Applicable National Register Criteria (Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property for National Register listing.) B Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant andivdual dischatie entity whose components lack Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.
(Expires 5/31/2012) Berkshire, MA County and State Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions.) ART EXPLORATION and SETTLEMENT SOCIAL HISTORY Period of Significance 1785-1913 Significant Dates 1785-1848 - dates of gravestones 1913 - wall and gate added, stones reset Criteria Considerations (Mark "x" in all the boxes that apply.) Property is: A Owned by a religious institution or used for religious purposes. removed from its original location. C a birthplace or grave. D a cemetery. E a reconstructed building, object, or structure. F a commemorative property. G less than 50 years old or achieving significance within the past 50 years. Significant Person (Complete only if Criterion B is marked above.) N/A Cultural Affiliation N/A Architect/Builder N/A Period of Significance (justification) The period of significance is 1785 to 1913.
The extant gravestones indicate that the cemetery was in active use from 1785 to 1848. This time-frame corresponds to the active settlement of Baptists from Rhode Island, who established the community of New Providence on Stafford Hill. By the 1840s, most of the settlement had moved to adjacent towns such as Cheshire and Adams, or had moved on elsewhere. The closing of the second church on the hill in 1843 marked 7 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 (Expires 5/31/2012) Old Church-yard Cemetery Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State the end of this era, and the last burial in the cemetery followed five years later. In 1913, the cemetery was rehabilitated by the Berkshire Baptist Association: stones were reset, and an enclosure wall constructed.
Thus 1913 marks the end of the period of significance. Criteria Considerations (explanation, if necessary) Because this is a cemetery, and contains graves, and it derives its significance from its central role in the lives of New Providence settlers and from its connections with Baptist families who settled in Cheshire, Adams, and Windsor, it meets Criteria Consideration D. Statement of Significance Summary Paragraph (Provide a summary paragraph that includes level of significance and applicable criteria.) The Old Church-yard Cemetery in Cheshire (CHS.803) is significant under Criterion A, in two areas: Exploration and Settlement, and Social History, for its associations with the Baptist community of New Providence, who came to the area from Rhode Island at the end of the 1760s and became the first European settlers in the area.
Information about the daily lives and attitudes of the early settlers of New Providence and Cheshire, evident from the gravestones and epitaphs, also gives the cemetery significance in the area of Social History. The cemetery is eligible under Criterion C in the area of Art. The cemetery iconography reflects the Baptists' late 18"/early 19"h century attitudes toward life and death in the preference for plain, square-topped gravestones, followed later in the 19"h century by use of the willow-and-urn and classical architectural motifs. The cemetery meets Criteria Consideration D as a cemetery deriving its primary significance from graves of persons of transcendent importance, from age, from distinctive design features, and from association with historic events.
The cemetery retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association, and is significant at the local level. Narrative Statement of Significance (Provide at least one paragraph for each area of significance.) Exploration and Settlement: The Old Church-yard Cemetery is the principal surviving remnant containing historical associations with the initial settlement of Baptists into Berkshire County, in what was then known as New Providence, now Cheshire. The settlement of New Providence was an organized move from Rhode Island to Berkshire County in 1768 and 1769, after the formation of the Baptist Church. Among the Baptist settlers who moved to Cheshire were many descendants of the followers of Roger Williams from his settlement in and around Coventry, RI.
As the largest of the five cemeteries in the area associated with this early settlement, the Old Church-yard Cemetery contains the graves of more than half of these settlers. Because New Providence families settled prior to the incorporation of Cheshire in 1793 from parts of what are now Adams, Lanesborough, Windsor, and New Ashford, the cemetery marks the earliest permanent European settlement in this area of Berkshire County. It is the only surviving landscape feature on the summit of Stafford Hill, which was the heart of the New Providence settlement, and is located adjacent to the site of what was the most important building in New Providence, the first Baptist Meeting House, built in 1770 and in use until 1818.
Social History: The gravestones and epitaphs in the Old Church-yard Cemetery give evidence of the inhabitants of the New Providence community, their daily lives, the risks associated with life in the 18th and 19th centuries, the occupations of its members, the feats of which they were most proud, their attitudes toward life and death, and their religious beliefs. The cemetery contains seven Revolutionary War militiaman, and two graves of military men whose service postdated the Revolution. Those who served in the militia were willing at a moment's notice to take up arms; some 41 men in New Providence marched to the Battle of Bennington in August 1777. The cemetery also contains the graves of two doctors who were (continued) 8 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No.
1024-0018 (Expires 5/31/2012) Old Church-yard Cemetery Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State prominent citizens: Dr. David Cushing and Dr. William Jencks. The cemetery contains the surnames of 21 families who were members of Cheshire's original Baptist Church. The prominent role of the church in social life is reflected in the graves of some of the settlers and members: Betsy Read, a member when the Baptist Church was organized in 1768; church deacons, including Stephen Carpenter, ordained in 1783, and Allan Brown, the church clerk from 1770-1820; and beloved minister Peter Werden, the first pastor who served until 1808.
Two stones have inscriptions reflecting the Baptist emphasis on salvation by the grace of God: the epitaphs of Rebecca Luther, the last line of which is "We hope through grace with Christ to reign"; and of Elder Peter Werden, whose epitaph begins "His soul to God he used to send/ To cry for grace for foe and friend." Several of the stones reflect the role of women. For example, the stone at the grave of Phoebe Hathaway (1734-1785) records that she bore 16 children, 13 still living at the time of her death. The grave of Rebecca Luther, the wife of Royal P. Luther, who died before her 18th birthday, and the grave of Clarisa Wilmarth, the wife of Henry Wilmarth, who died at age 25, reflect the perils of life and the tender age of death for many young brides.
The cemetery contains no bodies of people who died from smallpox, as was the habit of the time, because of fear of catching the dreaded disease. When Jerusha Bucklin, of a well-known early family, died of smallpox in 1776, she was not permitted burial in the cemetery, and instead was buried a quarter-mile southwest of the cemetery, off Jenks Road, in a single grave (CHS.809). Art: The plain-speaking habits of the early Baptists and their attitudes toward death are reflected in the artwork and motifs in the Old Church-yard Cemetery. A common trend among the earliest markers in this cemetery is the simple, white marble stone with squared top, unadorned by any iconography beyond the name and dates of the deceased, and sometimes an epitaph. There are some stones that are plain except for the focus in the tympanum, which can be scalloped and fairly tall.
Because the Baptists' theology did not emphasize sin or the triumph of death, their iconography and language on the stones is plain and straightforward, and there are also no soul effigies or death's heads. The first national fashion in gravestone iconography exhibited or extant in the cemetery is the "willow-and-urn" motif, which gained popularity nationally beginning in the 1790s, lasting into the 1830s; this motif appears on many stones in the Old Church-yard Cemetery, the earliest dating to 1812. A second national movement, popular from the 1810s until ca. 1829, consists of classical motifs, including tympanums with keystones, fluted pilasters, arches, and the suggestion that the stones depict the gateway to heaven. Because the last burial was in 1848, the cemetery predates the Victorian period and the stylistic exuberances of the late 19th century.
Developmentalhistory/additional historic context information (ifappropriate) Brief History of New Providence According to Rev. Charles S. Pease, the Old Church-yard Cemetery is one of five cemeteries in Cheshire associated with the initial settlement in 1768 and 1769 of Baptists into Berkshire County, an organized move from Rhode Island. Among the Baptist settlers of Cheshire were many descendants of Roger Williams and his followers, who settled in and around Providence and Coventry, Rhode Island. In 1766, some of these men purchased a large tract of land near the head of the Hoosac River in what is now largely Cheshire and Adams, Massachusetts, and named it "New Providence Plantation." The New Providence settlement on Stafford Hill predates by almost 25 years the incorporation of the Town of Cheshire, in 1793, which was taken from parts of Adams, Lanesborough, Windsor, and New Ashford.
New Providence was settled in what is now the north part of Cheshire by families of the Baptist faith (sometimes called Anabaptists, although they themselves disapproved of the term) who left Rhode Island to establish the "Church of Christ in New Providence." The early Baptist families and their descendants settled not only in Cheshire, but also on land that eventually formed the towns of Adams, Lanesborough, and Windsor. The settlement originally known as New Providence, and known since the late 19* century as Stafford Hill, was centered on the original meetinghouse, built around 1770 next to the future site of the Old Church-yard Cemetery. Its (continued) 9 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No.
1024-0018 (Expires 5/31/2012) Old Church-yard Cemetery Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State precise original location in relation to the cemetery is unknown. This original meetinghouse was stripped of useful appurtenances, moved around 1820, and remodeled as a Glebe or Ministerial House for the church farm. According to church records, the "sound and seasoned timbers" were dragged by oxen to the north slope of Stafford Hill Road about three-quarters of a mile northeast of the cemetery. It stands today at 18 Stafford Hill Road as a much-altered private house, with a five-bay façade, two stories, and a hipped-roof, one-story front porch, and is known as the Valentine Bowen House (CHS.18). Because the congregation used this as a ministerial house after its move, Valentine Bowen was not actually the first occupant.
The second meetinghouse was built, according to William Browne, a local historian writing in a 1938 article, "almost opposite the homestead of [Joab] Stafford not far from where the Stafford Memorial stands today and within about a half mile from the Old Church-yard Cemetery." The new church building was dedicated January 1, 1818, used until 1843, and then stood decaying and empty until around 1855, when it was torn down. The date of 1843, when the second meetinghouse was abandoned, essentially ended the old New Providence settlement at Stafford Hill. The last burial in the Old Church-yard Cemetery in 1848 is roughly contemporaneous with the demise of the settlement. In its heyday between 1790 and 1843, the New Providence settlement on Stafford Hill contained some 40 houses and an estimated population of around 1,500. Very little evidence of the settlement remains today.
In addition to the five cemeteries associated with the settlement, there are several surviving houses, but none on the summit of Stafford Hill. Three of these houses are on Jenks Road: the 1768 Captain Samuel Low House (CHS.21), the 1768 Daniel Coman/Joseph Bennett House (CHS.23), and the 1770 Nicholas Brown House (CHS.20). Other extant houses from the settlement include the 1805 Captain Daniel Smith House on Fales Road (CHS.36); and two on Stafford Hill Road: the 1775 Richardson/Brayton House (CHS.19) and the 1776 Valentine Bowen House (CHS.18). The rest of the settlement has vanished. Mid 19*h-century local histories note that even wells were filled in and buildings moved (some north across the town line to Adams) or disassembled for the wood. Based on the recollections of 94-year-old Julia Sherman Hunt, The Berkshire Hills published an article on Stafford Hill in December 1900.
The magazine writes of the ca. 1860 removal of the last vestiges of the New Providence buildings: The disappearance of all the signs of settlement of Stafford's Hill, with the exception of the old burying ground, has not been due entirely to the action of time, although desertion and neglect have had much to do with it. About forty years ago a son of Daniel Smith, the brother of David Smith, bought up all the remains of the buildings on the summit, and sold the undecayed timber and foundation stones, which were removed away. There is currently one property listed in the National Register of Historic Places commemorating part of the history of New Providence. Placed on the Register in February 1986, the Stafford Memorial Tower (CHS.902) on Stafford Hill Road is located on the southwest corner of what was originally Col. Joab Stafford's land, House Lot #5.
The monument, erected in 1927 by the Sons of the American Revolution, is 25 feet tall and made of random rubble fieldstone. This commemorative tower includes an arched marble sarcophagus, with the original tombstone with draped urn motif containing the remains of Col. Joab Stafford. The tower was the location of five bronze plaques, placed between the tower arches after 1929, commemorating events in Col. Stafford's life. (Two plaques were stolen by vandals by 1985, and the other three have been removed.) Stafford was originally buried in the Wells/The Notch cemetery (CHS.807), one of five cemeteries associated with the early New Providence Baptist settlement in what is now the Town of Cheshire. The Wells/The Notch cemetery is located on the south side of Windsor Road, north of MacDonald Brook, behind and south of the Gus Martin farm at 594 Windsor Road.
It is at the bottom of Stafford Hill about three-quarters of a mile southeast of the Stafford Memorial. Today, it contains only 14 remaining stones, dating between 1773 and 1842. From this early cemetery, Stafford's remains were removed and reinterred at the Memorial in 1927. Col. Stafford has been described by (continued) 10 United States Department of the Interior Vational Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 (Expires 5/31/2012) Old Church-yard Cemetery Berkshire, MA Name of Property County and State Rev.
Charles Pease as "easily the foremost citizen in the New Providence settlement." Stafford surveyed the settlement in 1766 upon his arrival, laid out and purchased a 500-acre parcel for himself, was an active participant in early settlement life, ran a store, tavern, and post office in his house on Stafford Hill, and is famous for leading New Providence men to the Battle of Bennington in August 1777. History of the Old Church-yard Cemetery The Old Church-yard Cemetery is the most important remaining site associated with the settlement of New Providence and it is the only site, associated with this early settlement, located on the summit of Stafford Hill in the immediate vicinity of the first meetinghouse. The five cemeteries associated with the New Providence settlement were considered by Rev.
Pease in 1914 as "silent encampments, which may be regarded as exclusively the resting place of the early settlers on New Providence." Pease recorded that "of the five cemeteries mentioned, the old church-yard cemetery is much the largest and the first burial plot in the New Providence settlement. The land description contained one acre and 20 rods of land, and was described as situated round what was known as Elder Peter Werden's meetinghouse." He estimated that of approximately 500 members of the Baptist Church in New Providence, there were in 1914 some 124 graves of these early settlers in the five cemeteries circling the hill: the Old Church-yard Cemetery/Jenks Road Cemetery (CHS.803); Jenks/Wells Road Cemetery (CHS.804); Burt Cemetery (CHS.805); Fales Road/Saw Mill Cemetery (CHS.806); and Wells/The Notch Cemetery (CHS.807).
Of these five, Pease noted that the Old Church-yard Cemetery was located immediately adjacent to the first Baptist meetinghouse, and the earliest and largest, containing the remains of the majority of early settlers. Today, of the five cemeteries, two, Jenks/Wells Road Cemetery and the Burt Cemetery, are in ruins, many graves having been removed elsewhere, possibly to the North Street Cemetery in Cheshire, the new 1859 Cheshire Cemetery, or to cemeteries in adjacent Adams. Although all five cemeteries in Cheshire associated with the New Providence settlement were altered and "improved" in the early 20" century, the ones with the greatest integrity are the Old Church-yard Cemetery, the Fales Road/Saw Mill Cemetery, and the Wells/The Notch Cemetery. The Old Church- yard Cemetery served both Cheshire and Adams for burials in the early years of settlement, according to Mrs.
Hunt, a former resident of the area who visited the cemetery in 1900. There are several historical descriptions of this cemetery and several old photographs, one taken around 1892 or 1893, and several taken around 1913-14. Barker's work, published in 1892 as "Early Settlements of Cheshire," listed the cemetery stones recorded by Elder John Leland in 1892. Leland described and recorded more than 60 legible stones at that time. He arranged his recording of the cemetery into 11 irregular rows, lettered A through K. He noted that three stones were "broken and down" on the ground, those of Joseph Manchester (died 1824), Hopestill Brown (died 1815), and Nancy Briggs (died 1815). He recorded that three other markers were surrounded by fences: those of Rebecca Converse (died 1835) and her husband Capt.
Charles Converse (died 1830), and the stone of Rebecca Luther (died 1822), 17-year-old wife of Royal L. Luther. The fences, described as wooden and designating family plots, were not mentioned by 1913. A photograph entitled "a deserted burying ground" was published in 1893 in the periodical Picturesque Berkshire. It shows the Old Church-yard Cemetery as open land with part of a wooden split-rail fence, deep hummocks, and uneven ground amidst a view of eight or 10 stones tipped and leaning at all angles, but none upright. About seven years later, in a 1900 article in The Berkshire Hills, Mrs. Hunt, a woman in her 90s on a visit to the hills of her youth, commented on the "sad state of neglect" of the burying ground on Stafford Hill, an apt description of the condition of the cemetery in the 1893 photograph. The neglected condition of the cemetery was much the same ten years later.
According to a typescript dating from around 1910, possibly compiled by Julia Bowen, this cemetery was described as located in "open pasture" with a herd of (continued) 11 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 (Expires 5/31/2012) Old Church-yard Cemetery Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State eighteen cows and "no vestige of a fence." It was located at a former fork in the road adjacent to where the old Baptist Church of New Providence stood. Bowen continues: "The stones are leaning in every direction. Many are broken and the inscriptions are lost on some. Nearly all are of white marble, one is of slate, and two are of red sand-stone. Thistles and mullin." Bowen added that there were board fences around a cherry tree and around the Converse and Rebecca C.
Luther lots within the cemetery. The cherry tree and fences are long gone. Attached to the 1914 Pease manuscript in the Ballard Collection at the Berkshire Athenaeum is an undated, turn-of-the century newspaper article to which have been added small photographs of the cemeteries of the New Providence settlement. Two of these photographs show a portion of the Old Church-yard Cemetery, probably taken around 1914, from Jenks Road. The first shows part of the current stone wall and the iron gate. The second shows a similar view with a wooden cemetery sign. According to the undated newspaper article, the sign reads: "Site of the/ FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH/ in/ NORTHERN BERKSHIRE / Organized August 28, 1769/ and the/ Burial place of Rev. PETER WERDEN/ The First Pastor, 1770-1808." The current cemetery sign is a replacement for this original sign.
The undated newspaper notes that the cemetery had been "sadly neglected for many years" and had remained in open pasture. It continues: Recently a committee appointed by the Berkshire Baptist association, with money raised by public subscription has restored the lot to a proper condition. It has been inclosed with a durable fence, many of the stones have been reset and the ground has been cleaned up and graded. The frontage is a massive stone wall with an iron gate. There is a beautiful row of maple trees along the roadway. In 1914, Reverend Pease mentioned 70 graves, with the oldest stone dating to 1785, that of Phoebe Hathaway. Elder John Leland's 1892 reading indicated three stones from 1785: Ephraim Wilmarth's stone, also spelled "Willmarth" (died June 16, 1785); Mrs. Isaac (Phoebe) Hathaway (died August 18, 1785); and Mrs. Stephen (Amey) Carpenter (died September 6,1785).
The difference between the 62 or 63 stones Leland transcribed and the 70 noted by Pease is probably explained by the grading and cleanup in 1913-14 after the discovery of some stones on the ground, which were then uprighted and reset. One additional photo (dated November 27, 1913) in the Art Bastian "Records of the First Baptist Church in Cheshire Mass." shows the stone wall being built and is labeled "new wall." The stone wall and iron gate were photographed in late 1913. None of these sources indicate that individual stones were moved, but nearly all mention that leaning stones were set upright. The Old Church-yard Cemetery is known by many names. It is referred to in the 1940 Veterans Grave Registration source as the "Jenks Road Cemetery," as well as in the 1997 Berkshire Family History Association source on Cheshire cemeteries.
Nelson (1975) refers to this as the "Jenks Road Cemetery" and also as the "Stafford Hill Cemetery," which "dates from 1785," and names it the "first Cheshire cemetery." In 1900, a former resident of the area referred to it as the "Stafford's Hill burying ground." (The historical spelling was "Stafford's Hill" for both the cemetery and the hill, another name for the Old Church-yard Cemetery being "Stafford's Hill Cemetery." Beers' 1876 Atlas refers to the area as "Stafford Hill." "Stafford Hill" and "Stafford Hill Road" are used currently for geographical features.) Copies of the Baptist Church records (Cooke Collection) indicate two conveyances regarding the church property on Stafford Hill and the cemetery.
The first was made by "Nicholas Cook &c" (who had bought the land from the original proprietors), conveyed to Joab Stafford, and included "the use and purpose of allowing that is to say as a Ministerial lot or a Glebe Land for the better support and maintenance of the first Anabaptist Minister of the Gospel who shall be duly ordained and settled according to the law of the Anabaptist society or congregation in New Providence aforesaid or by whatsoever name the same place may be called and also for the better support and maintenance of each and all his successors." This first conveyance was the ministerial lot on Stafford Hill Road, to which the Bowen House (CHS.18), or the first meetinghouse, was moved ca. 1820. (continued) 12 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No.
1024-0018 Old Church-yard Cemetery Name of Property (Expires 5/31/2012) Berkshire, MA County and State The second conveyance dealt with a parcel referring to the land at the Old Church-yard Cemetery. This second parcel was conveyed from Joseph Bennett to Joab Stafford, "one acre and 20 rods of land lying and being in said New Providence and is situated round the Meeting House in the said place it further appears to be known by the name of Elder Peter Werden's meeting House." The deed specifies: "Meeting house lot and also for a burying place for the said Society also for any further or other public use that the said Society shall see fit to put the same unto." The deed was signed by Joseph Bennett on November 9, 1779, and recorded June 26, 1786.
Inasmuch as New Providence had set aside no land for a meetinghouse and Joab Stafford ran into financial troubles in 1785, it is possible that he was beginning to sell off some of his almost 400 acres as early as 1779, since Bennett was one of the settlers who bought from Stafford. This may explain the deed mentioning the meetinghouse and cemetery land as early as 1779. Burials may have been occurring as early as ca. 1770, after the first settlers arrived, and this second conveyance may have legalized a de facto situation. In any case, the deed was signed on May 22, 1779, by Joseph Bennett Esq. and Jonathan Remington, and recorded June 26, 1786. The ownership of the Old Church-yard Cemetery was in question for many years.
According to Diana Thurston, who lives presently at 901 Jenks Road directly across from the cemetery, her parents, Donald and Eileen Moore, took care of and maintained the cemetery for 30 years, until 1992. They mowed and brushed out the grounds each year. Since the mid 1990s, Diana Thurston and her husband have been doing the maintenance themselves, using their own gasoline- powered lawn mower. The Baptist Church in Cheshire apparently abandoned this property.
According to Gus Martin of the Cheshire Assessors and the Cheshire Historical Commission, the cemetery property was not taxable land, and the issue of whether this was a public cemetery or still belonged to the Baptist Church was unresolved as the 20th century closed Subsequently, at Town Meeting, the Town of Cheshire unanimously voted to acquire the "Jenks Road Cemetery," as it is locally known, by either purchase not to exceed $1,000, or by eminent domain. Ownership of the "Old Church-yard Cemetery," also known as "Jenks Road Cemetery," has been vested since 2006 in the Town of Cheshire. Some Significant Burials In 1914, Pease noted that this cemetery contained stones representing 21 families: Briggs, Brown, Burton, Carpenter, Converse, Cushing, Denison, Fisk, Goff, Hack [sic. Flack], Haskins, Hathaway, Jenks, Luther, Manchester, Mason, Read, Root, Wells, Werden, and Willmarth.
He wrote that these surnames could be found in the records of the First Baptist Church. The Old Church-yard Cemetery represents the largest collection of New Providence pioneers who settled in this part of Berkshire County. Some, like Benjamin Brown (1766-1809), were involved in the incorporation of Cheshire - in Brown's case as a petitioner to set Cheshire off from parts of Adams, Lanesborough, Windsor, and New Ashford. In addition, at least three of the original settlers and proprietors from Rhode Island who took up lands in New Providence are buried here, as well as succeeding generations of their families. Shubael Wilmarth (1743-1809), also of Providence, RI, filed October 31, 1767, on land between East Hoosuck (Adams) and Williamsburg (a section of Cheshire) claiming the westernmost half of Lot 2.
Stephen Carpenter arrived from Providence, RI, on February 8, 1769, and filed on 115 acres in New Providence. The third original settler is Joseph Brown, from Cumberland, RI, who filed on land June 4, 1773, in Gageborough (now Windsor). Historians consider the most prominent citizen connected with New Providence to be Elder Peter Werden (1728-1808), the first minister of New Providence. According to his gravestone, he was "converted by the mighty power of God to the Lord Jesus Christ, May 9**, 1748." In May 1751, he was ordained to the ministry in Warwick, RI, and subsequently served as minister in Coventry, RI. He came from Rhode Island in 1770 to minister to the New Providence Baptist Church after a call from the church members who met in conference on August 28, 1769. Elder Werden was supported by donations and the use of 50 acres, a gift from Nicholas Cook and Joseph Bennett.
Principally from this gift of land, Elder Werden supported himself and his large family, and served the church as pastor for nearly 40 years. Elder Werden is credited with having guided many young Baptist ministers during his years with the New Providence church. Because (continued) 13 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 (Expires 5/31/2012) Old Church-yard Cemetery Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State of his efforts in spreading the Baptist word, the New Providence church became known within the Baptist community regionally. He died February 21, 1808. Elder Werden's son, Col. Peter Werden, is also buried here, as well as other family members.
Other prominent citizens who were active members serving the New Providence Baptist Church include Betsy Read (Betty Reed), one of the original 12 members who organized the New Providence church in 1768; Deacon Stephen Carpenter, longstanding Deacon of the First Baptist Church of Cheshire, who was ordained to that position on July 1, 1783; Allan Brown, church clerk from 1770-1820; Dr. David Cushing; Dr. William Jenks (a/k/a Jenckes); Captain Philip Mason; Capt. Charles Converse; and Captain Shubael Wells. All are buried in the Old Church-yard Cemetery. Most of the able-bodied men in the New Providence settlement fought in the Revolutionary War. Several histories of the early settlers of New Providence mention that some 41 to 50 men followed Col. Joab Stafford's independent company of volunteers to the Battle of Bennington on August 16, 1777.
In August 1777, while British General Burgoyne was traveling from Ticonderoga to Albany, he sent a force of Hessians to Bennington, VT, to capture American supplies stored there. News of the British march to Bennington spread rapidly, and available men from miles around rushed to Bennington to prevent a British victory. Colonel Joab Stafford gathered 41 men from New Providence and surrounding towns, to which were added 46 men from Lanesborough under Capt. Daniel Brown, and 44 volunteers from New Providence to Bennington under Capt. Samuel Low. Brown and Low are two other early Baptist settlers associated with New Providence, but not buried in the Old Church-yard Cemetery. On August 14, 1777, the "Silver Greys," as they were known, gained victory over the British at Bennington. Col. Stafford was wounded, but continued to fight.
According to Reynolds, "This victory gave Stafford much local recognition," among which was the name "Stafford's Hill" where the Old Church-yard Cemetery is located. Revolutionary War graves at the Cemetery include those of Col. Peter Werden (1728-1808), son of Elder Peter Werden; Stephen Carpenter (1741-1815); William Jenckes (1756-1794); Joseph Brown (1727-1807); Lieut. Timothy Mason (1745-1832); Isaac Hathaway (1729-1798); and Captain Phillip Mason (1745-1813). Capt. Philip Mason saw earlier service in the Revolution as head of the 12" (East Hoosuck) company under Col. Benjamin Simond's 2nd Berkshire regiment of the Massachusetts militia in June 1776. Lieutenant Timothy Mason served in Col. Simond's company of militia in 1776, under Capt. Shubael Wilmarth's 13* New Providence company and under Col. Stafford's independent company of volunteers from New Providence at Bennington in 1777.
Two soldiers' graves in the Old Church-yard Cemetery not associated with the Revolutionary War are those of Captain Charles Converse (1774- 1830) and Captain Shubael Wells (1797-1848): while the details of their military service is not known, they may have served in the War of 1812 as two of 10,000 militia men from Massachusetts. Other graves of note include those of Nancy (Brown) Briggs (1762-1818), wife of Captain Allen Briggs, early settlers from Cumberland, RI, who first settled in Windsor. She was the mother of Whig Governor George N. Briggs of Massachusetts, who served as governor for six years from January 1844, to January 1851. Nancy Briggs father, Joseph Brown, is also buried in the Old Church-yard Cemetery. Brown came from Cumberland, RI, settled in what became Gageborough (now Windsor) adjacent to Cheshire, and fought in the Revolutionary War. Mrs.
Isaac (Phoebe) Hathaway (born 1734), whose 1785 gravestone is the second oldest in the cemetery, was an early settler who bore 16 children, 13 living at her death. Betsy Read (Betty Reed), wife of Joshua Read (sometimes spelled "Reed"), is also buried here. She was the great-grandmother of Susan B. Anthony, and with her husband, an initial settler of New Providence from Scituate, RI. The cemetery also includes two early medical doctors: Dr. David Cushing (1767-1814) and Dr. William Jenckes (1755-1794). The latest stone in the cemetery, dated 1848, belongs to Captain Shubael Wells, whose death marks the waning years of the New Providence community on Staffords Hill. (continued) 14 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No.
1024-0018 (Expires 5/31/2012) Old Church-yard Cemetery Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State Art The Old Church-yard Cemetery is eligible for the National Register in the area of significance of Art. The relatively plain-speaking habits of the early Baptists and changing attitudes toward death from 1785-1848 are both reflected in the artwork or adornment of the gravestones in the Old Church-yard Cemetery. None of the extant stones in the cemetery display death's head or winged soul effigy motifs. Early stones between 1785 and 1800 are mostly undecorated and contain only the name of the deceased, birth and death dates, and a short verse. The predominant iconography in sheer numbers is the willow-and-urn motif, which became popular at the close of the 18* century and beginning of the 19th century. Fifteen headstones out of 70, dating from 1812 to1830, display this motif.
Several stones feature classical motifs in arches, keystones, and side columns, some with fluting, thought to suggest that death is the gateway to heaven. Such classical touches were common national motifs at the time the stones were erected when the Greek Revival began to hold the national imagination. Because this cemetery was put into use by 1785 and was an active burial ground until 1848, it predated the effects of the rural cemetery movement in the 19th Century. The layout has no careful design or artful landscape features. It is not picturesque, lacking winding pathways or layout reflecting the romance of nature worshippers. It is simply an early settlement burying ground atop a windy, cold, largely treeless summit. The maple trees along Jenks Road in front of the cemetery were mentioned as planted around the time of the 1913 work and clean-up in the cemetery.
The few trees inside the stone walls, two pine and two oak, appear to have been seeded by being blown in by the wind. Because it was long abandoned by 1913, the work done at that time consisted of building a stone wall and putting in the iron entrance gate, as well as some grading and setting the stones upright. There was no attempt to realign the stones in strict rows or construct improvements such as walking paths, plantings, or other landscape features. The layout of the cemetery was essentially left alone so that it stands today for what it has always been: reminiscent of an early settlement burying ground, unaltered by the aesthetics of later fashion, except for the peripheral stone wall and iron gate. The 1913 stone wall that encloses the historic cemetery delineates boundaries that correspond to the 0.65 acres being nominated, as shown on the attached Assessors' map.
Archaeological Significance Unmarked graves may contribute important information related to the cemetery boundaries and burial patterns of graves within the cemetery. Detailed study of the skeletal remains in the cemetery and funerary artifacts may contribute important information related to the overall health and pathologies of the Stafford Hill settlement population. Unmarked graves and any evidence associated with the 1770 meetinghouse may also contribute important information related to the early settlement of Cheshire and the end of the Stafford Hill settlement. Historic archaeological resources described above may contribute important information associated with the evolution and internal configuration of a small rural cemetery that developed in the western Massachusetts uplands from the late 18th through the mid 19t century.
Additional historical research, combined with archaeological survey and testing, may contribute important evidence that indicates when the Old Church-yard Cemetery was established, possibly for a single dwelling, a family, or a residential cluster in this area of Jenks Road on Stafford Hill. Historical and archaeological evidence may also contribute important evidence related to burial patterns used in the Old Church-yard Cemetery, and how those patterns may have changed over time. Important evidence may exist that shows how burial patterns may have changed as the burial ground's function changed from use by a single family or residence to a larger residential cluster or neighborhood burial ground. Evidence may also survive that identifies areas of the cemetery used exclusively for the burial of paupers, unknown persons, and indigents or other socio/economic groupings.
The latter evidence may contribute important information related to the way the local community and town treated their less- fortunate residents in death. (continued) 15 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 (Expires 5/31/2012) Old Church-yard Cemetery Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State Individual and groups of burials may contribute important evidence related to the social, cultural, and economic characteristics of residents in the Jenks Road locale, and, by extrapolation, the residents of the Stafford Hill area and town of Cheshire.
Detailed analysis of the material culture and skeletal remains of individual burials may contribute important evidence associated with religious beliefs and economic status of individuals, families and the residents of the Jenks Road/Stafford Hill area. Osteological study of skeletal remains may also contribute important physical descriptions of individuals and pathologies that affected the residents of the Jenks Road neighborhood and town. Important evidence may survive that documents how different occupations affected the physical well being of sexes, individuals, families, or other socioeconomic groupings. (end) 9.
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