Eastern Cemetery is a historic

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a bu ...

at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Congress Street in the East Bayside neighborhood of

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metro ...

. Established in 1668, it is the city's oldest historic site, and has more than 4,000 marked graves. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

in 1973. The cemetery has been maintained since 2006 by the non-profit group Spirits Alive, who offer tours four days a week: Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday."Tours mark 350th anniversary of Eastern Cemetery in Portland"
- ''

Portland Press Herald The ''Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram'' is a morning daily newspaper with a website that serves southern Maine and is focused on the greater metropolitan area around Portland, Maine, in the United States. Founded in 1862, its roots e ...

'', July 15, 2018

Description and history

Eastern Cemetery is located on the northeastern part of the Portland's peninsula, at the base of

Munjoy Hill Munjoy Hill is a neighborhood and prominent geographical feature of Portland, Maine. It is located east of downtown and south of East Deering, the neighborhood it is connected to by Tukey's Bridge. The neighborhood historically had a large I ...

, occupying a roughly triangular lot bounded on the north by Congress Street, the east by Mountfort Street, and the south by Federal Street. The sloping lot is only at street level along Congress and part of Mountfort Street, the rest supported by a stone retaining wall. Its street-facing sides are ringed by iron fencing, with the main entrance on Congress Street, marked by pairs of granite posts. Chain-link fencing runs along the southwestern boundary with abutting properties. The cemetery, which has twelve sections (including special areas for Quakers, Catholics and blacks), is mostly grass, with occasional trees that are generally volunteer growth. It is the oldest historic site in Portland. Established as a public burial ground in 1668, 36 years after European settlers first arrived in the area, it now has more than 4,000 graves, with an estimated further 3,000 people in unmarked plots. The cemetery, which is about in size, was active until about 1860. There are 95 underground tombs, which were built to house about thirty coffins each. The Dead House, which was constructed in 1871, is located inside the front gate. It houses a tomb, built in 1849, to store bodies over the winter when the ground was too frozen to dig.

Gallows A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...

, from which at least one hanging occurred, and

stocks Stocks are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law describing ...

are no longer in place. The retaining walls along Mountfort and Federal Streets date from 1854 and 1868, respectively. The iron and granite fence along Congress Street was erected in 1916, having been moved from Portland High School.

Mary Green

Mary Green's head and foot stone mark the oldest known burial of May 23, 1717. Green is believed to be one of the settlers driven from the area by the American Indians between 1689 and 1690. She returned twenty years later.

Other notable burials

* James Alden, Jr. (1810–1877), Civil War, Mexican–American War * George Bradbury (1770–1823), US Congressman * Lieutenant William Ward Burrows II (1785–1813), U.S. War of 1812, commander of the USS ''Enterprise'', killed in the line of duty during the capture of HMS ''Boxer'' on September 5, 1813 * Charles Q. Clapp (1799–1868), architect and merchant * Charles Codman (1800–1842), American landscape and marine painter * Mark Harris (1779–1843), US Congressman * John Holmes (1773–1843), US Congressman * Daniel Ilsley (1740–1813), US Congressman *

Hermann Kotzschmar Johann Carl Hermann Kotzschmar (July 4, 1829April 15, 1908) was a German-American musician, conductor, and composer. Kotzschmar was born in 1829 in Finsterwalde, Germany. His father, Johann Gottfried Kotzschmar, was the town ''Stadtmusiker'' and t ...

(1829–1908), German-American organist at Portland's First Parish Church for 47 years * Captain Lemuel Moody (1767–1846), creator of the Portland Observatory * Commodore

Edward Preble Edward Preble (August 15, 1761 – August 25, 1807) was a United States naval officer who served with great distinction during the 1st Barbary War, leading American attacks on the city of Tripoli and forming the officer corps that would lat ...

(1761–1807), US Naval officer *

George Preble George Henry Preble (February 25, 1816 – March 1, 1885) was an American naval officer and writer, notable for his history of the flag of the United States and for taking the first photograph of the Fort McHenry flag that inspired the U.S. nat ...

(1816–1885), US Naval officer and writer *

William Widgery William Widgery (July 31, 1822) was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. Born in Devonshire, England, in the Kingdom of Great Britain, Widgery immigrated to America with his parents, who settled in Philadelphia. He attended the common scho ...

(1753–1822), US Congressman * Henry Aiken Worcester (1802-1841), minister & vegetarian

Monuments

* Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth (died 1804), uncle of

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely tra ...

, who was killed, aged 20, while attempting to blow up a pirate ship off the Barbary Coast. Attempts to return his remains from a grave in

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in t ...

have been unsuccessful"Remains of ‘first Navy Seals’ lie in Tripoli"
- ''Washington Post'', May 29, 2011

References

External links