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NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB No. 1024-0018 RECEIVED 2280 471 National Register of Historic Places MAY 21 2009 Registration Form NAT. REGISTER OF HISTORIC F 'his form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districtsAls®e instructionsin HoW to Complete the Nation 1. Name of Property historic name. Ireland Street Cemetery other names/site number. 2. Location street & number. Ireland Street city or town. Chesterfield state Massachusetts _ code_MA - county. Hampshire 3. State/Federal Agency Certification _ not for publication - vicinity _ code_015 _ zip code 01084 Brma Sumon May 14, 2009 Massachusetts Historical Commission State or Federal agency and bureau In my opinion, the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. Nattonal Park Service Certification 1, hereby certify that this property is: d entered 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 Peben/t. Bell csen Date of Action 7.1-09 Ireland Street Cemetery Name of Property 5. Classification Ownership of Property (Check as many boxes as apply) - private x public-local - public-State - public-Federal (Check only one box) _ building(s) _district x site - structure _ object Hampshire, MA County and State Number of Resources within Propert (Do not include previously listed resources in the count.
Contributing Noncontributing 1 2 62 65 _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 Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current condition of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.
10-90) 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 Ireland Street Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION within an agricultural landscape with orchards on its west, south, and east, and a hayfield, residential lawn, and gardens on its north. Site and Layout Boundaries and Entrances The cemetery is set off from Ireland Street, which passes on its east side, on a raised plot of land an acre in size. It is bounded by a low stone retaining wall about three-and-a-half feet high on the east, while lichen-covered stone walls about four feet high encircle the cemetery on the north, west, and south (Photo 2). The stone walls are dry-laid, with random fieldstones and boulders, and several layers of flat stones across the top of the wall (Photo 3).
They are in fairly good condition, although there is a toppled area at the northeast corner where the stones have been laid back up but not in their original fitting order. The retaining wall contains fieldstones and flat stones, as well, but it is capped by quarried granite slabs, each 15-20 feet in length and two-and-a- half to three feet in width. The capstones of the retaining wall on the east carry a series of small cast iron urn-shaped fence ornaments connected by a single iron rail (Photo 2). An entry to the cemetery is located midway along the retaining wall. It is formed by two large granite stones about ten feet long lying parallel to each other at each side of two granite steps. A wrought-iron gate with vertical stiles closes off the entry. There is a bar way, or opening in the stone wall, at its northwest corner and another midway across the west wall.
Topography and Landscape Features There are no paths or roadways within the cemetery walls, but there is a dirt, electric company right-of-way within the cemetery property but outside the cemetery walls on the north side of the cemetery. The right-of-way leads from Ireland Street to the hayfield north and west of the cemetery. Starting at the bar way at the northwest corner of the cemetery, a cemetery access road follows the cemetery's outer walls on west and south sides before turning out to Ireland Street. A row of trees around the outside of the walls are maple, ash, birch, and beech. They are of various sizes and are volunteers that have been allowed to develop. Within the cemetery, the well-kept ground is covered with a mixture of grass, moss, and lichen, the latter two being native to the soils of the region.
There are two large hydrangea bushes and three mountain pinks growing among the graves, but otherwise there are no ornamental plantings. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 . Page 2 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Ireland Street Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA Approximately 185 intact cemetery stones and footstones are arranged in seven rows of unequal length within the area formed by the stone walls and retaining wall. The rows do not extend across the entire width of the cemetery, so there are open spaces without visible markers in the westernmost third of the cemetery in the center and northwest corner. The seven rows run in a 1orth-south direction and contain stones or markers, but contain no mausoleums, above-groun vaults, or tombs.
The markers are all east-facing. There are individual markers as well as famil plots with a central monument surrounded by small marker stones within the rows. A large number of the individual markers have footstones with the deceased's initials on them. There are three detached stones leaning against the inner side of the north wall. Marker Documentation The town of Chesterfield is fortunate to have a thorough record of its cemetery inscriptions from 1940 done by the Easthampton, Massachusetts, branch of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The study was used for this nomination as a cross-check for lost markers and for names and dates, some of which have become less legible if not illegible. The materials of the Ireland Street Cemetery markers and monuments are granite, marble, and a garnet schist or bluestone. One monument has a sandstone base.
The stones range in date from 1772 to 1996. There are approximately 40 visible fragments of additional markers remaining in the cemetery. The most common and earliest shape of gravestones is the tabernacle shape with center-arched tympanum framed at each side by two lower, arched shoulders. There are two double tabernacle stones marking double graves. Tabernacle-shaped stones date from 1772 to 1821 at the Ireland Street Cemetery and were carved in several stone types from schist to marble, but the more common medium is schist, also called garnet schist or bluestone. Two uncommon stones with axe-head shape date 1788 and 1791. They are carved in thick slabs of schist. Simple rectangular slabs with flat tops or with slightly angled tops appear during the 1830s through the 1860s. They are often marble and limestone.
Two family monuments are obelisks of marble and granite; there is one marble column topped by an urn, one pier topped by an urn, and three thick rectangular stones with classically derived architectural molding carved into their corners dating from 1883 to 1921. They are in granite and marble. There are also two modified Celtic crosses in marble on granite bases that date to 1875 and 1890. One family monument is composed of a small granite casket form with a gable roof, set on a low granite base. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 1 . Page 3 OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 Ireland Street Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA The central carved motifs range from the 18*-century angel head with and without wings, hrough the 19' hreeg thd 19" clowers, wieepingivillosters. Manyns ale slasd thesistonest ha ve no motifs. but rely on carved lettering for their modest ornament. Please note that throughout the following narrative description, individual names from markers will be followed by the death date on that marker. Markers and Carvers 1772-1775 The gravestones of Mary Sylvester, 1772, Bartlett Sylvester, 1775, and Lydia Roberson, 1775; (Photo 16) have all been attributed to one of two itinerant stone carvers: Joseph and Elijah Sikes. Attribution has been made by Bob Drinkwater and Laurel Gabel of the Association of Gravestone Studies.
Joseph Sikes (1743-1801) settled in Belchertown, Massachusetts in the 1760s, and little is known about his work other than his mention in lawsuits in 1793 and 1794. Unless the Ireland Street Cemetery's Sylvester stones were carved several decades after the deaths of the Sylvesters and Roberson, it was Joseph Sikes who carved these first Ireland Street Cemetery stones. Stylistic analysis links the stones from the 1770s with 21 others in the Ireland Street Cemetery dating 1779-1817, and their stylistic continuity may be accounted for by the passing of carving tradition from father to son. By 1794 Joseph and his family had moved from Belchertown to Bristol [now Maine], and was no longer active in this region. Elijah Sikes was born ca. 1772, the son of Joseph.
He too was a carver and worked at an early age; his first two signed stones done three years apart in 1790 and 1793 are in Chester and Belchertown, Massachusetts. Like his parents, by 1794, Elijah had moved from Belchertown, though his destination was Chester, Massachusetts. Elijah Sikes was working in Chester using garnet schist in 1790. A record of payment to a Mr. Sikes for gravestones in Otis from 1794 is likely his as well. Elijah worked in Chester and moved around central Berkshire County in the towns of Lee, Lenox, and Becket, ca. 1800. Around 1808, he left Massachusetts and may have gone to Dorset, Vermont, where he bought a quarry, according to his descendents. At the same time, his style underwent a dramatic shift from a rural geometric style to a more polished neo- classical style.
An 1819 signed stone in the Chesterfield Center cemetery of Martha Taylor (died 1816) indicates he had returned to Massachusetts, and his work for Chesterfield and Huntington (Norwich) is a distinct stylistic departure from the earlier stone carving he had done. In the late 1820s, Elijah and his family moved to Ohio, where he continued to work until his death in 1855. Clearly, more research remains to be done on Joseph and Elijah Sikes, but the attachment of names to stones and stylistic analysis has been begun and the Ireland Street Cemetery figures prominently in their stone carving family history. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) 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 Ireland Street Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA All three of the Joseph Sikes markers (Mary and Bartlett Sylvester and Lydia Roberson) were hopeful than the angelic winged soul effigy. The carving is skillful in creating facial features with an economy of carving layers and using simple geometric shapes. The carving skill extends to the lettering, which has graceful serifs and uses the "f" as an "s," as is found in printing of the day. Markers and Carvers 1776-1830 During the Federal period three different stone carvers may be seen in the Ireland Street Cemetery along with the continuing work of Elijah Sikes. The first is Elijah Phelps. To Elijah N Dao Da metor Biroenhea naenaion on l Phelps (1721-1789), who was a stonecutter in Northampton, Massachusetts. Two of Nathaniel's three sons, Elijah and Rufus, became stonecutters.
Rufus remained in Northampton for his entire career, but towards the end of the Revolutionary War, Elijah moved the center of his activity from Northampton to Berkshire County, where marble quarries were plentiful. There he is thought to have lived in Lanesboro, working for the stone carver Caleb Smith. Phelps initialed two stones, Sarah Smith, 1779, and Elisabeth Garlick, 1783, in Lanesboro and Hoosick, New York. From these two stones are traced the later work that makes up his catalogue. Although the Halbert stones are of different sizes, they are clearly from the same hand. Central to the arch of each of the tabernacle-shaped stones is a soul effigy or cherub with widespread wings. Lettering style is identical as well. The Theodate Phelps stone, noted as being partially underground in 1940, is now lost.
A second carver with what appear to be two stones in Chesterfield was identified by the Center for Gravestone Studies as "Local Amateur." This carver's work is the Lt. Amaziah Cole stone of 1816 in the Ireland Street Cemetery (Photo 5) and the Eunice Joslyn stone in Gate Cemetery (NR pending) with no visible date. Lt. Amaziah Cole's stone is in schist and is an exaggerated tabernacle shape with a tall center arch and wide, flat-topped shoulders. The central arch is blank, but there are carving gouges within the field. A thin, wavering line outlines a rectangle beneath the arched field and within the rectangle is carved, "In memory of Lieut. Amaziah Cole who died Sept. the 4'h, 1816 ..." The rest is currently illegible. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.
10-90) 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 Ireland Street Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA A third carver is represented by two stones with the relatively unusual axe-head shape, a single arch that is carved out about 10" down from its apex into two simple volutes, one above the other. The first of these stones is that of Prince Cowing, 1788 (Photograph 17). The second version of the axe-head shape is the stone of Ebenezer Cole, 1791 (Photograph 20). The two have many similarities that suggest they were carved by the same hand. They were carved from thick slab of schist up to four inches thick, one side left rough. In each stone, the central motif is a soul effigy with wings carved like hair. Features of the heads are nearly identically carved.
Rosettes are carved beneath the figure at each side. A banner is carved above each effigy. On the earlier Prince Cowing stone, the banner is carved, "Memento Mori," and on Ebenezer Cole's stone the stemming from a curving vine provide the border ornament around the stone. Ebenezer's stone also has an added hourglass at the top of the stone within the vines. Prince Cowing's marker is partially buried, so it is unknown whether it has an epitaph. Cole's marker has an epitaph reading, "Here rests our friend, no more shall death, disturb his mind, or stop his breath. When the Judge comes, then he shall rise, to meet his GOD, with sweet surprise". The pre-1794 Sikes stones (the year in which Joseph Sikes left the region) appear to be divided between the work of the father and the son and are not distinguishable as being from one hand or the other except by date. The Josiah Sears, Jr.
stone of 1784, is likely the work of Joseph Sikes rather than Elijah, unless it was carved at a date later than the death date. A schist tabernacle marker that uses a spindly vine motif around its borders it has a spoon-shaped head without wings in its major field (Photograph 18). One series of stones from the same family may illustrate the work of both men as it progressed into the 1790s. The four children of Amaziah and Rebeccah Cole are dated 1779 - twins marked with a double stone, 1790, April 1793, and June 1793. The 1779 twins marker is most likely the work of Joseph Sikes, since Elijah would only have been 12 years old. But Elijah was active by 1790-1793, when the next three stones were carved. All four stones are in schist and all have the tabernacle form, including the double marker. Joseph Sikes used a soul effigy in the center arched panel, a spoon-shaped head without wings.
Sikes carved the simple scallop shape around the three arches of the stone and up each side. His script persisted in using the ancient "f in lieu of"s" and a letter form that includes a serif at the end of most letters. The Billings Meech stone of 1795, however, after Joseph left the area, shares with the 1775 stone of Lydia Roberson the spoon-shaped effigy head and the combination of scallops and diamonds as its bordering geometric shapes. It is probable that the two men shared their forms and techniques so the Meech marker is the work of Elijah Sikes. The John Curtis stone of 1792 is tabernacle in form, carved in schist and close to the carving of the four Cole Children's stones, but adds rosettes at the corners.
Attributed to Elijah Sikes is the Ebenezer Cole stone of 1806, but in the 1940s it was largely underground and now it is impossible to see enough to make a stylistic comparison. Finally the Sophia Bonney stone of 1790 may be attributed to Joseph or Elijah Sikes for its spoon-shaped effigy, scalloped border, and rosettes at each side of the effigy (Photo 8). (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page _6 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Ireland Street Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA Markers between 1808 and the late 1820s in the Ireland Street Cemetery include the changed work of Elijah Sikes. These markers were carved after Sikes went to Dorset, Vermont, to work id before he moved in the 1820s to Ohio.
It is characterized by a new form, a steppe bernacle with an additional curve in its profile. While schist is still the material of choice, Sik ses a new iconography on his markers, the urn and willow motif. Rather than continuing the u geometric borders, he now uses the vine motif that his father introduced in the Josiah Sears, stone of 1784 and introduces heavy stippling in the background of the decorative field. Ecoatve rads seas, r. Representative of his late work is the Mehitable Sampson stone of 1817. It is in schist, has the stepped tabernacle form, and contains an urn and willow tree in the field of the arch with a stippled background. Although it has no known carver, the stone of Sophrona Jackson, 1808 is a particularly fine example of the willow motif in a tabernacle form stone with a decorative script. (Photo No.
12) One of the broken stones at the north wall of the cemetery is that of Rufus Cole, 1816, and remaining is a willow motif with thin vine at the borders, carved on schist. This stone has been replaced by a simple marble marker slab in the Cole family area, where it originated. The Eunice Cowing stone of 1821 once again shows the late work of Sikes. It is schist and in the stepped tabernacle form. Now in the small field of the top arch is a single urn with stippled background The body of the stone has a central carved oval for the inscription, and at each corner of the stone is a carved fan, a design that appears in cemetery stones and in wood as an architectural feature of the Greek Revival style. Three stones set close to each other appear to be Sikes's late work as well. Margaret Cowing (1817), Betsey Cowing (1820), and Charlotte Damon (1817).
With slight variations, each presents the same design of urn alone or urn and willow, similar stippled backgrounds and either an oval field for the inscription or as in the case of Margaret Cowing, an architectural border. Sharing these features are the stones of Aranson Cowing (1807), John Cowing Jr. (1806), and Lydia Cowing (1807), although all three date just before Sikes left for Vermont. It is possible that they have a later carving date, however. Markers and Carvers 1830-1870 The Early Industrial period has a large number of utilitarian slab markers in marble, with no ornament. Among them are those of Sally Cole, 1852 (Photo 13, left), Lydia Cole, 1833; Harriet Cole, 1838 and Joseph Cole, 1849. The simplicity of these unornamented stones was not limited to the Cole family, however. The stones of Capt. Luther Pomeroy, 1855, and Rhoda Pomeroy, 1824, are also without ornament.
They rely for ornament on a small name field that is carved in a rectangle or slightly varied rectangle with the name in relief. They did not require a highly skilled stone cutter. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page 7 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Ireland Street Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA short. Stones with three dead roses mark the grave of each of three children Eldora, Rufus, and Alvah, of Jotham and Mary Drake, 1855, 1851, and 1863 (Photo 10). The urn and willow iconography did not entirely disappear at Ireland Street Cemetery. A singularly large slab of marble about five feet tall for Isaac Cole, 1834, has a plump pair of willow trees flanking an urn a stone carving style unique in the cemetery.
William Pratt's marble stone of 1850 is a flat slab with urn and willow carved at the top. The first of the more three-dimensional markers appeared during this period. The stone of Dorothy Middlebrook, 1844, and her infant of two days, is an obelisk on a base. Through association with the Egyptian obelisks, the cemetery obelisk symbolizes eternity. Marker Design The Late Industrial period's taste for family monuments arrived at the Ireland Street Cemetery ca. 1882 when the Lewis Cole monument was erected for Cole and his wife, Electa, along with James H. Pease and Mary B. Pease, his daughter and son-in-law. The monument consists of a marble column topped by an urn. The family names are carved on the high plinth and at the base of the monument are four footstones for Lewis, Electa, James M. and Mary (Photo 3).
The next family monument to be erected may have been that of Henry Crozier, 1898, and his wife, Betsy Cole, 1880, and their three children, with five footstones at the base of the large monument. Ephraim Cole, in 1893, established a family monument with nine footstones (Photo 11). It is a granite obelisk on a polished granite base. Elisha Kinne, about the same time, established his family monument with three footstones, ca. 1895. John W. Cowing's monument - a large marble block - was erected ca. 1898 for the family of three, but no footstones are visible. All of these monuments share an increased scale. By clustering family graves in this manner, the belief that families would be reunited in heaven was conveyed. From being the 18t century's boneyard, to the early 19"h century's consolation for grief, the cemetery is now a way station to reunion in heaven.
(continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Ireland Street Cemetery Chesterfield (Hampshire), MA Section number 7 Page 8 EARLY MODERN PERIOD 1915-1940 Chesterfield's continued decline in population is reflected in the fewer number of burials in the Ireland Street Cemetery. In all there are four graves from the early modern period. Catherine Higgins Cole, wife of Eleazer Cole died in 1921 and has the only solitary marker. The other three -- Elizabeth Beals Kinne, 1919, Mary Pease, 1918, and Mary Cowing Brown, 1938 -- were all added to existing family monuments. A 1992 stone and a 1996 stone are the only other burials in the cemetery. With Mary Cowing Brown, the last of the founding families of Ireland Street is represented in the cemetery.
Archaeological Description While no ancient Native American sites are known at the Ireland Street Cemetery or in the general area (within one mile), sites may be present. Most known sites in the region (beyond one mile) are located on riverine and stream terraces bordering the Westfield River or its tributaries. Environmental characteristics of the cemetery represent locational criteria (slope, soil drainage, proximity to wetlands) that are favorable for the presence of ancient sites. The Ireland Street Cemetery is located on a well-drained, level to moderately sloping ridge top, in close proximity to wetlands. A small swampland is located approximately 1,000 feet east of the cemetery. The area lies within the Westfield/Connecticut River drainage.
Given the above information, the small size of the cemetery (1.05 acres), and the presence of 185 head and footstones, a low potential exists for locating significant ancient Native American resources at the Ireland Street Cemetery. Burial excavations throughout the cemetery destroyed any potential ancient resources that were present. A high potential exists for locating historic archaeological resources at the Ireland Street Cemetery. Additional historical research, combined with archaeological survey and testing, may 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 that were intentionally buried in unmarked graves around the periphery of the cemetery or in an area 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 from the Ireland Street Cemetery. At least 185 headstones and footstones arranged in seven rows have been identified in the cemetery, with 40 visible fragments of additional markers. 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 who 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 also exist within the cemetery. Artifacts and stratigraphic evidence may also exist associated with landscape features and maintenance activities at the cemetery.
(end) Ireland Street Cemetery Name of Property 8. Statement of Significance