Town of Wayland, MA- Town Info

	03/10/03

Note: The following is taken directly from the Massachusetts Historical Commission's Historic Properties Survey Form for North Cemetery, researched and recorded by Gretchen G. Schuler May, 2002, on behalf of the Wayland Historical Commission. (Click here for MHC information about Survey Forms.)

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE

The North Cemetery is located on the site of the First Town Center, so marked by a Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission 1930 marker (MHC #901) that stands in front of the stone retaining wall, forming the burial ground's western boundary, at the edge of Old Sudbury Road. Wayland was part of Sudbury until 1780 at which time it became separately incorporated as East Sudbury. However, back in the seventeenth century when Wayland and Sudbury were one, the first meeting house was built in 1643 at this site. The small 30' by 20' building was used for religious services as well as town meetings, thus the marker declares this area as the first town center. Problems with the location of this town center were not resolved until the early 1700s when a meetinghouse was built at Sudbury Center (1723) on the west side of the river and the meetinghouse at the North Cemetery site was relocated to today's Wayland Center in 1725-26.

From the time that this site was chosen for a meetinghouse in 1639 the site also became the town's first burying ground, serving as the final resting place of Sudbury settlers from this same period. Once the meetinghouse was moved in 1725 to the center of the east precinct of Sudbury, this site continued as a burial ground. Until the twentieth century the North Cemetery continued to be referred to as the "Old Burying-ground" according to Alfred Hudson's account of the History of Sudbury. Wayland's South Cemetery (MHC #801) was established south of the new meetinghouse location on today's Cochituate Road in 1835 and until well into the twentieth century was referred to as the Centre Cemetery. The Cemetery at Sudbury Center was not laid out until ca. 1716, so for nearly 75 years this North Cemetery was the main burial ground for east and west precinct residents.

Many of Sudbury's early settlers and East Sudbury's (later to be called Wayland) prominent residents who were instrumental in the development of the two towns are buried here. Names of and epitaphs to early settlers and succeeding generations of Goodnows, Curtises, Rutters, Parmenters, and Rices are found on some of the slate stones. Near the edge of the access road are two slate stones with decorative tops marking the burial sites of Jacob Reeves (1720-1795) and his wife, Abigail. Reeves was a signer of the petition to separate East Sudbury from Sudbury and served as one of the first three selectmen. In addition he ran one of the local taverns on the Old Connecticut Path, Reeves Tavern (MHC # 13). Other well known and important family names appear on grave markers throughout North Cemetery such as Heard, Glezen, Noyes and Curtis. Many of the earlier stones are carved with decorative motifs such as willow trees, urns, and the winged cherub so popular in funerary art of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Additional research is necessary to determine whether carvers of the slate stones are known. Most of those resting in the Old Burying ground are known only locally or regionally. One exception is Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880) who came to Wayland to care for her aging father and remained until her death. Child is known for her anti-slavery writings, was the editor of the Anti-Slavery Standard in New York for a period of time, and associated with William Lloyd Garrison.

The North Cemetery is an active burying ground which is undergoing expansion onto a new parcel that was purchased in the 1960s for such expansion. Presently the Park and Recreation Commission, stewards of the town cemeteries, is planning a thirty-year expansion with the development of one road way now, another loop in 15 years and a final loop in another 10 to 15 years. This expansion is planned for the 3.97-acre lot that is contiguous and due north of the top part of North Cemetery. The access road will branch off of the present cemetery road near the top of the hill.

STATEMENT OF NATIONAL REGISTER ELIGIBILITY

The North Cemetery is eligible for National Register listing individually or as part of a larger district that describes the development of the eastern precinct of Sudbury, incorporated separately as East Sudbury in 1788 and named Wayland in 1835. The North Cemetery has served as a burying ground since ca. 1639 when the site was chosen to build the first meeting house of Sudbury. It is a key resource in understanding the development of Sudbury and Wayland, and was the only official burying ground until the early 1700s when a new meeting house was approved for the west precinct. Furthermore the early slate markers are decoratively carved displaying religious and social customs of the time. The contrast of carved slate headstones to granite monuments also contributes to an understanding of cultural and social patterns of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. While much of the development of the Cemetery precedes the rural cemetery movement, the influence of the notions of park-like surrounds is evident today at the North Cemetery.

This site was last updated on March 10, 2003.