The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-12-23

enclosing and planting trees in the
same; and request that my executors
and Constant W. Storrs be trustees of
the same and lay out the ground into
lots, and dispose of the same at rea-
sonable prices, reserving a portion to
be given gratuitously to the poor"
An act establishing the cemetery
and creating board of five commits
sioners to have charge of it was pass
ed by the Legislature in 1854 and ac-
cepted by the town at the annual
March meeting in 1855. The commits
sioners were to be appointed by the
town and have ever since been elected
at the annual meeting. The first COM
missioners were Elisha P. Jewett,
Hezekiah H. Reed, Charles Reed,
James T. Thurston, and George Lang
don. The meeting that accepted the
legislative act of establishment also
appropriated $4,000 to be expended by
the commissioners in preparing the
grounds. They purchased from Isaiah
Silver forty acres of land for $1210
and employed Daniel Brine and Pat
rick Farrelly as engineers to lay out,
grade and ornament the grounds, and
the work was so expeditiously per-
formed that the cemetery was dedi-
Gated and opened for use on Septem-
Der 10, 1856.
DedicatOry Exercises.
The dedicatory exercises were of
the high order of excellence that has
always marked public functions in
Montpelier. There was no occasion
to go outside the town for the orator,
the poet or the musician. There are
few, if any towns in this section of
the country that can produce such an
array of talent on public occasion,
as can Montpelier, and this has been
the case from it's earliest history to
the time of it's recent centennial cele-
bration.
II. d. Hopkins, we'll known to the
older generation, wrote for the &C.
casion a chant which was sung by
choir which he directed. Rev. F. d.
Hemenway of the Methodist church
read from the Scriptures and the Rev.
w. H. Ford of Christ Church, made the
prayer. Rev. F. w. Shelton, rector
of Christ Church made the adj
dress, the deeds were presented
by H. H. Reed and the dedication was
made by Mr.. Lord. An original hymn,
written for the occasion by Charles
G. Eastman, at that time editor of the
Patriot, was sung to the tune of Old
Hundred. This was one of the finest
of Mr.. Eastman's compositions. Com
petent critics have said that East
man would have been one of our great
poets if he had had time and leisure
to develop his poetic faculty. The
hymn he wrote for the dedication of
the cemetery is this:
"The fairest spot of hill and glade,
Where blooms the flower and waves
the tree,
And silver streams delight the shade
We consecrate, o Death, to thee.
Here all the months the year shall
know
Shall watch this Eden of the dead
To wreathe with flowers or crown
with snow
The dreamless sleeper's narrow
bed.
"And when above it's graves we kneel,
Resignng to the Wondering urn
The friends whose silent hearts shall
No balmy summers glad return.
Each marble shaft our hands may
rear,
To mark where dust to dust is given
Shall lift it's chiselled column here
To point our fearful eyes to Hea-
ven"
Mr.. Keith also left $500 for a mon
ument to himself to be erected by his
executors, and a handsome marble
shaft now stands near the entrance to
the grounds bearing the simple in
scription:
Calvin Jay Keith, Died at Montpel-
Ter Sept %, 1853, Aged 80 years"
This cemetery had it's origin in his
bequest."
OF the numerous requests made by
Mr.. Keith perhaps none are better re-
membered than the watches he gave
to his friends. These were ordered
| by his executors from Mead G. Phin-
ney Capt. A. A. Mead and T. c. Phin-
ney, for many years Sergeant at Arms
for the State and publisher of the lat
est edition of Eastman's poems) and
were purchased by them abroad,
whether in France or Switzerland is
not now known. They bought one
more than was needed to fill the be-
quests and that extra watch was
bought and is now owned by the ven
cradle T. c. Barrows. 1t appears to
be an ordinary, handsomely engraved
hunting case gold watch, but on OPP