Municipal histories demonstrate that in every instance where cities exist, the burial places of the departed have been found to be too near the habitations of the living, and, as the town develops by degrees, these places of sepulture have to be removed to more remote localities. Twenty or thirty years hence these cemeteries will be thickly surrounded by residences and places of business, so steady and rapid is the expansion of the city. It is but natural, after all, for communities, like individuals, are more engrossed with present wants and in providing means to answer the present requirements of human life than in indulging in visionary dreams of the future. In a small, straggling pioneer hamlet the inhabitants naturally make temporary provisions and let the future provide for itself. Portland's early settlers were no exception to the rule, for they made the same miscalculations as to the future, which the demands of after years have required to be remedied.
Reference is made specially to the matter of selecting public burial spots.
The area now bounded by Second, A, Pine, and Third streets, contained the village cemetery. As far back as 1847 the first interment was made in that place. During the latter part of the winter of that year, a Mr. Smith was buried there. In 1850, Mrs. Wm. Berry , a daughter of the late Stephen Coffin , whose name is so indissolubly interwoven with the early history of Portland, was buried there. Soon after an infant son of Mr. Coffin was also interred in the cemetery.