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Letters
Region
Obituaries
Abstract Paintings & Tribal Masks Exhibition At New Hampshire Antique Co-Op
Now on view through May 31, 2020
Congregational Church Stays Connected
During the suspension of in-person activities in light of the Covid-19 situation, the Congregational Church of Amherst, UCC has a variety of ways for members and others to connect with church programs. This is especially important during April as Holy Week and Easter are on the horizon.
The most up-to-date information about church activities can be found on the church’s website (ccamherst.org) or by calling the church office at 673-3231. Sunday services are broadcast on FacebookLive and recorded for later on-line viewing. Services are followed by a Virtual Fellowship Hour. Links for these and other events can be found on the website.
The church’s Facebook page is another source of information, including updates and video messages from the pastors. Pastors Maureen Frescott and Kate Kennedy are available to provide pastoral care during this time, and the church welcomes community members to connect with this loving, serving, open and affirming community of faith.
Lorraine Alice Hamilton
AMHERST – Lorraine Alice Hamilton of Amherst, New Hampshire, Beach Haven, New Jersey and Rancho Mirage, California died June 14, 2020 from pancreatic cancer at her home in California. She was 73 years old and a participant in the trial of a new cancer drug at NYU Langone in New York City since April 2019. She hoped that results from the trial would improve care for other patients who develop this cancer. She was with her family when she died and was
Donald Richard Haaker
Donald Richard Haaker, 80, born June 2, 1940, son of Carl E Haaker and Jeanne LaRochelle Haaker of Fitchburg, MA, son, brother, father, grandfather, and great grandfather, peacefully passed away on Sunday, June 7, 2020 at Saint Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford, MA.
Don, as he was affectionately referred to by friends, and Dad or Grandpa by family, was a proud veteran, avid fisherman, former business owner, collector of “As Seen On TV” gadgets, and
Historic Amherst
Amherst’s Historic Cemeteries:
An Overview
By Katrina Holman
​
Amherst hosts six historic cemeteries, five of them Town-owned and one owned by a church in a neighboring town. Amherst’s 6 historic cemeteries comprise 2 municipal cemeteries that served the whole town, located in the Village; 2 neighborhood cemeteries, one in the northern-most part of town that started out as a family graveyard and one in the southern part of town; the former pauper graveyard; and a Catholic cemetery. The oldest of these six was laid out in 1735 along with other key lots of the planned township called Souhegan West. The youngest of these six, the religious one, was established in 1869.
To put this timeframe in context: The first two settlers are supposed to have arrived in Souhegan West in the Spring of 1735; the first meeting house was erected 1739, the first minister was called 1741 when there were 14 families in all (including those in present Mont Vernon and the northerly part of Milford), and the town was incorporated as Amherst in 1760. Amherst became a county seat, that is home of the courthouse, in 1771 when the division of the Province of New Hampshire into counties took effect. The Declaration of Independence occurred in 1776. The 2nd N.H. turnpike was opened 1802, its southern terminus being in Amherst Village, enabling traffic from Vermont to continue south on the post road to Boston.
Old Burying Ground
Date: Although laid out in 1735, there are only twelve gravestones dated before 1770 in the Old Burying Ground behind Town Hall. (Carved stones were costly and required expertise to create.)
Old Burying Ground: An example of soul effigy motif, unusual for the feathers in the niche and for the peaked top, on slate stone of Miss Martha Woolson (d. 1788, age 24), whose family lived on Old Lyndeborough Road.
Old Burying Ground: An elegant example of winged face (spirit or angel) motif on slate stone of Nahum Baldwin (1734-1788), a prominent citizen who resided at 6 Mack Hill Road.
Motifs: The prevalent motifs before 1800 were winged face (spirit or angel) or winged skull and, commonly for children, face on tiny torso set in niche (sometimes called a soul effigy). After 1800, the typical motif is urn and willow in several variants.
Oldest stone: William Hopkins’s gravestone (died 1748, age 17) has earliest date – but carving is in such good condition that one could speculate it was done years later, possibly at the same time as the stone of his parents Benj. (d. 1787) & Hannah (d. 1792). Among oldest are the weathered short stone of Andrew Wilkins (d. 1753) and that of his 2-year-old sister Sarah (d. 1754), children of Rev. Daniel Wilkins.
Notable: The monument for Rev. Daniel Wilkins, first pastor, is unusual, both for its large table form and for the lengthy text all about him, a clear indication of his importance to the early development of the town. (Death year on gravestone is off by one, should be 1784.)
Africans: Experts concluded that skeletal remains that were accidentally unearthed in 2003, during remodeling of Town Hall from beneath foundation at back, were a young woman and child of African descent whose burials likely occurred between 1779 and 1823 (being the date when Town Hall was built) and that they likely died from tuberculosis. They were re-interred in 2007 by the southeast corner of the building. (Yes, there were slaves in Amherst. In 1767, when Amherst had a total population of 858, it included 8 of the 633 slaves in the Province of N.H. By 1777, there were zero slaves and in 1779, 1783 & 1788 there were 0 “negroes and molatto servants from 16 to 45 years of age” in Amherst. But in 1800 census, there were 33 non-white persons (gender not specified) in Amherst, living in homes where the head of household was white.)
Tombs: Under the front stone wall are 10 tombs that were sold at auction 1843/’44.
Last burial (not counting reburial): Dora Narcissa Spalding (1941, age 84) in Atherton tomb.
Meadowview Cemetery
Date(s): In 1827, the Town established a new burying ground on the north side of Foundry street, buying nearly 7 acres with 34 rods frontage along the road for $171.25 (deeds 150:625 & 626). (At that time, the only building on that street was the Congregational Vestry, which had been the second courthouse (1788-1823) and had been moved off the Common in 1824; now a private residence at 5 Foundry Street.) But at the very next Town Meeting, in March 1828, the voters insisted that a portion be sold off, so 3 acres on the west side were split off by the Selectmen, thus losing 19.5 rods of frontage, in 1829 for $46.51, at which time they promised that the Town “will
always make and maintain a good and sufficient fence on the west side of the aforesaid Burying Ground and Common” (deed 162:281). 1n 1852, the “West cemetery” was expanded to the east by 3 acres (with 8 rods frontage) for $107.45 (deed 271:206). In the 20th century, this cemetery was further expanded: in 1939 the Town paid Martha Hubley $250 to remove a restriction barring any burial within 20 rods from her home; in 1960 the Town purchased land owned by Elna Howard adjoining Meadow View Cemetery on the Northeast, for $1500; and in 1977 added a piece from end of Sunset Road for $1500.
Prior landowner: Practically all the land in the Village west of the Common had belonged to Samuel Dana (Sr., 1739-1798), a Harvard-educated minister turned lawyer then judge, who since 1782 (deed 9:17) had owned & occupied, and enlarged, the house at 19 Main Street. It took his heirs, sons, decades to sell off all the Amherst property, including the Vestry lot in 1824 (deed 196:152); land for the new burying ground in 1827 & 1852; and land for the foundry in 1850 (deed 265:111), all on Foundry Street.
Receiving Tomb: Built in 1857/8 to temporarily, annually store corpses when the ground is frozen too hard for digging graves; at a cost of $189.45, which included $42.75 for “drawing stone,” $20.75 for the tomb door, and $117.91 for labor.
Special plots & monuments: Included in the original plan were unmarked burial lots for strangers and infants. The Woman’s Relief Corps, female auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic (Civil War vets), owned an unmarked lot with apparent burials. Memorial monuments include: one for Unknown Soldiers (in far back area), one to World War II veterans (at east end, since 1945), and one honoring Amherst Firefighters (in center section).