Have you ever driven by a cemetery and wondered about it? So this week I will discuss the cemeteries in Norfolk County town by town in brief. This information is a brief outline from the second edition to my book A Guide to Massachusetts Cemeteries.
I have added over 3,000 gravestones to Find-a-Grave most of which are in Norfolk County. If you want to see the oldest gravestones from Sharon, Stoughton and Canton take a look at the inventory I have on my Find-a-Grave account.
CANTON
Burr Lane Indian Cemetery site off Burr Lane.
Canton Corner Cemetery (1716) on Washington Street.
Chapman Street Indian Cemetery site, Chapman Street.
Gridley Cemetery Site (aka) Small Pox Cemetery Site (1764) on Kinsley Place, off Washington Street. A great article about this cemetery written by my friend and fellow historian George Comeau can be seen online.
Knollwood Memorial Park (1898) 319 High Street.
Proprietors Cemetery (aka) Old English Cemetery (1742) across from 2018 Washington Street.
Punkapoag Village Indian Cemetery (17th century) in woods off Indian Lane. Marked by a boulder with the incorrect date of "1650" as it should be 1657. Should I mention the Canton town seal also has the incorrect date of 1650? Well maybe on another blog. I also have strong personal feelings that the Canton Historical Society should deed this cemetery back to the Tribal Council of the Punkapoag Indians, as this is their ancestral burying ground.
St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery (1847) Washington and Randolph Streets.
I have spent many hours in St. Mary's Cemetery. My beloved grandfather is there are my great grandparents and several aunts and uncles. I spent a long time looking for the site of my great grandmother's first husband and child. I searched the records held at St. John's and walked by every stone there with no luck. It wasn't until a trip to a medium when I was told it was unmarked and to go back to the Church and look again. I did and they had just found and old book. The book had the site and when I went to it sure enough it was unmarked and the stone next to it was for the McGinley family. It was amazing.
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