The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-03-20
TIE FIRSr GR4yE.
An Interesting Letter Regarding Manga
tuclS's First Cemetery.

An Interesting Letter Regarding Nhuga-
tuclS's First Cemetery.
The Rev. e. S. Lines, rector Of St.
Paul's church this city, recently sent
the Waterbury American the following
interesting historical letter regarding
Hillside cemetery:
Those who travel between Waterbury
and Naugatuck will remember Hillside
cemetery, upon the east of the river,
midway between Union City and Maui
gatuck. 1t has been in this century the
burial ground most used by the people
of the town.
1t will interest many of your readers
to know that the first grave was made
in the cemetery March 8, 1896 just one
hundred years ago. 1t is the grave of
little child, Harvey Stevens, and is
still marked.
Deacon Elisha Stevens father Of the
child, who lived upon the river road at
the corner where the road turns in
north of the cemetery, owned the brow
of the hill, and there this little grave
was made. He gave the neighbors the
privilege of burying their dead there be-
side his own. So the cemetery, which
has been extended until 1t has become
the great city of the dead, had its be-
ginning. There the bodies of three gen.
erations Of townspeople have been laid
to rest, and the river sings beside them
an unbroken requiem. Those who go
back to the town after few years alb
sence find themselves strangers upon
the busy streets, and at home as they
read the names inscribed upon the
stones in the cemetery.
The little child, whose grave was
the first in the burial yard, had lived
less than a year. His twin brother,
Herschel Stevens, lived to old age and
left many descendants, who are still
alive in New Haven county. The de-
scendants of Deacon Elisha Stevens
are many in number and widely scat
tered.
The late Professor Edwin e. Johnson,
rector of st. Michaers church thirty
years ago, made Naugatuck people
familiar with little poem of Miss
Rose Terry Cooks. 1t was suggested
by the relation as regards position Of
some other village and burial yard.
But the cemetery upon the HILL the
village in the valley below, the river
flowing beside both, the forest behind,
made Naugatuck people feel that the
poem was written for them:
THE TWO VILLAGES.
Over the river on the hill
Lieth village white and still;
All around it the forest trees
SILVER and whisper in the breeze;
Over it sailing shadows go
OF soaring hawk and screaming crow,
And mountain grasses, low and sweet,
Grow in the middle of every street
Over the river under the hill
Another village lieth still;
There / see in the cloudy night
Twinkling stars of household light,
Fires that CLEAN from the smithy's
door,
Mists that curl on the rivers shore;
And in the roads no grasses grow,
For the wheels that hasten to and fro.
In that village on the hill
Never is sound of smithy or mill,
The houses are thatchd with grass and
flowers;
Never a clock to tell the hours;
The marble doors are always shut;
You may not enter at hall or hut;
All the village lfeth asleep;
Never a grain to sew or reap;
Never in dreams to roam or sigh,
Silent and idle and low they lie.
In that village under the hill,
When the night is starry and still.
Many weary soul in prayer
Looks to the other village there,
And weeping and signing longs to go
Up to that home, from this below;
Longs to sleep by the forest wild,
Wither have vanished wife and child,
And heareth, praying, this answer fall
Patience! That village shall hold We |
ALL"