 |  | The Eastern Cemetery, Portland’s Oldest Historic Landscape Tours are happening daily at 4pm until October 16
Reserve your tickets ahead! | |  | Untimely Ends, Walk Among the Shadows 2022October 20–23 & 27–30
Thursdays through Saturdays: 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Sundays: 5:30pm - 6:30pm On 8 dark nights, spirits will rise from their eternal rest in Eastern Cemetery to delight visitors who dare to walk down Funeral Lane. Meet the spirits of Jacob Adams, captain of the shipwrecked Schooner Charles whose people and fragments washed up at Cape Elizabeth; Thomas Bird, the first man hanged for mutiny and murder at sea under the new U.S. constitution; and several other victims of premature death by “misadventure” who now call the cemetery their home. Brave souls will learn about paupers’ graves, the burial of visitors to town who were far from home, colonial disease and medicine, and sad tales of calamity and misfortune. Reserve your space on Eventbrite (tours last about 45 minutes and new groups go inside the gate every 15 minutes) Donations are suggested: Adults - $10 Children under 12 - $5
For more information: Walk Among the Shadows on the Spirits Alive website. | |  | Detail from the Cumberland County sheriff’s log, September 1866, “Destroying and removing a fence or railing in the Eastern Cemetery.”
Courtesy of Maine Historical Society | Desecration of Judge Potter’s Grave | In September 1866, four teenaged boys were arrested for vandalizing the Eastern Cemetery grave of a celebrated Portland man, the Honorable Barrett Potter, who had died less than a year before. The four teenagers linked to the 1866 event were ultimately punished for their actions and Judge Potter was later removed from Eastern Cemetery and reinterred across town at Evergreen Cemetery. Newspapers from the fall of 1866 provide the basic story of the event and its aftermath, but this paper takes a deeper dive, detailing the crime, its victim, and some troubling backstories of the four young vandals. With ties to the Longfellows, anti-Irish sentiment of the mid-1800s, and even a grizzly murder, the full story unfolds in the latest paper written by our favorite dead person super sleuth and historian, Ron Romano. The Desecration of Judge Potter’s Grave and the Lads Who Committed the Crime (PDF) You can find 9 more well-researched and compelling topics written by Ron Romano on the Cemetery Paper page on the Spirits Alive website. | |  | Monument for John Ormsby
Photograph by Ron Romano | Subterranean Celebrity: John Ormsby | If you’ve noticed the flagpole at the bend of Funeral Lane, you’ve probably also noticed a large marble monument for John Ormsby. It has a peculiar inscription. | The Depository
of the
Remains
of
JOHN H. ORMSBY
Born in Europe
January 1793,
and died
in Portland,
April 14, 1841. | Ormsby was born in England in 1793, and arrived in the Boston with his wife Elizabeth, having crossed the Atlantic on the Mt. Vernon from Liverpool in May 1831. By 1835, they moved to Portland where John set up a stone shop. He first ran a newspaper ad in January 1836: “Notice. A NEW establishment, of all kinds of FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC MARBLE, nearly opposite the Post Office, Union Street, Portland. CHIMNEY PIECES of the latest modern style, the subscriber offers for sale as cheap as they can be purchased in Boston or elsewhere. —ALSO— Monument, Tomb, Table and head Stones, of superior quality; Pier and Centre Tables, Tops to Sideboards, Paint Stones and Mulbars. Dec. 31. J.H. ORMSBY.” |  | In a second ad that ran from 1836 to 1837, he boasted about his many years of stone work experience in Europe to encourage customers to patronize his shop. He must have exhibited some creative talent as he won a prize at the 1838 Exhibition and Fair of the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association for a marble table. Ormsby was naturalized in 1840, but only enjoyed his citizenship for a year as he died in 1841 at age 47. Though we haven't found a grave stone signed by him yet, his is another name to add to the list of many stone-cutters and marble workers who succeeded the Bartlett Adams school of carvers operating from 1800 to the early 1830s. Special thanks to Ron Romano for his research on John H. Ormsby. You can suggest a subterranean celebrity! Just send an email—it doesn't take much to make a story except for the location of their grave in the Eastern Cemetery and a little about them. An index of all of our Subterranean Celebrities is available. | | Always Online! | Even though the gates are closed, information about Eastern Cemetery is free and available online. Some ideas to learn about and enjoy our favorite historic Portland, Maine landscape: The Spirits Alive website includes years of archives and information. Our Flickr image database holds more than 14,000 images related to Eastern Cemetery as well as tours through other cemeteries. Take a tour any time from any place: Virtual Eastern Cemetery in 12 Stops | Watch the video from this year’s Walk Among the Shadows: “The Secret History of the Eastern Cemetery: Movers & Shakers in the Old Burial Ground” | | Support Eastern CemeteryYou can help Spirits Alive keep the Eastern Cemetery alive for generations to come. Through your support, you can help us, an ALL-VOLUNTEER organization, to continue to: Keep the gates open – encouraging the community to explore its open and safe green space Offer education about the cemetery and its residents to the public – through tours, lectures, and events Encourage and support the city in keeping the site clean and safe for visitors of all ages Preserve this incredible outdoor museum and sacred historic landscape
| | Spirits Alive is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of Portland, Maine’s historic Eastern Cemetery through a range of activities including promotion and education. |
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