Update - 8/2/23

Laban Matteson Lot | West Greenwich, Rhode Island | Historical Cemetery No. 26

Added to Cemetery List, August 2, 2023! Click HERE to view.

Visiting the Laban Matteson Lot now feels a bit like visiting the ruins of a cemetery, rather than a cemetery itself.

The laban matteson lot as it stands today

Located atop a hill just east of Weaver Hill Road, this lot was heavily damaged by construction of I-95 in the 1950’s, with entire portions of the graveyard having been obliterated entirely in the process. Today, there is only one inscribed stone still standing in its original position, as well as a scattering of fieldstone burials. As though that weren’t bad enough, this lot also contains some of the most severe vandalism we have ever seen. Virtually every inscribed stone has been damaged and/or displaced, their broken pieces scattered across the hilltop or leaning up against trees.

Of the 12 inscribed stones recorded in this lot by Arthur James in 1924 and Grace G. Tillinghast in 1932, only 4 were in evidence when we first paid this lot a visit in 2000. Extensive probing of the hilltop allowed us to recover the headstones of Charles Matteson (Burial No. 10), Verbatus and Mary Matteson’s Infant Son (Burial No. 17), and Mary Matteson (Burial No. 19), as well as several of the lot’s missing footstones. To honor those buried here, we struggled to return the headstones to their proper locations by matching them up with their bases, but with so many headstones still missing, no clear picture of the burial ground ever revealed itself to us, and we were sadly unable to do so. Ultimately, we were forced to record the stones where we found them, resulting in likely the most confusing diagram in the entire BRMA. It is our fervent hope that further excavation work might uncover those burials still lost to time!

Update - 7/27/23

Matteson/Whitman/Woodward Lot | West Greenwich, Rhode Island | Historical Cemetery No. 46

Added to Cemetery List, July 27, 2023! Click HERE to view.

When James N. Arnold visited this cemetery on June 25, 1894, he recorded a total of 41 burials, 7 proper and 34 rude, in what he describes as “several lots”. The lot “nearest the road, fenced, in poor condition” contained 19 burials, all marked with fieldstones, the family they belonged to unidentified. He then recorded 5 stones “partly protected by a fence”, all burials of the Woodward family (he does not specify if the fence that partly protected these 5 burials was an extension of the fence from the previous lot, or a separate fence). Finally, in a “lot not protected”, he recorded Roby Smith and Sarah Matteson’s gravemarkers, as well as 15 additional fieldstone burials. He gives no indication as to how close these lots are in relation to one another, nor how close to Division Road the fieldstone cemetery he indicated as being “nearest the road” actually was. Now, however, due to construction of a dirt road just west of these lots sometime in the 1970’s before Blanche Albro visited the site in 1977, there is just 1 stone remaining—or so we thought!

ROBY SMITH’S HEADSTONE, mid-excavation, UNCOVERED FOR THE FIRST TIME In MORE THAN 50 YEARS

Thanks to an obscure marking we’d made in our initial diagram of the lot from 1999, suggesting that we’d found a second stone about 40 feet southeast of the S. F. Whitman stone, we revisited the location. After some brush clearing, sure enough, we found a footstone, still in its base, marked “R. S.”

Further recovery efforts were underwent, eventually revealing the footstones of William H. (Burial No. 12), Francis A. (Burial No. 13) and Eliza J. Woodward (Burial No. 14’s) footstones. Even better, they, too, were found in their original positions, still inserted into their bases. With a picture of the cemetery as it had originally stood now beginning to emerge, we were able to consult Arnold’s recordings and “reverse engineer” the lot.

Ultimately, we ended up locating the headstones of Roby Smith (Burial No. 10), Elsie Woodward (Burial No. 11), as well as William H. Woodward, all displaced and buried deep under as much as a foot of sand, but thankfully intact. We located the base of Sarah Matteson’s headstone as well, identifiable as it is the only burial in WG 46 with slate gravemarkers, but the stone itself was nowhere to be found. In addition to these, we found 8 fieldstone burials. The closer we came to the sand berm along the western edge of the lot, however, the more difficult our efforts became. To put it in perspective, the top of one of the fieldstone gravemarkers we located (Burial No. 7) was approximately 10 inches down in the sand. As to the large fieldstone portion of this cemetery Arnold describes as being fenced and nearest the road, we could find no trace of it. Either it stood where the large area west of the lot has been dug out, and therefore permanently lost, or perhaps it is located further north of the portion of the cemetery we were able to diagram, awaiting rediscovery. Only future recovery efforts will tell!

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: ELIZA J. WOODWARD, FRANCIS A. WOODWARD, AND wILLIAM H. WOODWARD’S FOOTSTONES, which proved to be our keys to rediscovering a portion of this once-large burial ground long buried beneath sand

Update - 7/24/23

Harrington Lot | West Greenwich, Rhode Island | Historical Cemetery No. 98

Added to Cemetery List, July 24, 2023! Click HERE to view.

Due to a forest fire that swept through the area more than 50 years ago as well as an overall air of neglect, this lot has seen better days. Though it has been cleaned out very thoroughly in recent years, making it far easier to navigate than it had been previously, many of the stones show signs of extreme damage. This is particularly true for the burials in this lot marked with slate head- and footstones. Between the heat from the fire and the natural process of delamination, many of these bore inscriptions that had to be pieced together using the tiny slivers of stone that had split off from the face of the stone over the decades. Some of these, Rebecca Harrington’s stone in particular (Burial No. 5), we found to be so brittle and delicate, we decided to just leave it be to eliminate the risk of further damage.

Even so, however, we were able to locate and recover Lydia Harrington’s stone (Burial No. 6), broken into several pieces, as well as the “R. C. / 1796” fieldstone (Burial No. 9), recorded by James Arnold but not Blanche Albro, which had been broken in half. Due to the cleaning efforts, we also found an unrecorded burial, simply inscribed with the initials “P. H.” (Burial No. 17).

In her 1977 recording, Blanche Albro had noted “about 20 graves marked with fieldstones”. We searched the area thoroughly, but were unable to locate anywhere near that number. Perhaps on a future visit, we’ll have more success!

Update - 7/19/23

Elezer Slocum Lot | Exeter, Rhode Island | Historical Cemetery No. 154

Added to Cemetery List, July 19, 2023! Click HERE to view.

This particular lot was a pleasant surprise for us. Recorded previously as containing anywhere from 6 to 8 burials, a thorough search of the area revealed 5 large fieldstone burials about 30 feet south of the main cluster of gravemarkers, as well as two additional rows of smaller fieldstone burials between the two sections, bringing the total number of marked burials here up to 19. Sadly, we didn’t find any inscriptions of any of the fieldstones we uncovered, so we’re unable to say if this is perhaps a previous generation of the Slocum family, or if it belongs to another family entirely, as “sharing” cemeteries was not an uncommon practice at the time.

Update - 7/17/23

Niles/Nichols/Congdon Lot | West Greenwich, Rhode Island | Historical Cemetery No. 54

Added to Cemetery List, July 17, 2023! Click HERE to view.

With 66 burials, the Niles/Nichols/Congdon Lot is among the largest in all the BRMA. It provides fine examples of both fieldstone inscription artistry, as well as professionally-commissioned stones dating from the 18th and 19th Centuries. Though even as far back as our first visit, it was never exactly overgrown, it was filled with fallen trees, trapping at least one stone. In fact, most of the visible damage within this lot seems to be the result of these fallen trees, and not so much vandalism. But now, thanks to recent efforts by a person or persons unknown, it is simply a delight to visit, cleaned out from wall to wall. Pictures of its original condition as well as its current condition can be found below.

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niles/nichols/congdon lot in 2012

niles/nichols/congdon lot in 2020

Curiously, the stone wall protecting this lot has no entrance or opening, presumably due to the wall’s being built at some point after the burial yard stopped being used. This is further evidenced by the fact that the fieldstone headstone belonging to the single burial in the westernmost row (Burial #1 on the diagram) stands only 6 or 8 inches away from the wall, rendering it impossible to photograph. As far as we could determine, this stone is not inscribed, but we were unable to fully excavate it for fear of unbalancing the wall protecting it. There could very well be other burials in this first row beneath the stone wall.

Update - 7/7/23

Joshua Carr Lot | West Greenwich, Rhode Island | Historical Cemetery No. 92

Added to Cemetery List, July 7, 2023! Click HERE to view.

As we’ve worked our way through the cemeteries of the BRMA over the years, we’ve encountered the occasional error in the historical record. The vast majority of these errors were very minor. “Mar. 10” transcribed as “May 10”, “1844” transcribed as “1841”, and so on. The Joshua Carr Lot, however, was an altogether different matter.

Our initial recording—including the recovery and excavation of two inscribed fieldstones that had been displaced, one of which we found sadly broken in half—contained three stones that appeared to us to be entirely new to the historical record. After consulting both James Arnold as well as Blanche Albro’s recording of this lot, however, we gradually came to the realization that these three stones were not unrecorded, they’d simply been mis-recorded. Our findings are detailed below.

R. S. - Burial #1 | View Gallery image HERE
Though recorded by James Arnold, we found additional lines of inscription well below ground level that provided the date of their death, so our record was updated accordingly.

Sarah Carr - Burial #2 | View Gallery image HERE
A beautifully-inscribed, unusually complex and detailed fieldstone burial. Transcribed as “Miriam Carr, daughter of Sarah Carr” by both Arnold as well as Blanche, it is actually the gravemarker for Sarah Carr herself. Note that the S’s and 4’s are all carved backwards. We’ve encountered the backwards 4’s in other fieldstone burials as well, likely to distinguish them from 9’s.

Easther Colgrove - Burial #5 | View Gallery image HERE
Another fine example of fieldstone inscription artistry. It is unfortunate that we found the stone broken in two, but at least we were able to assemble all the pieces required for a full transcription. We don’t always get that lucky. Transcribed by Arnold as “Esther Cahoone”.

C. C. - Burial #8 | View Gallery image HERE
A curious burial with a curious inscription. The first line of inscription in our initial recording of this stone read “C C C E S”, but upon closer inspection, we saw what appeared to be a lower case “d” carved into the third “C”, meaning a proper recording of it would read either “C C dC E S” or “C C Cd E S”. Our best explanation for this is that “dC E S” is possibly an abbreviation for “deceased”, as the second line of inscription provides the date of this individual’s death. The second line of inscription reads “NO _0 1762”, with the “N” carved backwards. We could not make out the first digit in the date as the stone shows heavy signs of chipping and weathering there. Recorded by Arnold as “C. C. E. / Oct. 10, 1776”.

Update - 7/5/23

Oliver Matteson Lot | West Greenwich, Rhode Island | Historical Cemetery No. 53

Added to Cemetery List, July 5, 2023! Click HERE to view.

The last update had a bit of a bummer feel to it, so we figured we’d go the other direction with this one!

When we’d first visited this lot, the hilltop upon which it was situated was so choked with overgrowth and young pine trees, we could barely move around, much less effectively find, transcribe and photograph the few stones we were able to locate. Altogether, we recorded 11 burials, both fieldstones and inscribed stones, with most of our transcriptions incomplete as we were unable to fully view the stones bearing them.

When it came time to revisit to check our recordings, much to our amazement, we found that not only had the lot been cleared, but an historical cemetery sign had been installed, and there was even a narrow path leading to it off the main trail! With room to work, the number of burials quickly jumped from the 11 we’d initially found to the 27 that you’ll find recordings of on the cemetery’s page, including a new, unrecorded fieldstone inscription. Though there is still one stone recorded in this lot we were unable to locate, we’ve no doubt that we will now be able to uncover it, thanks to the someone or someones that were kind enough to clean this cemetery out!

Update - 6/30/23

Sweet Family Burial Ground | West Greenwich, Rhode Island | Historical Cemetery No. 52

Added to Cemetery List, June 30, 2023! Click HERE to view.

This lot demonstrates very effectively the importance of work like this. When we’d first located this lot back in 1999/2000, it was truly a delight to visit. Despite its fairly remote location, it was always clean, always clear, with very little vandalism evident. On more than one occasion, we’d visit and find freshly-potted flowers on one or more of the graves.

Regrettably, some time in the last 4 or 5 years, storms brought an enormous pine tree down across the first row of burials, damaging several of the stones and making fully 2/3 of the lot effectively inaccessible. You can find a photograph of the results below. We’d thankfully been able to take photographs and recordings of most of the stones located here before that time, but that doesn’t change the fact that future visitors to this lot have quite a mess on their hands!

We tend of think of our historical cemeteries as these constant, unchanging things, but nothing could be further from the truth. Vandalism, nature, neglect, and even time itself will all take their toll. This lot, once a joy to visit, is a very sad reminder of this, and all the more reason for those of us with historical or genealogical interests to hit the roads and trails of this wonderful little state and pay our respects!

Welcome!

It’s been a long time coming, we know.  Believe us, we know!  Nearly 25 years of off-and-on fieldwork, 6 years since purchasing the domain.  But GardensOfStone.org is finally here, if only in a selective capacity, and we couldn’t be more thrilled!

First and foremost, our sincerest gratitude to all of you who have paid us a visit since our launch earlier this month.  The response has been overwhelmingly positive, which gladdens our hearts!

Secondly, special thanks to those who have taken the time to e-mail us their thoughts and comments regarding the site.  This is our first attempt at designing a website, so we greatly appreciate any and all feedback.  It’s enabled us to tweak certain design and navigation elements, hopefully resulting in a more fluid and user-friendly experience.

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