| Hopedale Village Cemetery
a suitable tract of land somewhere within our borders should be selected for burial purposes and properly laid out for use when occasion should require, and a vote to that effect was passed by the Community at a meeting held on the 8th day of April. Pursuant to that vote several parcels of ground that had previously been suggested were carefully examined, but found by reason of the rocky nature of the soil or an underlying ledge to be unfit for the purpose. These were located upon the original Jones farm and were first spoken of before we had made any outlying additions thereto. But the recent purchase of the Amos Cook estate had brought a more favorable site into notice, to which the attention of the Council was in due time directed. It commended itself to their best judgment and upon their recommendation the Community, on the 27th of September Voted, (1) That the lot of land situated on the Cook farm between the wood-lot of Henry Chapin on the west and the widow Amasa Parkhurst's meadow of the east, as the same is now fenced, be set apart, or so much thereof as may be deemed necessary, as a Cemetery for this Community. (2) That the Executive Council be instructed to designate as soon as possible the particular part of said Cemetery ground on which it is proper to commence burying. (3) That they cause a suitable portion of said ground to be surveyed and laid off into lots. (4) That they enter a report of their doings, with a Plan of their survey designating all the avenues by name and the lots by number, in the Community Registry. Thus was set apart and devoted to its proper uses the tract of land where as time went on all that was mortal of our dearly beloved, was to be consigned, "earth to earth and dust to dust," and where we ourselves, so many of us as continued to reside in Hopedale to the end of our days, should finally, as to our material frames, sleep the last long sleep of earth and time. The location was happily chosen as not very far away and yet sufficiently removed from the bustle and toil of our common every-day life to insure that quiet which is becoming a place of supulture and conducive to self-recollection, meditation, and communion with the spirits of those who are "not lost but gone before," and with the infinite Spirit, the heavenly Father of all mankind. For some reason which does not now appear, but probably because there was no immediate need of a burial place for any of our people, no death occurring for some time after the above votes were passed, and because of the urgent demands made upon the time and energy of the members of the Council in other directions, the careful survey and laying out of lots, etc., with an accurate plan of the same were not completed for some two years after, as will be noted in its proper place. Adin Ballou, History of the Hopedale Community, pp. 143-145. An interesting and historical vote was passed September 27, 1845, when it was "Voted that the lot of land situated on the Cook farm between the wood lot of Henry Chapin on the west and the widow Amasa Parkhurst's meadow on the east, as the same is now fenced, be set apart, or so much thereof as may be deemed necessary, as a cemetery for community." In 1847 it was voted "that Mr. Ballou be a committee to make a plan of the cemetery and number the lots." A marker placed at the entrance of the cemetery, citing that it was founded by the Hopedale Community, should be considered and noted for historical value. Paper by Mrs. Margaret Woodhead for the Hopedale Community Historical Society Veterans' Memorial Now and Then at the Hopedale Village Cemetery Draper and Bancroft Tombs HOME |