Old Common Cemetery

Old Common Cemetery. Marlborough, Massachusetts. , The Old Common Cemetery is the second-oldest graveyard in Marlborough. The oldest is located on Spring Hill behind and to the east of First Church. , The earliest gravestone dates from 1713, the latest is dated 1884. Howe, Brigham and Rice families account for half the total sites, emphasizing the importance of these families in Marlborough's history. , Normally, colonial graveyards were located near town Meeting Houses. Marlborough became an exception when the townspeople decided to build their first Meeting House on land owned by the Praying Indians. The subsequent agreement allowed the townspeople to keep their Meeting House, but still without sufficient land to build a cemetery. , After King Philip's War, the Indians lost control of this land and a cemetery was established. Early maps show that Washington Street began as a simple path connecting the First Church to this graveyard. , The year totaling the most graves was 1775 due to a dysentery outbreak that killed many young and old. Whole families were nearly wiped out. , The cemetery contains an award winning larch tree called “The Champion,” one of the tallest larch trees in Massachusetts. , In 1991, the remains of a number of Praying Indians were re-buried here under the 1990 federal law respecting the protection and repatriation of such remains. They were earlier discovered at the corner of Union and Prospect Streets in an apparent common burial site. These may be the very first Native American remains in the United States so protected by this law. , [Caption (bottom)] This monument, located in the southeast part of the cemetery, marks the location where a group of Nipmucs were reburied in 1992.