Mount Hope Cemetery

Originally published on October 29, 2020.

Our September 3rd article for the 200th history spoke about the deceased who were buried in the crypt of St Paul’s and then moved elsewhere. In the September 17th article we started to answer the question of who was reinterred at Mount Hope Cemetery. It was a complex question to answer in such a short article. My research started with an Excel Spreadsheet created by a researcher, Marlene Meyers, between 2012 – 2016. I do not know if she ever completed her research, and I do not know how complete the research is. Marlene started to comb through our records to compile a list of those individuals buried in the tombs of St Paul’s, and tried to document where many of them were transferred. Her research revealed many of the names of the deceased who were reinterred in one of the 76 graves that make up the plot at Mount Hope Cemetery. Here is where it gets interesting. Not all graves at Mount Hope are occupied, and, we have more than 76 remains interred in the graves that are occupied.

The earliest reinternments at Mount Hope Cemetery were not full size caskets, but rather, smaller charnel boxes for the bones that were removed from the tombs under St Paul’s. It appears that some or those boxes contain multiple family members/children. Since these boxes did not require a full grave, two burials could occupy one grave. As burial practices changed and cement liners (vaults) were required, those liners started to take up more space than what had been allocated for the 76 graves. In a note dated June 1969 from an unknown source it is recorded that there were six vacancies in Lot 5000 and “Cements Liners are now required, so they probably can only get 4 graves out of graves #72 – 76…” The note goes on to mention “(and #76 is available for 3 more urns of cremated remains.) The last burial in plot 5000 was, April 23, 1988 for Rev. Luis Herrera. An exception was even granted for the placement of a marker for Rev. Herrera, but no such marker exists at the cemetery as of today. Only the solitary Celtic cross installed in 1927 stands as a sentinel to those we love and no longer see. As we approach All Saints Day we offer this prayer from the burial office of the 1789 Book of Common Prayer ALMIGHTY God, with whom do live the spirits of those who depart hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity; We give thee hearty thanks for the good examples of all those thy servants, who, having finished their course in faith, do now rest from their labours. And we beseech thee, that we, with all those who are departed in the true faith of thy holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in thy eternal and everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Necrology linked here.

Excel Spreadsheet with names of former tomb occupants at St Paul’s and re-interments at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Burials and Tombs at St. Paul's, Pt. 2

Originally published on September 17, 2020.

Our September 3rd article spoke about the deceased who were buried in the crypt of St Paul’s and then moved elsewhere. Additional research has revealed one of the reasons why indoor tombs were abolished in Boston. An article in the Boston Daily Globe, dated January 14, 1879, described the offensive odors of tombs, “ House Judiciary Committee gave hearing to petition of St. Paul’s Church.” described in detail the problem of the smells coming from the tombs. By 1914 that crypt space would soon be converted to what we now know as Sproat Hall. This brought up two questions for Nautilus News readers. Who were the deceased that were reinterred at Mount Hope Cemetery in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston, and why is there only a single cross as a monument to the deceased?

The second question has a simple answer; a deed restriction! The lot was purchased with the following wording regarding monuments “This lot is sold subject to the condition that no individual headstones or markers are to be erected on the lot.” There are plenty of headstones in the adjoining lots, so it seems strange to not have markers for each individual grave in our lot. The Cathedral purchased Perpetual Care for the lot, so it might have been something as simple as not having to mow around all those headstones. We have no further information regarding this topic.

As for the first question, a May 1914 article in The Church Militant mentioned that 175 bodies remained and that 75 were claimed by the families and reinterred in other locations. The other 100 would be reinterred at Mount Hope Cemetery. The family names of those interred include; Allen, Babb, Brigham, Chapman, Clark, Cordis, Darling, Davis, Eaton, Eddy, Faulkner, Gregory, Hanson, Hayward/Hayword, Henry, Herbel/Herbert(sp), Hodgsden, Holbrook, Hovey/Honey, Hunter, Hunting, Jarvis, Jordan/Jorden, Kinsley, Lawton, Lin/Lind, Marden, McCoy, Merriam, Moussa, Pepper, Perkins, Pike, Prescott, Prowse/Prouse, Randall, Reed, Renouf, Richardson, Rude, Skinner, UNKNOWN, Warner, Washburn, Whipple, Willis, Woods.

We have a very complex Excel Spreadsheet with a lot of information about those burials. We are investigating how to best share this information.

Photos saved on Flickr.com.

Burials and Tombs of St Paul’s, Pt. 1

In the earliest years of St. Paul’s the building included tombs and sales commenced in 1822-23. Internal tombs were a common feature in this period; Christ Church (Old North) in Boston’s North End has approximately 1,100 burials sealed in its crypt with active burials between 1732 and 1860. In 1853 city health officials deemed internal burials to pose a health risk. Tombs were ordered sealed although Old North continued the practice for a few more years. The date of the last internal burial at St. Paul’s requires more research. An article regarding St. Paul’s from The Church Militant (October, 1904) described the then occupied tombs:

“Under the church are to be found numerous tombs which under the early stress of debt it was decided to build. Burial rights were sold for $300 each and were often purchased by people who were in no way connected with the parish. These tombs today have inscribed over their doors the names of some of Boston's best-known families. General Joseph Warren remains rested for 30 years in one of these tombs. In another tomb W H Prescott the historian was buried.”

Over time other occupants would include members of well-known Boston families such as; David Sears, Thomas Wigglesworth, Daniel Parker, Daniel Webster, and Samuel Appleton.

A decade after that article was written the use of the crypt space changed as the need for more space for the living took precedence over the deceased. By 1914 plans were in the works to convert the crypt level of St Paul’s to a parish hall and possibly office space. The Cathedral Chapter purchased a lot at Mount Hope Cemetery in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston. Of the original 400 buried at St. Paul’s, about 175 were still there at the time of the purchases of the Mount Hope lot – many of the deceased having already been moved by their families in previous years.

We do not know the exact reason for why so many of these burials were moved beforehand. Once could guess it was so that families could have greater control of the remains. Garden cemeteries such as the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass, created in 1831, became all the rage. St Paul families started buying plots at this oasis outside of the city. It would seem a better choice than to have the bones of a family member moved into common grave such as a charnel vault or ossuary, a common practice at the time, in order to make room for new burials.

Those bodies that remained in the tomb at St. Paul’s, roughly 100, were reinterred at Mount Hope Cemetery in a ceremony on May 1, 1914, presided over by Dean Rousimaniere. The plot is marked with only a single large cross to designate the location. There are no individual monuments on the graves.

The lower level of the Cathedral today is now Sproat Hall and there are no longer any burials in (or remaining tombs!) at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul.

Photos saved on Flickr.com.