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!