'Mrs. Charles H. Chickering took her milking stool,
pail
of water, scrubbing brush, soap and pumice, and journeyed
day after day to the old Dover Cemetery to figure out and
record the inscriptions nearly erased from the ancient stones.
The results of her findings were recorded for all time at the
New England Historical and Genealogical Society Library.'
- Newspaper item published about 1900
IN THE EARLY DAYS when Dover (Springfield Parish) was still a part of Dedham, people who died here had to be buried in a common burial ground in Dedham. It was a long way to go and a big hassle so sometimes Dover people disregarded Church authorities and quietly buried people here. The first graves were on Nathaniel Chickering's land near the present Charles River School.
The first stone monuments were simple boulders. This may have been by economic necessity or perhaps it was so Dedham Church authorities would not notice how many local burials had taken place. The earliest known burial was Thomas Battle in 1729, but his stone is long gone.
In the early days it was against strict Puritan rules for people to decorate their homes. But there were no restrictions on gravestones so many of the old stones are quite ornate with elaborate decorations and designs carved on them. Dover has many excellent examples of this early decorative work and much of it is still in excellent condition. Each stone artist had his own style and designs much like a trade mark or signature to identify his work.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries each design had a specific meaning. Angels represented heavenly hosts, Urns symbolized earthly sorrow and an occupied grave. Willows were for earthly sorrow and mourning. Skulls for mortality and Flowers for the brevity of earthly existence.
Angel
Urn
Willow
In a way, the old part of the cemetery is a museum now because the stones
are not on actual gravesites. Early burials were spaced randomly and in recent
years the irregular arrangement of the stones made it hard to mow the grass.
So, some years ago the old stones were reset in neat straight lines. It made
it easier to mow but now the stones are not on their burial plots.
Headstones on the hillside below the flagpole honor soldiers of the American Revolution who are buried in the cemetery but whose graves are unlocated and unmarked. The Quartermaster General of the United States Army provided the stones which are inscribed with the service of each soldier. They were unveiled and dedicated on May 10, 1911 and honor these soldiers: Sergeant Jeremiah Bacon, Josiah Bacon, Jr., Sergeant John Chickering, Corporal Luke Dean, John Draper, Josiah Draper, Thomas Draper, Ezra Gray, Sergeant John Mason, Nathan Metcalf, Abijah Richards, Ebenezer Richards, and Samuel Wilson.
Graves of soldiers who served in the War of 1812?, Civil War, Spanish American, World War I, World War II, Korea and Viet Nam have distinctive markers.
The CHICKERING tombs were built about 1825 when people worried that grave robbers were at work in Dover. Some believed that bodies had already been stolen from the cemetery in the middle of the night and given to 'surgeons' for medical dissection. Greatly alarmed, Dover folks posted a guard in the burying ground through the night, and four families, Chickering, Wight, Battle and Draper, bought land at the edge of the cemetery from Reverend Sanger to build tombs to protect their dead.
The Chickering Tombs
In later years one of the tombs was used as a holding vault. If a person died in mid winter when the ground was frozen, his body was stored in it until spring when a grave could be dug.
The Hearse House was built in 1897 to store the horse drawn hearse. There is a peg in the wall outside down low at the doorway where they used to put a board across to regulate how far the horse should back up so it would be easy to drop the pin in the draw bar for the hearse wagon.
The oldest part of the cemetery
Today, Dover's Highland Cemetery holds outstanding examples of well preserved early gravestones and is considered an old cemetery in good condition. It has been a rural site for its first three hundred years and damage from air pollution is far less than for cemeteries in urban areas. This in spite of the long lines of commuter traffic that pass by it every day.
Mrs. Charles H. (Lizzie) Chickering
preserved many of the old epitaphs
at Highland Cemetery.
Emily Bertschy Photo
NOTE: Most of the information in this article is from'THE HISTORY OF THE HIGHLAND CEMETERY', written by Harry A. Bertschy in 1980 with additional info from lecture by Edward W. Gagnon in 1997.