agreed to come to Pomfret to preach for six months, a drawn-out audition to see if he was indeed suitable to living in what was still a wilderness in Wabbaquassett country.

He arrived on December 23, 1713, and began his ministering immediately. He endeared himself to the fledgling community almost immediately and was offered a settled position before his six months were up. In the early days of his tenure, he boarded at the home of Captain John Sabin, the only framed house in Pomfret at the time. The search committee consisted of Pomfret’s founding “fathers,” many of whom are interred in the South Cemetery: Deacon Benjamin Sabin, Captain John Sabin, Cornet Sawyer, Nathaniel Gary, Leicester Grosvenor, Abiel Lyon, Nathaniel Sessions, Ebenezer Truesdell, and Joseph Chandler (Larned pg. 167).

Reverend Williams was offered 170 pounds to buy land and build his house, and a “salary of 60 pounds per year for four years and after that to rise twenty shillings a year until it came to seventy pounds.” (Larned pg. 167)

The proprietors set aside 200 acres of land for their new minister in 1714. The land expanded from what is now The Little Dipper Farm, formerly Hillandale, in Brooklyn, CT., along route 169 north to Mashamoquet Brook.

Ebenezer Williams must have been busy the first two years of his settled ministry. With the help of two enslaved servants and his neighbors and parishioners the land was cleared, an orchard set out, and the house raised.  Still a single man, he must have had his eye on his future wife, Penelope Chester, of Weathersfield (1693 – 1764). They married in 1716 in Pomfret.

It was Reverend Ebenezer Williams who initiated the first public library in eastern Connecticut in 1739. The lofty title The United English Library for the Propagation of Christian and Useful Knowledge”, consisted of seventy-five volumes and included Latin, Greek, scholarly and religious tomes chosen to cultivate a well-rounded and educated community. Subscribers from Pomfret, Woodstock, Thompson, Killingly, Mortlake, and Canterbury paid yearly fees for the privilege of borrowing books. The library was originally kept in the home of the Reverend, but after a few years the collection was split between Woodstock and Pomfret since the subscribers in Thompson and Woodstock found it too difficult to travel the rough roads to Pomfret. Killingly, Mortlake and Canterbury likewise couldn’t make the journey to Woodstock.

Ebenezer's children were:

The original will of Ebenezer Williams was partially destroyed in a fire in the Town Clerk’s House. After his death in 1753, his son, Ebenezer Williams Esquire, executor of his father’s estate, reconstructed the original will but had to request a codicil from the General Assembly to adjust it because Chester Williams, son of the deceased Ebenezer, had since died. The Codicil was adjusted to include the heirs of Chester, Ebenezer Jr., and their sister, Hannah, who had married Jabez Huntington.

The Reverend provided his wife, Penelope, with a comfortable life in their home with the following instruction: 

To my beloved wife (Penelope) Williams I give two hundred pounds in good bills of public credit of the old tenor and my negro man and woman and also all my household goods and within books and movables that have not in and by this will herein and hereafter disposed of to give and dispose of to whom and as she pleases.

Although early burial grounds have been the subject of many social trends and fads, they haven’t enjoyed the benefit of deep study, and protection. Since the Hale Collection, and other WPA projects during the Great Depression, little has been done to fund mapping, data collecting and the preservation of early burial grounds.

The expense of mowing has skyrocketed, and priorities have shifted from honoring the past to the business of rudimentary upkeep. Gravestones from the 18 ^th  and early 19 ^th  centuries are rapidly deteriorating giving way to New England winters and lichen infestation. With their demise we are losing cultural artifacts and primary documents that can help us to better understand the social history of Connecticut’s early settlements.

Many towns in Northeast Connecticut harbor early burial grounds tucked away in long forgotten districts and villages, or small private plots that belonged to families who moved away generations ago. Their curiously slanted stones, leaning toward extinction, the rusted gates, overgrown brush, and uncut grass are tell-tale signs that town cemetery budgets have dwindled.

Workshops were carried out in the Fall of 2022 that brought many interested people from Pomfret and surrounding towns to learn about who created the carvings, the history they can reveal, as well as proper techniques for how to care for them.

The stories we tell about our families, our communities and our history are what bind us together. Often, they are tied to physical structures such as historic buildings, battlefields, and burial grounds. When we lose the structures due to neglect and disinterest, we lose a piece of ourselves and our sense of place. 

If you visit the cemetery, you can use this map as an aid to locating the stones featured in this tour. Click on a pin to see which stone is in that location and who carved it.

 Open in Google Maps  |  Open in Google Earth 

It is hoped that readers will feel welcomed to visit the cemetery and wander among the many examples too numerous to feature here.

Though an important study by Harriette Merrifield Forbes began a new interest in gravestones in Massachusetts in 1927, a series of articles by Dr. Ernest Caulfield published from 1951 through 1967 in the Bulletin of the Connecticut Historical Society, is regarded as the foundation and standard for all subsequent research on the creators of Connecticut's early gravestones. A distinguished practicing pediatric physician and professor, his interest in early childhood diseases found him pondering the epitaphs on the gravestones of those who died in infancy and early childhood. Upon his retirement he set out to find out more about the carvings and who made them, amassing a body of research that formed the beginnings of the essential lexicon on the subject.

The Colonial Burying Grounds of Eastern Connecticut and the Men Who Made Them by James Slater builds on the work of Caulfield, providing an indispensable guide should you wish to find more information on where and what to look for across eastern Connecticut.

The Association for Gravestone Studies today carries out the work of keeping alive the scholarship and networking that supports the discipline. They offer an host of information and materials for anyone who wants to look deeper into the subject.

The Pomfret Cemetery Corporation