The independent-reporter., 1910-07-28
ANCIENT CEMETERY
BY kENNEBEC
Burial Place of First
Settlers of Skowhegan
Stones Are Broken and Graves Oblit-
Grated.

That was a charming spot in old
Canaan ON what was later the Bloom
field side of the river which is known
as the old burying ground. The lit
tie plot was a part of the gore
of land which Peter Haywood chose
when he and Joseph Weston came as
pioneers into Somerset county. The
cemetery Is on a slight elevation
which slopes to the river on the east
and to a meadow on the north. Great
pines make a pleasant, murmuring
shade there and the view from the
back of the enclosure is a vision of
beauty to the beholder. There runs
the river, singing as it flows; there
are the green islands and, rising from
the other bank of the stream, the
wooded slope of Aunt Roxy's noun
tain," so called because it fell to the
share of Roxanna, youngest daugh-
ter of Samuel Weston.
AS you move about among the
obliterated mounds and broken tomb
stones, you may yet read, on the old
slate slabs remaining the record of
the years of a few from the many
early settlers of Old Canaan or
Bloomfield. Over four graves fly
flags We will read their story first
Here are two with the D. A. R. mark
er which shows that they who lie be-
meath saw service in the Revolution.
The first bears the name of Joseph
Weston, we'll known in the annals of
the town as his descendants are we'll
known among us still.
The inscription says I'm memory of
Mr. Joseph Weston who died October
16, 1775, aged 43,"-the same year and
month in which was made the ill
| fated expedition of Benedict Arnold
into Canada, in aiding which Joseph
Weston shortened his own days. The
other revolutionary hero was his son.
Joseph Weston too, who was the
only man to go into the Coptinental
army from old Canaan, though many
Revolutionary soldiers were among
| its later settlers. Two more of the
older Weston's sons are buried here,
Samuel, who died in 1902, aged As
and Eli, who lived to be sc. By Ellis
side lies Sarah Kemp, his wife, and
on the back of the modern double
stone which has here replaced the
broken slate, are chiselled these
words: Maj Eli Weston came here
with teh first settlers in 1772 and re-
manned alone with Isaac Smith, the
first to clear land, SOW grain and. pass
the winter in Somerset county" Isaac
Smith and Eli Weston were lads of
sixteen and twelve respectively when
they had this experience. Is it any
wonder that their descendants like to
tell over the story of this brave So
journ through the wilderness win
ter?
The two other flags float above
graves of soldiers of the Civil war.
John NJ, son of John and Margaret
Wheeler" says the first stone, Died
in Virginia, Dec. 16, 1862. aged 20
years, II mos, a member of Co. G 10th
Regt Me. Vols. He was wounded at
the battle of Fredericksburg Dec. 13,
1862" He was the son of Capt John
Wheeler, who was the son of Daniel
Wheeler, one of the, early inhabitants
whose farm was that now known as
the Skowhegan town farm. The other
soldier boy was descendant of
Isaac Smith and Hannah Haywood,
Llewellyn Clayton Smith who died in
a military hospital at Washington,
Jan. 29, 1868, aged nineteen years.
This is the martial record but 9TH
ers among these stones speak out of
the past. By Joseph Weston's side
lies his faithful wife, Eunice Farms
worth Weston Moor who was the first
woman to make home in Somerset.
According to the stone, her descen
dants at the time of it's erection num-
bered 222. Here, too, beside Samuel
Weston sleeps Mary White, his wife
who was a widow 33 years, bringing
up his twelve children to man and
womanhood in those years when life
was full of toll with not much beside
human hands for implements. Here
is the grave of Josiah Locke who
died in 1926, aged 45. He built the
house on Main street now used as a
boarding house but known to all old
citizens as the "Old Locke house"
Only two lines of his epitaph can be
read, the stone is so sunken in the
ground.
"Blest are the dead who die in the
Lord,
Departed from earth to Heavens re-
ward"
Not far from Mr.. Locke's grave, a
quaint stone holds the double record
of the brief lives of two of his chill
dren, James. who was aged ten
months, and Samuel who was drown
ed at the age of seven years. Such
records make the joys and sorrows of
long ago, very real things to the
reader. How much of pain and pleas
ure, toll and success or failure is
covered by the earth and tangled
grass!
William Fletcher and Rebekah, his
wife, who died aged 63 and 9S re-
spectively sleep side by side but the
figures tell us of years of heartache
between the deaths. William Fletcher
came here from New Hampshire in
1888, Moving with OK teams" say