Cemeteries in the Town of Williamsburg ______________________________________________________________________________________ There are five cemeteries within Williamsburg’s boundaries: two in Williamsburg village, one in Haydenville village, one on Mountain Street, and one in a remote outlying area. Two are owned by the town and have been administered since the early 1990s by the town Trust Fund and Cemetery Commission. Two others are owned and operated by private corporations with boards of trustees. The fifth, a tiny family burial plot isolated in the middle of a large private landholding a mile from the nearest public road, has been unused for nearly 200 years and is being preserved without disturbance (or maintenance) by its present owner. The author, a historian and genealogist, aims to introduce others with similar interests, whether local residents or visitors in town, to the places where many past residents of Williamsburg and some of their descendants are buried. The various other web sites and documents linked within this article offer additional help in finding the graves of specific people. Secondary purposes of this paper are to acquaint local residents who are not historians with the historic significance of these burial places, how they are maintained, and where in town grave lots are still available. Old Village Hill Cemetery (town) Old Village Hill Cemetery on FindAGrave
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Cemeteries in the Town of Williamsburg - librarysample.org · Cemeteries in the Town of Williamsburg _____ There are five cemeteries within Williamsburg’s boundaries: two in Williamsburg
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Cemeteries in the Town of Williamsburg ______________________________________________________________________________________
There are five cemeteries within Williamsburg’s boundaries: two in Williamsburg
village, one in Haydenville village, one on Mountain Street, and one in a remote outlying
area. Two are owned by the town and have been administered since the early 1990s by
the town Trust Fund and Cemetery Commission. Two others are owned and operated by
private corporations with boards of trustees. The fifth, a tiny family burial plot isolated in
the middle of a large private landholding a mile from the nearest public road, has been
unused for nearly 200 years and is being preserved without disturbance (or maintenance)
by its present owner.
The author, a historian and genealogist, aims to introduce others with similar interests,
whether local residents or visitors in town, to the places where many past residents of
Williamsburg and some of their descendants are buried. The various other web sites and
documents linked within this article offer additional help in finding the graves of specific
people. Secondary purposes of this paper are to acquaint local residents who are not
historians with the historic significance of these burial places, how they are maintained,
was mandated by Williamsburg’s Board of Appeals in 2002, when it issued a Special
Permit for sand and gravel mining on condition that the cemetery not be disturbed.
Fortunately, that condition has been respected.
The stones have all been photographed and can be seen on FindAGrave.
Rogers Cemetery leaflet: map, notes and transcription of stones (2008)
Finding the graves of Roman Catholic residents of Williamsburg
Most of the immigrant mill workers who flocked to Haydenville in the 19th
and early 20th
centuries were Irish, French Canadian, German or East European, and most of them were
Catholic. It was for their benefit that St. Mary’s Church in Haydenville was built in 1867
on land donated by Joel Hayden, who employed much of that village’s population in one
enterprise or another. Few of these Catholic residents are buried in Williamsburg and
Haydenville. Look for them in St. Mary’s Assumption Cemetery on Route 9 in Leeds
(opened in 1890 for parishioners from Haydenville and Leeds) or in the older and much
larger St. Mary’s Cemetery on Bridge Road, North Elm Street and Hatfield Street in
Northampton. The Catholic Diocese of Springfield is generally unhelpful with genealogical inquiries, often not responding at all. Workers in the cemeteries are a better bet for assistance.
Finding the graves of other Mill River Disaster victims
The reservoir dam collapse three miles above Williamsburg village on May 16, 1874 took
57 lives in that village, 4 in Skinnerville, 27 in Haydenville, and 51 more across the town
boundary in Leeds, a part of Northampton. Of those 139 people, only 25 are known to be
buried in two of our town’s cemeteries (and none in the other three). Some of the rest are
buried in Northampton’s Catholic cemeteries. A good many were short-term residents
who had come here to work in the mills, and whose remains were taken back to where
they had come from for burial. Some were buried in Northampton’s Bridge Street
Cemetery because relatives were already buried there, or for other reasons unknown to
me. Some may have been buried without markers in Williamsburg cemeteries.
Researchers investigating people lost in the flood may encounter a rumor that the “New”
Village Hill Cemetery was opened hastily in 1874 to accommodate the burials of a great
many flood victims. That is a myth. The cemetery had been in use for decades by then.
Eric W. Weber
Chair, Williamsburg Historic Commission
Member, Williamsburg Trust Fund and Cemetery Commission