The Epitaph
Fall 2021 Newsletter
|
|
AN ACTIVE BURIAL PLACE RICH IN HISTORY |
|
Greetings!
The Lowell Cemetery is at its best when it comes to fall foliage. As one the largest Old-Growth woodlands in Greater Lowell, our 85 acres offer spectacular colors. I invite you to take a walk on the avenues named after prominent people like Washington and Franklin. Make sure to explore the paths as well, named for trees and shrubs like Spruce, Laurel and Wisteria.
Jane Calvin, Executive Director of the Parks and Conservation Trust, is a longtime friend of the Lowell Cemetery and advises us on tree maintenance. In her article, Jane continues to enlighten us on our collection of trees and explains why we had to wait a little longer than usual for peak times this year.
Historian and genealogist Walter Hickey helps us more fully understand the present moment by looking back at significant times in Lowell’s past. Walter offers another fresh insight by investigating the story of the only woman buried in the Grand Army of the Republic Lot.
The Trustees and staff are pleased with the work done on the Lawrence Street Gate. Epitaph editor Kim Zunino investigates the history of the Meneely family business that cast the magnificent bell dedicated to former trustee Hocum Hosford. I was surprised to learn about the location of other Meneely bells in Lowell.
I hope these articles expand your appreciation of the unique Lowell Cemetery, which sits at the intersection of the natural world, the built environment, and sacred memories.
Robert S. McKittrick, President
Lowell Cemetery
|
|
Lawrence Gate Restoration |
|
The granite work is being done by Mas-Con Corporation, a family-run business and one of New Hampshire’s largest commercial masonry and concrete foundations contractors. They are grinding out all joints to one inch to inch and a half and then repointing. They are now rewashing the entrance and will fill all the flat services with a silicon type calking so no water can get in the wall.
The company that restored the bell and the iron fence work at the entrance was Mott Iron Works out of North Orange, MA. Ron Mott is a second-generation metalsmith in this family run company.
|
|
Newly cleaned stone can be seen to the left of the central arch. Above the main arch is a smaller one containing the cemetery bell. A cartouche above with the date of the cemetery’s establishment (1840) is seen on the west side and the date of construction (1862) on the east side. |
|
|
The Hosford Bell and the Meneely Bell Company
by Kim Zunino
|
|
Hocum Hosford (1825-1881) was a prolific businessman and politician serving as not only a Trustee of the Lowell Cemetery, but mayor of Lowell during the Civil War. He passed away in 1881 and was buried in Lowell Cemetery. In memory of her husband, his widow, Rebecca (West) Hosford, offered, in 1885, to fund an addition of a bell tower and bell at the Lawrence Street entrance to the cemetery with the stipulation the bell was to be rung as future funeral processions pass through the entrance gate. The Trustees of Lowell Cemetery accepted this offer and the Clinton H. Meneely Bell Company was contracted to cast the bell in 1885. The bell is engraved with, "May heaven’s gate wide open be to all whose knell is tolled by me."
Clinton H. Meneely (1839-1923) was the grandson of Andrew Meneely, who founded the first Meneely Bell Foundry in 1826 in old West Troy (Watervliet). While two of Andrew’s grandsons took over the First Bell Foundry, Clinton went across the river to establish the Second Meneely Bell Foundry. Clinton and his two brothers were bitter rivals, but between the two foundries they produced more than 65,000 bells. A Meneely bell can be found on every continent except Antarctica.
In 1870, Clinton H. Meneely and George H. Kimberly founded the Meneely & Kimberly Bell Foundry in Troy, NY for the manufacturing of bells. This foundry cast the U.S. Centennial Bell in 1873, which now hangs in Independence Hall. The bell weighs 13,000 pounds, symbolizing the 13 original states.
By 1880 the foundry was known as the Clinton H. Meneely Bell Company, a name kept until 1893 when it was changed to Meneely Bell Company. This foundry was responsible for casting the great bell for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the Woman’s Justice Bell, a replica of the original Liberty Bell of the American Revolution, to serve as a symbol of women’s suffrage.
Closer to home, Meneely bells can be found not only in Lowell Cemetery, but also in St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church and Lowell City Hall.
|
Photo Credit: Casting the Suffrage "Liberty Bell" at Troy; From the George Grantham Bain Collection; Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-DIG-ggbain-18817]
|
|
The slow ringing of a church bell to announce a funeral is known as a “funeral knell,” which traditionally follows the “death knell” rung when a person passes.
|
|
|
|
Private Tours of Lowell Cemetery
Private tours for school groups, garden clubs, historical societies, and social organizations can be arranged by contacting the Cemetery office at: staff@lowellcemetery.com
or by calling the Cemetery office at:
978-454-5191
|
|
Fall Foliage at Lowell Cemetery
by Jane Calvin
|
|
Foliage season during a pandemic takes on a whole new hue. Last fall was lackluster due to the drought and high heat of the summer, but the colors, from my perspective, still seemed spectacular. Trees truly have the superpower of creating a rainbow of colors. The vibrant colors forced me to look outside my own world to notice the contrasts, the reflections, and the diverse canopy above us.
One of my favorite places to absorb the beauty of fall is, of course, at the Lowell Cemetery. The diversity of tree species in the Cemetery creates a vibrant backdrop to the winding roads. Who doesn’t love the rustle of fall leaves beneath as you take a walk? Looking down from the Cemetery onto the Concord River Greenway and Wamesit Falls is an ever-changing scene – and one of my favorites.
This fall, you may have to wait a little longer to experience our trees’ superpower. The peak of fall foliage this year is expected to be later than usual, because of the wet summer and mild September temperatures. When you’re experiencing this fall’s foliage extravaganza, think of the trees’ superpower of rainbows.
It all starts with the green pigment chlorophyll. When our days get shorter, the lack of sunlight prevents the leaves from creating chlorophyll. Without the green chlorophyll, the other pigments already in the leaves get their moment to shine. You’ll notice the carotene (orange), xanthophyll (yellow), and anthocyanin (red) pigments that create that rainbow. Interestingly, anthocyanin is not present in all trees, which is why our New England foliage tends to be a true rainbow, thanks to our abundance of maples.
As you’re out walking the Lowell Cemetery, or any of our local greenspaces, which trees stand out to you?
If you’d like to learn more about fall foliage and the superpowers of our trees, check out this educational video created by the Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust. |
|
The Woman in Lot 2255
by Walter Hickey
|
|
After Lowell Cemetery was established in 1841, many fraternal and benevolent organizations bought lots to bury their members who were unable to purchase lots of their own. The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was founded in 1866 as a fraternal organization open to all veterans of the Union Army, Navy, and Marines who fought in the American Civil War. The organization became one of the earliest advocates for veterans' rights, including procuring lots for the burial of Indigent Soldiers or family members. On July 28, 1885, the Trustees of the Lowell Cemetery gave a 1,200 square-foot-lot to the two local posts of the GAR; the Benjamin F. Butler Post (#42) and the James A. Garfield Post (#120). Records indicate there are 20 interments in Lot 2255: an Unknown Soldier in front of the monument, 19 veterans with gravestones, and one woman in an unmarked grave.
Mary Hurd (1848-1937) was the daughter of Jonathan Hurd and Harriet Goodwin of Dracut. Her first marriage was to Worcester Winslow on May 9, 1866. It is possible that this ended in divorce as she remarried in 1889 to George O. Goodwin, a veteran of the Civil War. Goodwin served in Co. F of the 22nd MA Infantry and had been discharged for disability on February 19, 1863. Goodwin later enlisted in Co. F of the 2nd MA Heavy Artillery and served until September of 1865. In 1888, he received a military pension of $14.00 per month and was paying $5.00 monthly rent for their home at 75 Old Ferry Road, known as the Durkee Farm. Goodwin was allotted Soldiers’ Relief State Aid of $6.00 monthly. By then, Goodwin was suffering from rheumatism and heart disease and Mary was in poor health and able only to do her own work.
On Thursday, February 13, 1896, he went to Lowell to purchase some tea and was never seen again. Around midnight, Mary heard a shout from the direction of the river. Instead of crossing the Pawtucket Bridge, George walked across the frozen Merrimack River. Mary heard his cries and went for help, but nothing more was heard. Footsteps were seen in the snow and on the ice to the middle of the river where they stopped. George’s body was never found.
After his death, Mary received the widow’s benefit of his pension and remained in Lowell for a few years until moving to Boxford, MA. In September 1909, she married John Maiden. Upon this marriage, her pension stopped. Maiden died in 1925 and by 1930 Mary was residing in Lowell. As a widow of a Civil War veteran, she applied for re-instatement of George’s pension. In addition, in 1928, Massachusetts authorized $6.00 per month. She died January 12, 1937 and was interred in the Grand Army of the Republic Lot at Lowell Cemetery.
|
|
The Pawtucket Cemetery (c.1790) is located on Mammoth Road and was part of the Town of Dracut until the 1870s. The cemetery is small and has about 100 burials. The most interesting thing about this site is its orientation. The front gate is along the northeast border along Mammoth Road. The headstones face east, with the footstones in "front." In Christian burials, early settlers would be buried with their head to the west so they would rise up to meet Christ at the second coming. The Rural Cemetery Movement in the 1830s and the changing views of death led to the orientation of gravestones being based on pathways and terrain. |
|
|
|
The "urn and willow" is a popular motif that represents the view of death and remembrance using neoclassical Greek symbols. It represent a shift from using symbolism to convey mortality to using symbolism to represent immortality, seen in the use of "Sacred to the memory of" on these gravestones.. The use of this symbolism started in the early 1800s. While Lowell Cemetery has many species of trees, there are no weeping willow trees at Lowell Cemetery. |
|
The Lowell Cemetery is a private, non-municipal, non-denominational, garden-style cemetery located in Lowell, Massachusetts.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Address:
77 Knapp Avenue
Lowell, MA 01852
Phone:
978-454-5191
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
