Epitaphs

 The following epitaphs were collected by Lou Ella Gridley and published in the Tri-Town News issue of July 21, 1982.    

East Hill:  Curding Rowland, 1841:  Stop kind reader drop a tear / on the dust that moulders here / And when you read the fate of me / Think of the glass that runs for thee

Whitestore (Evergreen Cemetery, White Store, Norwich, Chenango Co., NY), Almira Cardy, 1845:  I would not cause one thought of grief or gloom / I would not that one tear be shed for me / For I shall sweetly rest within the tomb / Set free from ill, from sin, and sorrow free

Whitestore, Sally Curtis, 1849:  Weep not for me the glorious / band of heaven surrounds me now / The wreath of immortality / Sits smiling on my brow

East Hill, Mary Willotson, 1819:  Death is the lot of all mankind / God takes no more than what he gave / And they that morn shall comfot find / But hope extends beyond the grave

Whitestore, Benjamin Sheldon, 1824:  He only lived on earth to prove / the fulness of a brothrs love / If in thy bosom dwells the sigh / of Charity & love Devine / Give to this grave a dutious tear / Thy friend thy brother slumbers here

Whitestore, Polly Richmond, 1832:  Amiable and belovd Woman / farewell the years were few / but thy virtues many. they are / recorded not on this parishing / stone but in the book of Life & / in the hearts of thine afflicted / friends

Whitestore, Samuel Richmond, 1821:  This humble willow always weeps / And marks the spot where samuel sleeps / The rugged road through death has trod / And now at rest with Christ in God

Whitestore, Harriet Greene, 1853:  We loved on earth / We'll meet in heaven / With her last breath triumphantly / She could this anthem sing / O grave where is thy victory / O Death where is thy sting

North Side [Plymouth, Chenango Co., NY], Ralph Blair, 1818:  His mind was tranquel and serean / No teror in his looks were seen / His saviors Smiles dispeled the gloom / And smoothed his pasage to the tomb

North Side, Margaret P. Prentis, 1829:  A pattern she thro' changing scenes of life / A pious Christian, a faithful wife / A mother kind, a sweet and soothing friend / Twas so she lived and peaceful was her end

Hulda Gardner died in 1872 at the age of one hundred.  She was one of the earliest pioneers who came to Plymouth [Chenango Co., NY].  It was her habit, when her husband was cutting down trees in the forest, to listen, after she heard a tree fall, until she heard his axe ring as he cut the next tree.  She had a great horror of his being killed by a falling tree.

Near the railway station at Mt. Upton [Chenango Co., NY] is a monument to a horse, Lady Upton.  On the stone appears her story:  "Here lies the body of the old time Trotting mare Lady Upton Owned by Mr Caldwell Chamberlain. Since she was two years of age no money was ever used to acquire education.  She won races in the middle and Eastern States and Canada.  She lived a life of usefulness on Farm and Track.  Sound in wind & limb until the last and died at the extreme old age of 43 years, Mar. 12, 1907"

Sherburne's Quarter Century, Nathaniel Gray, 1810:  "Here lies the body of Nathaniel Gray born March 1736 died June 1810.  Having previously explored this country, he in the winter of 1793 whilst it yet was a wilderness took up his abode and cultivated this field, a small portion of which his remains still occupy.  Before his departure from this life, he had the satisfaction to see the wilderness blossom like the rose.  he was a devout man and a pious Christian influenced by the divine precepts of that religion which he not only professed but practiced.  He acquitted himself of his duties to his family and society with truth and sincerity."

Whitestore, David Thornton, 1813:  Nurtured on earth by generous deeds of love

St. Peter's churchyard, Bainbridge, Mrs. Ellen Bigelow, 1831:  In life she was lovely / And we loved her much / He sought to stay an angel / On earth & spirit ripe for heaven / She made a sign to bring her babe / Twas brought, she laid her hand / Upon its little breast & said / God keep my child, we heard / Her say & heard no more