Inscriptions from the West Street Cemetery in Fitchburg, Massachusetts (1798-1879), with an Outline of the Early Marshall Families in Fitchburg’s Laurel Hill Cemetery

Abstract

The West Street Cemetery in Fitchburg, Worcester County, Massachusetts, was established in 1798 on the farm of Jonas Marshall, Jr. (1768-1858), and was deeded to the town in 1808. It now contains eighteen marked burials dating from 1801 to 1879, including Revolutionary War veteran William Farr of Littleton (1755-1834). A 1798 Marshall family tablestone and an 1824 monument to Leonard Downe, Harvard College class of 1822, both originally at West Street, were removed to the nearby Laurel Hill Cemetery before 1907. Surnames represented include Allen, Blanchard, Bowers, Cowden, Crouch, Darby, Downe, Eaton, Farr, Foster, Garfield, Hadley, Kimball, Marshall, Parkhurst, Proctor, Sampson, Steward, and Whitman.

Keywords: cemeteries, genealogy, epigraphy, inscriptions, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Marshall family, Harvard alumni

JEL Classification: H79