Norwich bulletin., 1917-08-25
A MONUMENT THAT DISAPPEARED

to the public. duly appreciated the shady place." while addresses were
 being made, and a bucket of cold
 water from the Sachem's spring was
 Thomas Sterry Hunt, then a Norwich schoolboy afterwards the eminent
 geologist of the United States ard Canada.
 hngwe1l Shipman asked his father how he could venture to say after the lapse of many years that that was the
 exact spot where, in his childhood, he had seen the heap of stones. Thomas" said the judge gravely, it was no time for me to balk!"
 It would have been unfortunate, in deed, writes MT. Gilman, in summing up the history of the Miantomono mon ument, had one of the few memorials of the almost extinct tribes been lost to sight and remembrance in the back garden of private dwelling, or hewn into foundation stones for new build ing It may be hoped that. in happier hunting grounds than Narragansett or Mohegan, they smoke the pipe of peace, that ancient animosities are forgotten, and that the hatchet is buried forever. Considering the Mason monument the writer says: Among the interesting events of the celebration of 1859 was
 the laying of the cornerstone of a monument in memory of Major John Mason and the Founders of Norwich,
 in Yantic cemetery, by the Free and
 Accepted Order of Masons. At the conclusion of the ceremonies the com pany returned to the tent~On Chelsea Parade, where Hon. John A. Rockwell delivered an oration on the life and
 times of Mason.
 The situation of the stone was aI- i most frenn the first regarded as unfor-
 tunate, for, as intimated in Mir. Rock
 -@lIs %I1 fst+ ion 1ld
 been that a suitable monument would
 mark the spot in the most ancient
 burying ground, on the road from Norwich Town to Bean Hill, where
 Major Mason was buried.
 The stone seems to have been for gotten; at any rate, it disappeared from Yantic cemetery.
 Soon after the celebration it was voted that a balance of s337.91 remain ing with the executive committee
 should be applied to a fund for the
 monument. No further action was
 taken, however, for F years, when, in 1 1871, John T. Wait James M. Meech
 and Jofn L. Devotion were appointed to superintend the erection of such a
 monument as they might Geem appro- priate.
 Under tbeir direction a granite nlon- un7ent was erected al a cost of $650, on the site of the old Post and Gager STOuHO, cn idnQ OI 1yIndH w . Lee, which was purchased for this pur pose, and the committee and their as sociates were incorporated by the state legislature in 1871 as the Mason Monument association, win perpetual succession and authority to take charge Of certain funds remaining on hand, and to watch over and preserve l the monument.
 At a meeting Of the association May A Ar77n RTr-TOy yF1O Pa To 1 P. Bisnnp, Guy B. Dolbeare, William l c. Gilman, Frederic P. Gulliver, Bela ] P. Learned, A. w. Dickey, Frederick L.. l Osgood, John F. Parker, Gilbert $. Raymond, Beriah G. smith. Newton P. | Smith. Edwin A Tracy, Jonathan | Trunnbu l. Henry G. Peck, Charles R. | Gallup, Costello Lippitt, Charles s. l Holbrook, John P. Huntington and | John C. Morgan were elected mem 1 bers of the corporation. At a later i meeting a president and six directors i were elected and authorized to have i the monument and ground put in or ! der before the quarter millennial cele- ! bratic:1. This was done accordingly. i Probably more than one reader of 1 The Bulletin could solve the puzzle of 1 the monument which disappeared from 1 Yantic cemetery. after it's elaborate i dedication, i-t 1859. to the memory of | Major John Mason. No one will i question the fact that the present site i of the Mason monument in the old 1 than to hide it away, as was done in
 1859.
 ] THE DICTAGRAPH. l