A Grave Walk in Silence

Quite literally, it was such a walk and I found a headstone to attest to that fact. 

For the past few years this month, I have posted about fall walks taken through a local cemetery in Nashua, NH. This year I repeated that trek, but in October when fall colors foliage was at their peak.

This year’s walk was more notable in that it was socially distanced. No mask was needed as not only was I outdoors, but neither saw nor spoke to another living person; talking to the dead doesn’t count.

The fall colors were just as spectacular as in previous visits, nearly all the trees were leaf-filled when these photos were taken; however since then wind and rains have left the trees practically bare as I saw on a drive last week.

The Edgewood Cemetery is located on Amherst St, one of the city’s main roadways in a residential area. It’s been part of Nashua’s history since the 1800s when it was formerly called the Amherst Street Cemetery. The first recorded reference was in 1842 town records for Nashua (formerly Nashville) when it was voted that selectmen be authorized to purchase a piece of ground for a burial yard. The town purchased 2-1/2 acres for $100, then a 1/4 acre for $20. By 1865, another 1/2 acre was added. In 1871, more than 12 acres were purchased for $1,241. In 1886, over 10 acres were added. By 1889, the cemetery included more than 25 acres.

After Nashua was incorporated as a city in 1853, Edgewood continued in use as a public cemetery, under control and charge of the city. In 1893, an act of legislature created a Board of Trustees and it passed into the “sole care, superintendence and management of that Board. Several prominent citizens were appointed to the first board of trustees, including Ira F. Harris and Charles Hoitt, who was elected president. Today, both Harris and his wife and Hoitt and his family, including two young sons, are buried in Edgewood. (Unexpectedly, I located the Hoitt family site, but not that of Harris and his wife.) 

The impressive entrance gates were a gift from Harris, 1912. A prominent city resident, he was a cashier at the former Indian Head National Bank in downtown Nashua, a member of the local Rotary club, and treasurer of the Nashua Street Railway. He's credited with several patents including a street-railway switch and street-railway switching device. 

The cemetery now encompasses 33 acres. In late summer 2019, the cemetery was running out of room for future gravesites. Seeing expansion, the Board of Trustees authorized removal of over 100 trees covering 2 acres without prior notice to nearby residents or city officials. Reportedly, the negative reaction was a surprise to the trustees. City officials intervened by hiring a landscape architect to develop a plan where trees were removed to provide a "pleasant view and a preferable environment for those who live next to the cemetery.”

Walking along paved walkways and among the impressive remaining trees was quite peaceful. Although the cemetery is near a busy roadway, walking father into it, the noise becomes muted as the beauty of nature can be seen and enjoyed in the solitude.

Like others who find cemeteries peaceful, I also enjoy reading headstone epitaphs interesting. Some might consider this macabre but it’s also quite informative. Sadly, it’s a fact that years ago, children died young. Many older headstones attest to their early passing, many bore only a first name.

I also wondered about why many headstones that didn’t bear a first or last name, but only the simple words “Father” and “Mother.” I wondered if it might be due to the cost of engraving a headstone, but couldn’t find information to support this theory.

Many headstones were simple and direct with no other details included.

These were interesting as it listed three women with the same name, Henrietta. I had heard that if a child dies, another child may be renamed after that child and that seems to have been the case in this family.

I wonder if H.G. Taylor remarried as his former wife, Abigail, was buried next to him, but there was no other Mrs. Taylor.

The Anderson Chapel has long been considered the finest memorial in Nashua’s Edgewood Cemetery. In 1929, the city’s mayor, cemetery trustee and others accepted it as a gift from Mrs. Ella F. Anderson’s in memory of her husband, Frank E. Anderson, co-founder of the Estabrook-Anderson Shoe Co., one of 19th century Nashua’s most successful and short-lived shoe manufacturers. In 1886, the factory employed 600 people and produced over 10,000 pairs of shoes daily in a three-story factory between Pine and Palm Streets in downtown. It's now a 55+ residential community.

While I didn't walk the entire grounds in my nearly 3 hours, there was no shortage of beauty all around. 

Did you ever notice that headstones face the same way? The reasoning was that when Christ comes again and the last trumpet sounds, all will rise from their graves. It's been said that He will come from the East. This means that lying on your back in the grave at the trumpet call, you'd be facing the right way when you sat up. (I'm not in any hurry for that sound.)

This sign is posted at the front entry advising about an age limit for children. It was the first time I noticed it, although most likely it was there during previous visits.

It was also fun to walk through leaf piles and only hear the sound of your own feet crunching them beneath. Very shortly, it will be snow that's crunched underfoot.