Every summer I explore this cemetery, as it is on my aunt’s property, and never ceases ceases to captivate. I also try to photograph it each summer, keeping records over time of the state of the stones.
Per the advice and sharp eye of my Aunt Maria, we uncovered a broken headstone in the small Howland plot so that I could photograph it. Fending off the swarms of mosquitoes, I took several good photographs of it before reburying it, in attempts to longer preserve the stone from thieving hands. Several stones have disappeared over the years, with visitors to the campground nearby most likely the culprits, which is a shame.
The stone is of Pamelia Thomas (DRAKE) Howland, wife of Lewis Howland. She died 9 NOV 1869 in Abington at the age of 64 of consumption.
Her footstone reads PTH, it is pictured here resting on top of the base of another grave:
Here is a photo of Lewis Howland’s stone, the only full gravestone left:
Lewis Howland, it seems, was the first interred in this small plot. Dying of small pox, he was buried here on his land, and his wife and some of his family chose later to be buried here as well.
Here is another headstone base with no stone attached to it, along with a small chunk of marble gravestone with no visible writing on it:
More deed and will research is needed, but it appears that the land passed into our family via Lewis Howland’s brother Warren, who married Deborah Bates. When he died of consumption, ownership of the land passed to Deborah and her second husband Barnabas Everson.