Central Cemetery in Beverly

In September 2024, I visited places and attended programs in Essex National Heritage Area as part of its annual event Trails & Sails. On my second day, I visited Central Cemetery in Beverly, just down the street from Hale Farm. This cemetery has been in operation since the 18^th century and is still active. Perhaps the most famous burial is Nathan Dane, last mentioned in my post on Cabot House as the Senator who added the amendment to bar slavery in the Northwest Territory into the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

At the Lothrop Street entrance to the cemetery is the Beverly Firemen’s Relief Association Memorial dedicated to firefighters who have lost their lives while on duty. Currently, six names are engraved on the back of the monument. While the memorial does not explain their stories, local Facebook groups share newspaper articles and photographs of the men. In 1956, Roger Putnam Boardman died of smoke inhalation at age 30 while trying to save the local minister and his family from a house fire, not realizing they were on vacation. All other deaths were related to cardiac arrest or heart attacks: William L. Reilly died in 1967 at age 39, George E. Munroe died in 1962 at age 64, Robert B. Kelley died in 1975 at an unrecorded age, Robert J. McPherson died in 1983 at age 56, and Paul J. Roberts died in 2009 at age 54. The job descriptions of a firefighter tend to be a large man not overly concerned with smoke inhalation or high intensity exercise, which are unfortunately identical to risk factors of heart attacks.

I loved the beautifully carved cherub on the headstone of Bessie Allen Baker who donated her land on Cabot Street to become a small local park. Edward Harrison Winslow III is buried in a Greco-Roman inspired tomb, while his Isabel “Isy” Winslow is still alive as of this post. Above their names is a cute picture of the couple standing near the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire, one of their favorite places to volunteer. Another interesting headstone included a carving of an angel with a dove for the Grush family: shoemaker father Addison Everett and mother Joanna Pierce, only son and gardner John Robinson, plus daughter-in-law and housekeeper Lilla Belle Foster.

The recently restored Morse family monument included a pair of opening stone doors, reminiscent of an empty tomb at Easter. Additionally, the viewer can see to “the other side”, a phrase also used as a euphemism for death. The family was beset by tragedy, as middle child Fred died of of pulmonary tuberculosis at age 19 in 1913, oldest child Lennie died of an unlisted cause at age 35 in 1927. Mother Ellen and father Merriam died within a month of each other the next year in 1928, both about age 60. Youngest child Ethel had married William Brophy and had a daughter, Eileen, but this still must have been a sad and lonely time for her. After that depressing discovery, I was much happier to find that members of the Colson family, whose memorial features the statue of a pretty lady in vaguely ancient clothing leaning against a pole, generally lived past their life expectancies with the exception of toddler Cora, who died of scarlet fever.

My special research challenge related to this stop was figuring out the origin of a metal drain cover with the words “Smith Iron Foundry Lynn Mass”. After a bit of searching, I found burial records for John P. Coffey of Lynn (1866-1948) as a retired superintendent at Smith Iron Foundry. If he had retired at age 65, his last year of working was likely 1931. I could not find any other information for Smith Iron Foundry, but I reasoned that "Smith" could have been an older name.

A search for Lynn Iron Foundry yielded more information, and this seemed a likely newer name for the company. Burial record for John Drozdowicz (1887-1965), originally from Russia but settled in Lynn, showed that he had retired from Lynn Iron Foundry, and his retirement year was likely around 1952. Finally, a pair of incorporation records showed that Lynn Iron Foundry was incorporated in 1921 and dissolved by court order in 2007 when Shirley M. Hazeltine of Marblehead was president and treasurer. The headquarters were listed as 567 Lynnway, Lynn, MA, which has since been torn down, and the lot now houses a McDonald’s.

I had not yet given up on figuring out the origin of the drain cover. Shirley’s husband, Paul Hazeltine Jr., had passed away in 1993, and while he was born in Grand Rapids, MI, he lived in Essex County, MA. The Hazeltine family was known for their iron works in the area. One early blast furnace owner was John Hazeltine, who partnered with Cornish immigrant Ethan Allen, later of Green Mountain Boys fame, in 1763. John had been living in Uxbridge, MA, likely in the area known as Ironstone, but he sent his son Paul to built the furnace. Eighty percent of the colonial cannon produced from the American Revolution came from this furnace. Using FamilySearch, I found a John Hazeltine (1702-1777) born in Essex County with a son named Paul (1728-1790) born in Sutton, MA, making this pair highly likely to be the furnace owners.

While I never got to the bottom of the drain cover mystery, I did find pieces of a uniquely American story. As for the cemetery itself, it is a relaxing place to visit provided that you enjoy your walk and don’t think too deeply about the stories behind the people buried on the grounds or the infrastructure that most people would not notice.