In the early to late 1800’s, there was a movement in more urban areas to create “rural” cemeteries. This was in part to alleviate overcrowding in many city cemeteries caused by both increased immigration and deaths from the Civil War. The first rural cemetery in Massachusetts was the Mount Auburn Cemetery created in Cambridge in 1831. There are “rural” cemeteries in Fairhaven and New Bedford, but not in Rochester, in part because most of our cemeteries predated the movement. Rural cemeteries were park-like, and families would go on outings to them. They would stroll the grassy pathways and even stop to picnic. The creation of these cemeteries stopped when public parks began to be funded, following Frederick Law Olmstead’s push to design public open spaces…
But enough of that. Our Rochester cemeteries are solemn and interesting spaces that pay tribute to those buried there, but also tell the history of families and of our town. The cemetery at Rochester Center is rich with these stories and on our tour on June 11 at 1:00, we will be introducing you to some of them.
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to get to all the notable people buried here, so I thought I’d share the story of Donald and Eunice Jenkins. Both grew up in Rochester. Eunice’s father was the head gardener at the Stone Estate in Marion. Eunice went to Kinyon Campbell after high school and then worked in the payroll department at Morse Cutting tools.
Donald was a farmer and drove buses for Mr. Arenberger. Then he went on to drive trucks. He was in England and France in the Army Air Corps. Donald and Eunice got married in 1953 when she was 19. Donald was a Tree warden in Rochester for 30 yrs.
Later in life in 1976, both Donald and Eunice and two others moved the entire collection of almost 10,000 books and other materials from the old library in Town Hall to the new Plumb Memorial Library.
This is just one couple’s story. Hopefully, you’ll be able to join us on Sunday where we will do our best to share more Rochester stories.
By Connie Eshbach