Old North Burying Ground... Middlefield, CT
Middlefield is so named so because it's halfway between Middletown and Durham, Middletown and Meriden. For such a small community, Middlefield has an abundance of wonderful history that goes back to the late 1600's and many first settlers of Connecticut. The Old North Burying Ground was established for those living west of Middletown and the first burial was in 1738.
 |
Here
are is a listing of some of the surnames found in Old North Burying
Ground, Middlefield, CT.
Allen Augur Bailey Birdsey Camp Chilson Clark Cook Coe Curtis Dickinson Ely Fluskey Gear Green Goodrich Gould Hale Hall Hawley Hoadley Hubbard Kimball Leaming Lee Lown Lucas Lyman Miller Parsons Prout Rockwell Scofel Smith Spencer Stowe Thomas Turner Ward Wetmore Warner White |
The restoration of Old North is an ongoing project spearheaded by the Local Historical Society. It's directors have direct ancestral ties to those buried here, as do many in that have lived in the area for generations. When genealogies are searched we find connections to those who children when on to be the movers and shakers of Connecticut as well as America's history. Many folks have traveled from as far away as far away as Illinois and Texas, to find their Connecticut heritage originated here in this small agricultural community.
This is an important "first settlers yard" as Ruthie Brown calls it, and a pet project of hers for several reasons:
- For the most part this yard appears to still have it's markers in their original positions, save for a few which have been reset backwards, most likely when repairs were done in 1910. We know about these repairs because we've been fortunate to find the Historical Society had an old account book listing which stones had been repaired and for how much.
- It is a collection of stones that are done by many early sandstone carvers from the Middletown area in the 1700's and early 1800's. Having so many in one place makes it a great place to do carver studies.
- This was the home and burial place for one David Miller who was one of those early carvers.
We have much to learn about David's work, who he worked and how he learned his trade. David's work has been found throughout central and southern Connecticut. Often his stones are found side by side with another carver who came to Middlefield from Longmeadow, MA. and obviously worked with David for sometime. His name was William Holland and we have yet to find out what he was really all about and where he ended up.
We are trying to find ancestors that are interested in supporting these efforts as well as volunteers to help with resetting and cleaning stones. For more information you can contact Ruthie at ctgravelady@cox.net or write to:
Middlefield Historical Society
P.O. Box 38
Middlefield, CT. 06455-0038
