by Thomas Mellana, Special Correspondent
September 25, 1992, Page 1
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| The gravestone of Sarah Gardner, Cos Cob. Died 1795. |
"I found an enormous amount of history there."
Greenwich residents who died in years past were fond of leaving reminders to the living that we are all in the same boat.
Behind and think as you pass by
as you are now so once was I
As I am now so you must be
Prepare to die and follow me.
That was the message left to the world by Sarah Gardner, who died Oct. 24, 1795, at the age of 21 years, 7 months and 7 days. Sarah was interred in the Old Burying Ground at Cos Cob.
Lockwood Palmer, who died Aug. 25, 1819, at 21 years and 8 months, is buried in the Cherry Orchard Cemetery, in the woods off Stanwich Road. He left this message for loved ones:
Dear friends who live to mourn and weep
Behold the grave wherein I sleep,
Prepare for death for you must die
And be entomb'd as well as I.
Of course, many epitaphs are more cheerful. But more than a few tombstones in town leave one message that is very clear: You're next.
"Especially the old Puritan ones were like that," said Jeffrey Bingham Mead, who has researched local graveyards. "Epitaphs do reflect a lot about about the attitudes of the times, and in Puritan times, life was not as good as it is today."
An examination of epitaphs will be part of a series of slide/lecture shows and walking tours during October and November to educate residents about a sometimes forgotten part of Greenwich's past.
"The Spirit of Greenwich Old Time Past: The Burying Grounds of Greenwich Connecticut," will be led by Mead, historian and president of the Historic Mead Family Burying Grounds Association, Inc. Mead will lead three slide/lecture shows and three walking tours.
There are about 65 burying grounds scattered throughout town, according to Mead, some so small they contain fewer than 10 graves.
Mead, a descendent of one of the founding families of Greenwich, backed into his interest in burial grounds in 1984 when cleaning up one of the many Mead family plots in town for a grand aunt.
"I found an enormous amount of history there," he said.
Students can expect to leave the lectures and tours with "an enhanced appreciation of the history of the town of Greenwich," said Mead. "It's not only old houses and great estates, which are very important, but there is a lot more."
"Examples of poetry, and the earliest examples of folk art and sculpture in Greenwich can be found in its old burial grounds."
Topics for the slide and lecture shows are:
- The Community Burying Grounds of Greenwich, Oct. 6.
- In Search of Graven and Rhymes and Epitaphs, Oct. 13.
- Death-heads, Willows and Angels: Mortality Art on the Gravestones in Greenwich, Oct. 20
All lectures will be held 7:30 p.m., in the meeting room of the Arts Center on Greenwich Avenue.
The on-site tours scheduled are:
- Tomac Cemetery: a Hallowed Walking Tour, Tomac and Roosevelt avenues in Old Greenwich, Oct. 18 at 2:30 p.m.
- The Lewis Family Burying Ground: A Sacred Family Album, off Lafayette Place in central Greenwich, Oct. 25 at 2:30 p.m.
"There is a lot to be learned about geneaology," in the old graveyards, Mead said. "That Lewis one is definitely one of the top five most interesting family plots, if not the most interesting, I know. There is an enormous amount of town history there."
- The New Burial Grounds Association Cemetery, East Putnam Avenue next to the Second Congregational Church, Nov. 1 at 2:30 p.m.
Cost of attending the entire program is $55. For three lectures or three tours, the cost is $30. Each individual tour or lecture will cost $10.
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