In old New England towns, cemeteries are interesting places for many reasons. In Rochester, like other towns, quite a few current cemeteries grew organically from small family plots. Today in Rochester, seven cemeteries are under the auspices of the Town Cemetery Commission. However, the first to be created in Rochester, the Rochester Center Cemetery, is privately owned and continues to be an active burial ground.
The town center was established in 1697 by the first Constables. The land for the center was set apart from the town and was originally named the “Ministry” Woods. In the beginning, it was intended to include a burying ground and training field. Mark Haskell, Peter Blackmer, and Samuel Prince, all prominent men in the early days of Rochester, met at Haskell’s house on New Bedford Road to lay out plans for both the first meeting house and the burying ground. Around 1701, the First Parish Cemetery, now known as Rochester Center Cemetery (or simply Center Cemetery), was established. Like many cemeteries, it reflects the town’s history, from the very first settler families, many of whom have been mentioned in these articles.
In the oldest section, too many tombstone inscriptions have become illegible. However, we can still find the graves of the Honorable Abraham Holmes and his son, Charles Jarvis Holmes, Esq., and those of Charles Bonney and Elizabeth and Charles H. Leonard. Many of the markers are engraved with the family names that we also see on our street signs: Mendell, Perry, Rounseville, Sherman, Hartley, Parlow, Snow, Dexter, and others. Lieutenant John Winslow, a veteran of the French and Indian Wars, buried in 1715, has the oldest grave. As you walk through the cemetery reading inscriptions, you find poignant markers to those lost at sea or ones that surprise, such as the Goodenough memorial honoring missionaries to the Zulus. This cemetery is proof that in a town as old as Rochester, history is everywhere.
By Connie Eshbach