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NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form OMB No: 1024-0018 RECEIVED 2280 470 MAY 2 1 2009 NAT. REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES NATIONAL PARK SERVICE items on continuation sheets (NPS Form 10-900a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer, to complete all items. 1. Name of Property historic name GATE CEMETERY other names/site number. 2. Location street & number. Ireland Street __ not for publication city or town. Chesterfield - vicinity state Massachusetts code_MA county_Hampshire _ code_015_ zip code _01084 3.
State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1986, as amended, I hereby certify that this nomination - request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property - meets - does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant - nationally - statewide -locally. (- See continuation sheet for additional comments.) Brona Signature of certifying official/Title Massachusetts Historical Commission Brona Simon, SHPO may 8, 2009 Date State or Federal agency and bureau In my opinion, the property - meets - does not meet the National Register criteria.
(- See continuation sheet for additional Comments.) Signature of certifying official/Title State or Federal agency and bureau 4. National Park Service Certification 1, hergby certifty that this property is: Dentered in the National Register - See continuation sheet. - determined eligible for the National Register - See continuation sheet. - determined not eligible for the National Register - removed from the National Register - other (explain): Date Pogion 17. Beall Date of Action 7.1-09 Gate Cemetery Name of Property 5.
Classification Ownership of Property (Check as many boxes as apply) - private x public-local - public-State - public-Federal lampshire, M/ jounty and Stat (Check only one box) - building(s) - district x site _ structure - object Number of Resources within Property (Do not include previously listed resources in the count.) Contributing Noncontributing 1 3 45 3 49 3 _building _ sites _ structures objects - Total Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register Name of related multiple property listing (Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing.) N/A 6. Function or Use Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions) FUNERARY/cemetery Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions) FUNERARY/cemetery Z.
Description Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions) Materials (Enter categories from instructions) foundation walls roof other markers: granite, schist, zinc, slate, marble Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current condition of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) NPS Form 10-900 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page 1 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Gate Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION Location and Setting Gate Cemetery is located on the east side of Ireland Street in the village of West Chesterfield within the town of Chesterfield, MA. It is located on a small plateau one-tenth of a mile south of the south boundary of the West Chesterfield Historic District (NRDIS, 2008) at River Road.
It is 0.9 miles from the center of West Chesterfield at the intersection of Ireland Street and Route 143 (Photo 1). East of the cemetery, the land slopes down towards the gorge of the Westfield River; west of the cemetery, the plateau meets the rise of a precipitous hillside. Gate Cemetery is surrounded by woods on its north, east, and south sides. (Photo 2) On the west side of Ireland Street, across from the cemetery, are two houses, set back from the road and effectively screened by trees and other vegetation. This is a small cemetery, about 1/3 of an acre in size. Site and Layout Boundaries and Entrance The boundaries of the cemetery form a square, all four sides of which are stone walls about four and a half feet high and two to three feet thick, made up of random sized fieldstones.
The west wall that separates the cemetery from Ireland Street has the cemetery's sole entry that is composed of two upright granite posts about six feet apart, in each of which are carved four pockets on each to hold wood rails (Photo 1). One must shift the rails out of their pockets and lay them on the ground to enter the cemetery. The stone walls are dry laid on the north, south, and east but mortared on the west. One block mortared into the west wall is a concrete date stone with the year "1935" in relief (Photo 3). Topography and Landscape Features Within the walls, the slightly sloping land of the cemetery is punctured by exposed areas of rock primarily on its eastern half, and markers skirt those areas (Photo 2). There is also a barren area midway on the north side of the cemetery. Underlying rock may account for the absence of markers in this area.
There is a stump of a very large tree at the western side of the cemetery at the marker wall, but otherwise there is only one hydrangea bush and a small tree growing together and no other plantings within the cemetery walls. There are no pathways or roadways within the cemetery. Where underlying stone is not exposed, the ground is covered by a mix of closely cropped grass, lichen, and moss. There are no fences or borders around family plots within the cemetery walls. Monuments and Markers Gate Cemetery contains 121 markers and footstones and 26 marker fragments, all laid out in roughly 13 rows. With the exception of several of the markers along the west wall that face east, the remainder of the markers are oriented towards the west and the road. There are no tombs or (continued) NPS Form 10-900 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Gate Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA Section number 7 Page 2 mausoleums in the cemetery. There are family markers, but no family plots set off from the rest of the cemetery. Rather, family members tend to be grouped together in linear fashion. The majority of the stones in the cemetery are marble. In addition, there are four granite markers, two slate markers, two schist (bluestone) markers, one brownstone marker, and one marker of zinc. The shapes of the markers are similarly uniform. There are two double markers, five obelisks, eight tabernacles, one boulder marker, one horizontally set rectangular marker, and the balance of the intact markers are slab in form (Photo 8). Please note that throughout the following narrative description individuals' names from markers will be followed by the death date on that marker.
The markers in Gate Cemetery date between 1808, the Joseph Gere marker, and 1997, a single marker for a married couple, Orman R. Todd and Barbara K Jenkins. Orman's death date is 1997, and Barbara is still alive. The period of significance of the Cemetery is 1808-1959. There are only three markers that date after the period of significance of 1959 - a double marker of Reverend Benson Heale Harvey and Eleanor Conard Thornton Moss Harvey (Photo 12) of 1989, the Elmer and Alta Todd granite stone (1972), and the 1997 Todd-Jenkins marker. Stylistically, the markers in Gate Cemetery are relatively modest, use a limited scope of imagery and forms, and collectively project a simple rural character. Description of markers that date 1808 -1830 The earliest marker in the cemetery, the Joseph Gere marker (1808) is a marble slab about 4½ feet high and 2½ feet wide (Photo 13).
No other marker in the cemetery resembles it in design. In the upper two corners are carved fans, a motif that was not unusual at the time in western Massachusetts, but in the upper and central portion of the marker is carved an open book, which is the only example of its kind in Chesterfield's cemeteries. Markers dating after 1808 share more in style. They are mainly in tabernacle and slab forms smaller in size than the Gere stone and carved with simple names and dates or urn and willow motifs. An example of the most elemental marker with name and date is that of Martha Fisk of 1820, (Photo 5) and an example of the urn and willow motif from this period is that of Josiah Fisk (1826) (Photo 4). Martha Fisk's marker is a small tabernacle shaped marble marker; there are no images, but only lettering.
In the upper arch of the marker are the letters "IN" in an italic- like script that stands isolated from the rest of the inscription (her name and dates), which is in an unembellished lettering style (Photo 5). Josiah Fisk's schist marker is also tabernacle in shape. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page 3 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Gate Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA Several other of the early slab and tabernacle markers have framing borders, fans, and architectural structures carved around the central urn and willow motif. Two examples are Lyman and Ruth Kendall's 1813 markers (Photo 6), which are the only slate markers in the cemetery. The Deliverance Higgins marker (1817) is the only stone that is as sizeable as that of Joseph Gere.
It is a slab stone about 4½ feet high, with a segmentally arched top. Higgins's name and inscription are the only ornament on the stone. Two stones depart rather singularly from the other stones of this time period. One is the Mrs. Elizabeth Fisk marker that is a small brownstone marker no more than 18" high and 10" wide. It is tabernacle in shape, and although it has deteriorated almost to the point of being undecipherable, it is the only stone with a soul effigy in the cemetery from this period. The edges of the lower section of stone are carved in a curlicue pattern and the effigy's wings are also carved with a linear curl at each end. The date on the stone is no longer visible, but from the 1940 DAR report it dates to 1815. The second unique stone has a floral decoration. It is the stone of Samuel Dodge of 1827.
Dodge's marble slab has a carved square at its top, in which is a rosette under a leaf arch. The leaf pattern is repeated below the square as well. Carvers The work of two identifiable marker carvers is present in markers dating between 1776 and 1830 in Gate Cemetery. The first is that of Elijah Sikes who was born ca. 1772, the son of a Belchertown carver named Joseph Sikes. Elijah's first two signed markers, done three years apart in 1790 and 1793, are in Chester and Belchertown, Massachusetts, so he counted his clientele from this area early in his career. By 1794, Elijah had moved from Belchertown to Chester, which is approximately twenty miles from Chesterfield. A record of payment to a Mr. Sikes for grave markers in Otis from 1794 is likely his as well during the time he was living in Chester.
While living in Chester, Elijah moved around central Berkshire County as an itinerant stone carver working in the towns of Lee, Lenox, and Becket in the first decade of the 19th century. Around 1808, he left Massachusetts and is thought to have gone to Dorset, Vermont where, according to his descendents, he bought a quarry. Due perhaps to the carving work he saw in Vermont, his personal style underwent a dramatic shift from the rural geometric style found on his markers in Ireland Street Cemetery (NR pending) in Chesterfield to a more polished neo-classical style found in the Gate Cemetery, the Chesterfield Center Cemetery (NRDIS 2008), and the Ireland Street Cemetery. An 1819 signed marker of Mary Taylor (death date 1816) in the Chesterfield Center Cemetery provides the date by which he had returned to Massachusetts.
His (continued) NPS Form 10-900 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page 4 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Gate Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA work in Chesterfield and Huntington (Norwich) continued this distinctly new style. In the late 1820s, Elijah and his family moved to Ohio, where he continued to work until his death in 1855. Attributed to Elijah Sikes at Gate Cemetery is the Josiah Fisk marker of 1826 (Photo 4). It is a schist marker in tabernacle shape, its central arch occupying most of the width of the marker. Characteristic of Sikes's work, the central arch contains a second tabernacle border, in which there is a shallow carved urn and single willow on a stippled background. The inscription for Josiah Fisk is centered in an oval field in the body of the marker.
The oval is bounded by Sikes's characteristic dot-and-dash border, and within the border the lettering of the inscription is relatively large in scale and graceful in its use of a serif at the ends of many of the letters. Sikes uses no carved border around the outer edge of the stone, so the marker is striking in its simplicity. A second carver with what appear to be two markers in Chesterfield identified by the Center for Gravestone Studies is referred to as "local amateur" whose work is the Lt. Amaziah Cole marker (1816) in the Ireland Street Cemetery and the Eunice Joslyn marker, a slab marker, in Gate Cemetery with no visible date. Family records reported in History and Genealogy of the Families of Chesterfield give 1814 as Joslyn's death date. Both the Cole and Joslyn markers are shallowly and crudely cut, done with an apparent lack of skill.
No name has yet been associated with this carver and his lack of skill would make it highly unlikely that he was an itinerant carver who moved on to other commissions. Similar stones with such rudimentary carving are not known to exist in neighboring towns. Several markers have no apparent companions in other Chesterfield cemeteries, so the Center for Gravestone Studies suggests they may be the work of itinerant carvers who produced one work before moving on. The earliest marker in the cemetery fits this category; it is also one of the largest and boldest in design. The Joseph Gere marker (1808) is a marble slab about 4 ½ feet high and 2 ½ feet wide (Photo 13). No other marker in the cemetery resembles it in design.
In the upper two corners are carved fans, a motif that was not unusual at the time, but in the upper and central portion of the marker is carved an open book, which is an unusual representation in Chesterfield's cemeteries. According to Allen Ludwig in Graven Images, "Although we do find a book cut on gravestones from time to time, although we can safely assume that the book was the Bible; it was by no means a popular symbol and found only limited use." Two stars are carved at the lower corners of the book and a bold geometric zigzag arches over its top. The two designs, a star and an arch, suggest a heavenly destination for Joseph. The Lyman (Photo 6) and Ruth Kendall markers (1813), which are in slate, have been attributed by the Center for Gravestone Studies to a single hand, and one not otherwise represented in the cemetery, due to the stones' being the only slate examples.
The Kendalls's markers are approximately the same height as Josiah Fisk's marker, but their tabernacle shape is (continued) NPS Form 10-900 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page 5 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Gate Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA narrower. The shallow carving is more elaborate than Elijah Sikes's work, with an architectural arch resting on piers above an urn and weeping willow. At the lower corners of the images small feathered fans splay out. The inscription portion of the markers is bordered by a rectangle with small geometric fans in its upper corners. The lettering style has fewer flourishes and is more straightforward than the Sikes marker A third solitary carver's work from the Federal Period is found on the simple marker of Martha Fisk (1820).
A small marble marker in tabernacle shape, there are no images but only lettering. In the upper arch the letters "IN" in an italic-like script stand isolated, with the rest of the inscription in an unembellished lettering style (Photo 5). Description of Markers that Date 1830-1870 Among the markers that date between 1830 and 1870 new forms are added to the tabernacle and slab forms. These include a double marker; are obelisks (five examples), and a horizontally set rectangular marker. (Photo 8). Harriet Anable, (1839) and Chester Anable (1850) were both memorialized with side-by-side obelisks about five feet in height (Photo 11). The marble markers have square initialed footstones about 6" high. Typical of an obelisk, the markers have no imagery.
Rather, like many stones of the first half of the 19#h century, Harriet's epitaph is in an italic-like script to differentiate it as a statement from Harriet to the reader, while her name is in a simple block script. Lyman Todd (1846) has a marble obelisk for his marker, and the Patridge/Partridge obelisk may have established the first family monument in the cemetery with Horace T. Patridge's death in 1859. The names of his family members were added later: his father John (1880), mother Ruthy (1873), sister Susan (1918) and Horace's wife, Mary, whose death date was never entered. The most unusual marker in the cemetery came not directly from a carver, but from a zinc monument manufacturer.
The Rhoades family monument (1853-1870) no longer has the zinc footstones documented in 1940, but at present it is a solitary family monument which consists of the four-sided, obelisk-like, shape with an urn on top and decorative inscription fields at each side (Photo 7). This marker is representative of the technological improvements and experimentation that was part of the Early Industrial period and extended to cemetery markers. Carver One carver has been identified by name for the Early Industrial period. Thomas Sturges worked (continued) NPS Form 10-900 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 1 Page 6 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Gate Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA with his brother William in Lee, Massachusetts, during the first half of the 19# century.
They worked in Berkshire County marble, and supplied Berkshire and adjoining Franklin and Hampshire counties with their work. The Gate Cemetery marker of John H. Pratt (1837) is a ingle marker signed by Thomas Sturges (Photo 10). It is a marble slab with an urn and willov notif. What distinguishes it and links it to his other stones is the use of a rondel at the top of th slab, in which is carved an urn within the arching branches of a willow tree. At each side of the rondel are carved bare branches. In the center of the stone, John H. Pratt is carved in block Jan.9, 1837 AE 67 years" are in a large-scale, flowing script. An incised brick pattern separates the memorial from the signature of "T. Sturges" in the lower right corner of the marker. The majority of the remaining markers from the period are relatively small slab markers in marble.
They have names and dates inscribed, but no graphics. Rather, it is the style of the carving of the letters and numbers that provides ornament. These rather utilitarian markers may suggest a simple commemorative function with no religious or grander social messages to be conveyed. The simplicity may also reflect lack of money to buy more ornate markers. Description of markers that date 1870-1900 While family monuments surrounded by elaborate fencing and individualized markers with statuary or mausoleums appeared in cemeteries elsewhere, the gravestones in Gate Cemetery remained simple in form and expressed only the most rudimentary facts of the deceased's life. Side-by-side, the markers of Cynthia Porter and Silas Robinson, husband and wife, represent the dominant marker style that existed in Gate Cemetery between 1870 and 1900, when burials dropped off precipitously (Photo 9).
The two marble markers are slab in form. Silas's marker has a slight arch across the top; Cynthia's marker has a flattened tabernacle shape. Although the markers are of the same material, they differ in proportions, Cynthia's being taller and narrower. Each has its name in relief across the width of the marker, with death dates and ages at death carved beneath. There is little ornamentation on the markers, though three lettering styles are used to differentiate the type of information being offered. There is one double stone that dates from this period. It is the Milton and Dorcas Adams marker (1870-1879). A marble marker, it is in the shape of a double tabernacle, but the shoulders of the tabernacle rather than being arched are molded in an ogee shape. The marble stone sits on a brownstone base and there is no carved ornament.
The two names of the deceased are in rectangular lozenges in the upper section of the stone. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Gate Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA Section number 7 Page 7 Description of 20"h Century Markers One marker dates from the first decade of the 20" century in Gate Cemetery. Julia E. Prentice, wife of Jacob Higgins, was buried in 1909, and her marker is a stone slab that continues the simple name markers of the 19"h century. Between 1909 and 1959, the end of the period of significance no markers remain. Three markers date after 1959. The earliest is the double marker of Reverend Benson Heale Harvey and Eleanor Conard Thornton Moss Harvey (Photo 12). Rev.
Harvey was an Episcopal missionary serving as priest in charge of All Saints Church and director of All Saints School in Bontoc, the Philippines. Benson died in 1985 and Eleanor in 1989. Their double marker with double-arched top is a tall slab about five feet high. In a contemporary interpretation of the soul effigy, the field of each arch contains a carving of identical winged effigies beneath an arch of leaves. At the base of each marker is a cross on a globe, a missionary symbol. The second of the two later markers in the cemetery is the Orman R. Todd, Barbara K Jenkins marker, a low rough-cut boulder of granite, which dates from 1997. Now lost but recorded by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1940 was a wooden grave marker of Augustus B. Vickery, 1938. Archaeological Description While no ancient Native American sites are known at the Gate Cemetery, sites may be present.
One ancient site is recorded in the general area (within one mile). That site, 19-HS-345, is located on a riverine terrace bordering the West Falls Branch River in a similar environmental setting as the Gate Cemetery. Environmental characteristics of the cemetery represent locational criteria (slope, soil drainage, proximity to wetlands) that are favorable for the presence of Native sites. The Gate Cemetery is located on a well-drained, level to moderately sloping riverine terrace in close proximity to the Westfield River. The cemetery is actually located less than 500 feet from the river at the base of a peninsula. Rapids are also located less than 1,000 feet northeast of the cemetery, possibly indicating a fishery resource for Native subsistence activities.
A ledge is present on the surface and below ground at the cemetery, possibly creating an obstacle to burial excavations in some areas. Given the above information, the small size of the cemetery (.035 acres), and the presence of 126 markers and footstones and 26 marker fragments, a low potential exists for locating significant ancient Native American resources at the Gate Cemetery. Burial excavations destroyed any potential ancient resources that might have been present. It has been hypothesized that underlying rock may explain the absence of grave markers in some areas. There is a high potential for locating significant historic archaeological resources at the Gate Cemetery.
Additional historical research combined with archaeological survey and testing may (continued) NPS Form 10-900 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page 8 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Gate Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA locate unmarked graves anywhere in the cemetery or the surrounding locale. Unmarked graves could result from intentionally unmarked graves of paupers, unknown persons, or indigents who vere intentionally buried in unmarked graves around the periphery of the cemetery or in an are set off for these individuals. Unmarked graves may also result from lost gravestones or grave markers made with biodegradable materials. It is known that the WPA removed broken and detached stones at the nearby Ireland Street Cemetery.
Similar activities may have occurred at the Gate Cemetery, where many gravestone fragments exist at ground level. Both unmarked and marked graves may include a burial shaft, skeletal remains, and personal items of the deceased. Memorial graves, used as a memorial for persons that died elsewhere or for whom a body is absent, may contain grave markers only. Multiple interments may also be present. Funerary artifacts associated with memorial services for individuals and groups may exist within the cemetery. Artifacts and stratigraphic evidence may also exist that are associated with landscape features and maintenance activities at the cemetery. (end) Gate Cemetery Name of Property 8. Statement of Significance