The Duck River Cemetery, also known as the Old Lyme Cemetery is the communal burying ground of the town of

Old Lyme Old Lyme is a coastal town in New London County, Connecticut, United States, bounded on the west by the Connecticut River, on the south by the Long Island Sound, on the east by the town of East Lyme, and on the north by the town of Lyme. The town ...

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

.Slater, James A. "The Colonial Burying Grounds of Eastern Connecticut and the Men Who Made Them". ''Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences'', vol. 21. Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1987. The earliest surviving grave marker dates from 1676 and was carved by William Stanclift, Renold Marvin's gravestone.Old Lyme Historical Society
Duck River Cemetery 1676–1735
The Stanclift shop remained popular into the 1740s carving both headstones and table slab monuments. Wealthy customers also opted for stones carved and imported by the skilled carvers of Boston and Newport including

The John Stevens Shop The John Stevens Shop, founded in 1705, is a stone carving business on Thames Street (Rhode Island), Thames Street in Newport, Rhode Island, that is one of the List of oldest companies in the United States, oldest continuously operating business ...

, Hans Christian Geyer, and John Homer, the latter two of Boston. Brownstone carvers of the Connecticut River Valley include those by the Thomas Johnson Shop, William Holland, Ebenezer Drake, John Johnson, John Isham, and David Miller. Two Eastern Connecticut schist markers by John Hartshorne and Josiah Manning are also present. By the dawn of the 19th century, Chester Kimball of

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the outlet of the Thames River (Connecticut), Thames River in New London County, Connecticut, which empties into Long Island Sound. The cit ...

, Charles Dolph, and later the Ritter Shop of

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

were carving in the neoclassical urn and willow style, also shifting into marble. Slater, James A. "The Colonial Burying Grounds of Eastern Connecticut and the Men Who Made Them". ''Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences'', vol. 21. Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1987. A tidal stream known as the Duck River and a

salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

bisect the burying ground.

Notable burials

Notable people buried at the Duck River Cemetery include: *

Thomas R. Ball Thomas Raymond Ball (February 12, 1896 – June 16, 1943) was a United States House of Representatives, U.S. Representative from Connecticut. Early life Born in New York City, Ball attended the public schools, Anglo-Saxon School in Paris, France, ...

(1896–1943),

Congressman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...

* Charles Chadwick (1874–1953), author *

Elsie Ferguson Elsie Louise Ferguson (August 19, 1883 – November 15, 1961) was an American stage and film actress. Seen by some as an early feminist, she promoted suffrage, which she discussed in interviews, and supported animal rights. Early life Born in ...

(1885–1961), stage and film actress * Matthew Griswold (1714–1799) American Patriot, state governor *

Peter Karter Peter Karter (1922–2010) was an American nuclear engineer and one of the pioneers of the modern recycling industry. He lived in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Karter was one of the leading innovators in materials recycling and the first to engineer ...

(1922–2010), recycling pioneer and

nuclear engineer Nuclear engineering is the engineering discipline concerned with designing and applying systems that utilize the energy released by nuclear processes. The most prominent application of nuclear engineering is the generation of electricity. Worldwide ...

Ezra Lee Ezra Lee (August 1749 – October 29, 1821) was an American colonial soldier, best known for commanding and operating the one-man ''Turtle'' submarine. Early life and career Lee was born in Lyme, Connecticut. On January 1, 1776, he enlisted in ...

(1749–1821), Colonial soldier, best known for commanding the ''

Turtle Turtles are reptiles of the order (biology), order Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Crypt ...

'' submarine *

Roger Tory Peterson Roger Tory Peterson (August 28, 1908 – July 28, 1996) was an American natural history, naturalist, Conservationist (biology), conservationist, citizen scientist ornithology, ornithologist, artist and illustrator, educator, and a founder of th ...

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

, artist, educator, and a founder of the

environmental movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement) is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create sustainable living. In its recognition of humanity a ...

Bessie Potter Vonnoh Bessie Potter Vonnoh (August 17, 1872 – March 8, 1955) was an American sculptor best known for her small bronzes, mostly of domestic scenes, and for her garden fountains. Her stated artistic objective, as she told an interviewer in 1925, was t ...

(1872–1955), sculptor *

Robert Vonnoh Robert William Vonnoh (September 17, 1858 – 28 December 1933) was an American Impressionist painter known for his portraits and landscapes. He traveled extensively between the American East Coast and France, more specifically the artists colon ...

(1858–1933),

American Impressionist American Impressionism was a style of painting related to European Impressionism and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. The style is characterized by loose ...

painter

References

External links

* {{Find a Grave cemetery Cemeteries in New London County, Connecticut Old Lyme, Connecticut