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Empty Graves, A Roster of Cenotaphs at Eastern Cemetery

Eleventh in a series of Occasional Papers about Eastern Cemetery in Portland, Maine
by Ron Romano

© 2023

(Photo by Nancy Moore)

In the spring of 2023, military historian Larry Glatz asked if I had a list of cenotaphs at Eastern Cemetery. He had found records for a dozen “empty graves” while doing research on other matters, most of which were references to young men whose burial records noted that they’d been lost at sea. He also knew of stones at Eastern Cemetery honoring service men who’d been buried where they had fallen in battle (or died of disease). Having spent years analyzing the burial records for Eastern Cemetery and creating rosters on a variety of topics, I decided to take a deep dive and create a list of cenotaphs. As is always the case, I found that the stories that emerged from Eastern Cemetery’s interred range from tragic to fascinating to simply bizarre. This paper tells some of those untold stories and shines a spotlight on an interesting category of cemetery stone—the cenotaph.

Contents

• A Cenotaph is...
• The Research
• Sorting the Findings
• Making Judgement Calls
• Lost at Sea
• Died at Sea
• The Dash (and the Dart)
• Died Abroad
• Epitaphs
• Cenotaphs within the Cemetery
• 3 Honorable Mention Cenotaphs
• Final Thoughts
• Appendix A - Cenotaphs Plot Map
• Appendix B - Transcription Form (2 pages)
• Table A - Intentional Cenotaphs
• Table B - Unintentional Cenotaphs
• Appendix C - The Only Survivor of the Wreck
• References & Sources

A Cenotaph is...

A cenotaph is a monument that memorializes someone who is buried elsewhere. Pronounced “SEN uh taff,” it’s a word rooted in the Greek language meaning “empty tomb.”

The Research

The first casting of the net – Jordan’s book

To find Eastern Cemetery’s cenotaphs, I wanted to cast as wide a net as possible. While we know of about 7,000 records of burials, they come from different sources. I started with Bill Jordan’s book “Burial Records... of Eastern Cemetery.” This is an alphabetical listing of those Jordan knew to be memorialized at the cemetery as of 1987 (but not published until 2009). He’d used vital records and surveyed the cemetery in order to create the book, and it serves as a good starting point for this kind of research. Going page by page, I looked for references such as “lost at sea” or “died at” a faraway place. Jordan’s book can be very helpful, but it has also been found to be full of errors and omissions. His work was done before the availability of the internet and digitized records, so it is wise to verify entries with other sources. About half of the 106 entries on the new cenotaphs roster were found in this first casting of the net.

The second casting of the net – the Record of Interments

I then looked at the “Record of Interments...,” also by Jordan. He completed that document in 1978, about a decade before the list used in the book. Not alphabetical, this 145-page list instead organizes names by location (starting with Section A, Row 1, Grave 1 and ending with Section L, Grave 90). As above, I went page by page looking for references that might suggest a person was not actually buried at the cemetery. In some cases Jordan included burial notes, but all of those were also covered in his book. This was a less successful effort, as no new entries were found for the cenotaphs roster.

The third casting of the net – Veterans

I next reviewed the list of Veterans memorialized at Eastern Cemetery. Each year, volunteers from the cemetery’s friends group, Spirits Alive, decorate the plots of those who served the country. Veterans of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War are most common. That roster exceeds 225 names. For this paper, I focused on those veterans whose death dates occurred within the period of their service. In other words, a War of 1812 veteran who died in 1813 was researched to see if he died away from home (with burial where he fell). But a War of 1812 veteran who died in 1840 was not further researched, since it’s more likely than not he was buried at Eastern Cemetery. Some of these entries overlapped those already found in the first casting. Nevertheless, this effort resulted in about 10% of the entries found on the cenotaphs roster.

The fourth casting of the net – Removals

By the mid-1800s Eastern Cemetery had fallen out of favor. Portland families preferred Evergreen Cemetery, the new “garden” cemetery in nearby Deering (annexed to Portland at the end of the century). Evergreen offered a beautiful landscape that took advantage of its natural hills, native trees, and water features. Perfect for picnicking and strolling (oh yes, and mourning too...), it quickly became the most popular place to bury one’s dead.

Encouraged by the city to do so, families had bodies removed from Eastern and reburied at Evergreen. I created the roster of known removals from Eastern in 2020 and continue to update it as more are discovered.¹ It reflects that there was indeed a mass migration of human remains from the city’s oldest burying ground, as it contains the names of 700 people—550 of whom ended up at Evergreen.

Figure 1. Monument for John Mussey

In most cases, when remains were removed from Eastern Cemetery, the gravemarker on the plot was also removed (see John Mussey’s stone at Evergreen above (Figure 1). But in some cases, markers were left behind. This usually occurred within the section where 86 underground family tombs are found. Many of the tombs were shared by families, since up to thirty people could be entombed together in the largest ones. For example, the pedestal monument over Tomb A - 14 has twenty inscribed names, from the Williams, Libby, and Nichols families. The four Libbys were later disinterred and reburied at Evergreen Cemetery, but the monument was left standing at the tomb because the Williams and Nichols families were not removed. This then serves as a cenotaph for the four members of the Libby family.

For this phase of research, I searched the “moved” roster for names of those who have two memorials—one at Eastern and another where they were reburied. This effort resulted in about 15% of the entries on the new cenotaphs roster. When markers are found at Eastern and another cemetery, my working assumption is that the Eastern Cemetery marker is the cenotaph, since we know that hundreds of people were removed. However, there may be cases in which families did not remove bodies from Eastern Cemetery but instead decorated their Evergreen lots with stones for all of their family members regardless of their original interment site. When two monuments are found, clearly one of them is a cenotaph!

While there is a good deal of space at Eastern Cemetery that appears to be unoccupied (for lack of any markers), we believe that remains would most likely be found if we were to dig for them. The cemetery was established in 1668. No records were maintained (or have survived) for its first 150 years, and given that the landscape was the subject of a great deal of vandalism and neglect for its second 150 years, it’s impossible to know the true number of those who are under the ground in unmarked graves. The first survey of the cemetery wasn’t even conducted until 1890—long after the city had “closed” the cemetery to new burials² and the mass migration of 700+ had occurred. At the time of that survey, the city engineer marked each known grave with a small round concrete “plug” (shown for plot C - 90) (Figure 2) and created the plot maps we still use today.

Figure 2. Plot marker (Photo by H. Doggett)

The fifth (and final) casting of the net – Transcriptions

Arguably the most successful effort came from the Spirits Alive Transcription Project. Over the course of many years, volunteers under the direction of longtime board members Martha Zimicki and Holly Doggett have painstakingly recorded exactly what is found on each of the marked and mapped plots from the 1890 survey. A form is completed for each marked grave site which documents the size, material, and condition of what is found there, if anything.

Included on many of these forms are hand-drawn renderings of the stone or remnants, and a transcription of what is readable on the marker. In most cases I found these forms to be more helpful than the gravestone photographs posted on findagrave.com.³ The transcription team is often successful in teasing out letters from some eroding surfaces that front-on photographs just cannot accomplish. As well, a photograph captures only what we see from the sod-line up; the transcription team sometimes digs away the sod in order to record the inscriptions and epitaphs hidden from view by the grass. About 25% of the people listed on the new cenotaphs roster resulted from this work. Overall, the transcription forms ended up being the richest source for this research; had I cast this as the first net, I would have captured the vast majority of the 106 names now on the cenotaphs roster.

Sorting the Findings

As I built the list of 106 cenotaphs, I was fully researching each case by verifying them with primary sources such as vital records, published family genealogies, newspaper notices of death, and listings on findagrave.com. Through all of this, some trends were noticed and it became clear to me that cenotaphs can be separated into buckets. It led to my creating three categories explained below, but to summarize: Cenotaphs and Secondary Cenotaphs are both considered to be intentional memorials, while Unintentional Cenotaphs are not. Each of the 106 that made it onto the list are found in the roster at the end of this paper and are assigned to one of the three categories.

The first category is:

Cenotaph: A marker placed specifically to memorize a person who is not buried there.

Figure 3. Gravestone for William Knight

In most cases we find there to be a single stone memorializing one person. For example, an eroding white marble stone is found in Section A, Row 2, Grave 11 for Capt. William W. Knight. On either side of him are three other markers for the Knight family. Though challenging, the inscription on the captain’s stone can still be read; the epitaph of eight or more lines, however, has eroded away.⁴ It’s evident that this stone memorializes only the captain, since the marker’s inscription reads:

Capt. WILLIAM W.
son of
Capt. Benj. & Mary Knight
Drowned March 31, 1832 on his passage from
Portland to Havana,
aged 24

Because his death occurred on the way to Cuba, it is clear that he would have been buried at sea, making this stone a true cenotaph.

Twenty-five percent of the cenotaphs at Eastern Cemetery are of this type.

Secondary Cenotaph: A marker placed primarily on someone else’s grave, but which also memorializes a relative who is not buried there.

Figure 4. Gravestone for Rachel Veazie (Photo by Diane Brakeley)

Eastern Cemetery has a good number of these; nearly sixty percent of all cenotaphs are secondary ones. A tall white marble marker, recovered from the ground, cleaned, and set back upright by the Spirits Alive conservation team in 2018 memorializes Rachel Veazie and three of her sons. She was the wife of John Veazie, who died in 1806, almost ten years after Rachel, and has his own marker at J - 107, the plot next to Rachel’s (J - 108). The inscription is clear on this marker:

RACHEL
wife of John Veazie
died Nov. 10, 1797
AEt. 50.
Their Children
JOHN died at Demarara,
Septs. 28, 1800, AEt 23.
ISAAC JONES died
at St. Bartholomew
Jan. 6, 1809, AEt 22.
STEPHEN lost in the Dash 1814
AEt. 35⁵

Both Rachel and John’s markers are of a size, shape and lettering typical of the gravestones produced in the mid-1800s, not 1797 or 1806, so they were placed in the cemetery long after their deaths.

Rachel’s stone serves both as her true gravemarker as well as a secondary cenotaph for her three sons, as they all died and were buried abroad. John’s death in Demarara (a region of Guyana on the north coast of South America) was confirmed in a newspaper at the time. Isaac’s death was also confirmed in a newspaper. St. Bartholomew is today familiarly called St. Barth’s, or St. Barthelemy, a Caribbean island of the West Indies.

Stephen’s death is perhaps the most noteworthy, as he died in the wreck of the well-known privateer schooner Dash.

The plot map of the cemetery provides one more clue to the secondary cenotaph entries. In the case of another Rachel Veazie—this time Rachel (Veazie) Shaw—and her two husbands, she was buried at plot J - 106 when she died in 1849 at age 79 (Figure 5). Her plot is a single one, immediately beside John Veazie’s. There is simply no room for her husband to have been buried with her, and the fact that she so far outlived them both (first husband Thomas Hilton died 1793 and second husband Samuel Shaw died 1818) further confirms that the stone is her gravemarker and a cenotaph for her husbands.

Figure 5. Gravestone for Rachel Shaw (Photo by Diane Brakeley)

Text from Figure 5

RACHEL SHAW DIED Oct. 16, 1849 AEt. 79, Husband of the deceased: THOMAS HILTON died Dec. 1793, SAMUEL SHAW was lost at sea June 1818

Figure 6 (Photo by Nancy Moore)

In most secondary cenotaphs, the people who were actually buried at the cemetery are listed first on the stone, as we saw with both Rachel Veazie and Rachel Veazie Shaw. Those not buried with them are inscribed below them in secondary positions. But the Weeks family marker that’s found at plot D - 146 differs. As shown above, the top of the marker reads:

Erected to the memory of
CAPT. JOSEPH WEEKS,
died, on his passage from the W. Indies,
July 1797. AEt. 35

Below this we find:

DANIEL, son of Capt. Joseph &
Mrs. Lois Weeks, lost on board
Brig Dash 1815. AEt. 27

In the third position:

LOIS widow of Capt. Joseph
Weeks, died Jan. 26, 1829
AEt. 69

It was Lois’s death that prompted the family to purchase this gravestone, and she is the only one of the three to actually be buried in this plot, yet she got third position on the marker. The design of this stone is of the period of markers being produced at the time of her death, not her husband’s, so this is not a case of a marker being made in 1797 and names being added over time. It’s a subtle, but interesting, difference from most of the other secondary cenotaphs found.

Unintentional Cenotaph: A marker placed on a person’s grave that was left behind when the deceased was disinterred and reburied elsewhere.

This is the third category of cenotaph. The monument at Tomb A - 14 addressed above for the Williams - Libby - Nichols families provides the example. Fourteen monuments of this type are found at Eastern Cemetery, naming 21 people. In the following analyses, these people (and monuments) are excluded, leaving us with a population of 86 people.

Making Judgement Calls

I made some judgement calls during the search for cenotaphs at Eastern Cemetery. One relates to the year of death. Since embalming was not in common practice until the Civil War era, most deaths abroad that occurred before the war would have resulted in burials where those people fell. It would not have been easy—or practical—to transport a decomposing body home from the Caribbean in the early 1800s. But for mid-century deaths abroad, this became a better possibility.

A modern granite marker from the Veterans Administration is found in Section A, at Tomb 40 for George E. H. Duran, who died in battle in Virginia during the Civil War. A newspaper clipping confirms that the stone is an actual gravemarker and not a cenotaph.

Figure 7. Grave marker for George Duran (Photo by Janice Gower)

Text from Figure 7

George E.H. Duran, CO B 17 MAINE INF, CIVIL WAR, 1841 1865

Figure 8

Text from Figure 8

DEATH OF A SOLDIER - A letter from Sergeant Abbott, Co. B, 17th Maine, states that his companion, Corporal George E. H. Duran, son of Mr. William Duran of this city, was struck in the head by a minnie ball in the engagement on the 25th inst., and lived by ten minutes after. His body was secured by the company, brought into camp, was embalmed, and will be sent home.
The deceased was a noble soldier, and a warm-hearted comrade, — one whose death will be mourned by all who knew him. He is taken off in the morning of life, fighting valiantly for his country. His age was a little over twenty-four years.

Another consideration is distance from home. There are many records at Eastern Cemetery for people who died in Boston. Packet ships—medium-sized ships carrying mail, passengers and goods—ran between the two cities daily for decades and there would have been few barriers to transporting a body from Boston to Portland for burial. None of the listings on the cenotaphs roster are for Portlanders who died in Boston, but there are a handful of listings for people who died relatively near Portland, including Belfast, Maine, and Lynnfield, Massachusetts. There are also cenotaphs for deaths that occurred farther away—including Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, and Washington state, among others.

Figure 9. Hope family gravestone

A small slate marker found at plot I - 25 memorializes two sons of stonecutter Robert Hope and his wife Ann. Hope was an experienced stonecutter when he joined the shop of Bartlett Adams in 1806. He and Ann stayed in Portland just two years. Their son William died in Portland in 1806. Hope carved the slate for his son, but added another son to the inscription, which reads:

In
MEMORY OF
TWO CHILDREN,
THE OFFSPRING OF
ROBT. & ANN HOPE.
both died in infancy:
the former
ROBT. A. HOPE,
died in Virginia 1802.
the latter
WILLIAM I. HOPE,
died in Portland 1806.

There’s a socio-economic angle here as well. Perhaps the more well-to-do families of Portland would wish to cover the costs to preserve a body (such as that of the owner/captain of a trade vessel) for return to Maine; less likely would this be expected in the case of a working class family who lost a son working as a ship’s crewman.

Two small slates, side by side at plots D - 46 and D - 47, memorialize Benjamin (Sr.) and Benjamin Franklin Thrasher (Jr.), both of whom died in Havana. The father died first at age 64 in 1855. Five years later his 40-year-old son followed. A family genealogy notes that members of the Thrasher family relocated to Cuba for a few decades in the first half of the 1800s. A check of the 1830, 1840, and 1850 census records for Portland seem to bear this out, as they do not include Benjamin Thrasher as the head of household in the city. Given the period during which they died, it’s not out of the question that the Thrasher family would have had the bodies of these two men preserved and returned to Portland. But since the family had established a home in Cuba, it seems most likely that they were laid to rest there and their family back home in Maine memorialized them with the small slate markers found today.

Figure 10. Thrasher gravestone detail (Photo by Janet Joyce)

Taking everything into consideration, when it seemed to me to be more likely than not that we have a cenotaph at Eastern for a person known to have died abroad, I included them.

Lost at Sea

It should come as no surprise to those who know Portland’s history that the majority of cenotaphs at Eastern Cemetery are related to its bustling maritime economy of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Seventy-five percent of the intentional cenotaphs at Eastern Cemetery are tied to the sea. All of those are for males, the vast majority of them being in their teens (12 of them) and twenties (36 of them). Four men died in their thirties, seven in their forties, and four died in their fifties to seventies.

There are twenty records of men who were “lost at sea,” “lost overboard,” “drowned at sea,” or “buried at sea.” These are the men whose bodies were never recovered. In some cases the newspapers of the day tell their stories, while in other cases their memorial stones were inscribed with those words.

Figure 11. Gravestone for Munroe Mason

Munroe Mason is memorialized on a large white marble stone in Section A, Row 1, Plot 5. Today the stone is too eroded to read (Figure 11), but it appears to have had a lengthy inscription. Whether it contained family relationships, the story of his death, or an epitaph is not known. The newspaper told his story best (shown below).

Figure 12

Text from Figure 12

On Tuesday last, MUNROE MASON, aged about 16 years, a promising son of Mr. Andrew Mason, merchant of this town, fell from aloft of the brig Oxford at sea, and was drowned. It is supposed that he struck some part of the vessel in falling, as a binnacle, was thrown over, and was near him for some minutes. He made no exertion to reach it, and sunk before the boat (which was lowered immediately,) reached him.

The tall slate gravemarker on plot C - 94 is an example of an inscribed cause of death. The stone was placed on the grave of Mary Sheafe, who died in 1831 at age 55. Her husband’s stone is next to hers; he was William Sheafe who died in 1844. At the bottom of Mary’s marker we find inscribed, “Also their son... lost from the brig Alna on the Florida coast.” John was 29 when he was swept overboard during a hurricane off the south Florida coast in 1838. The Alna was run on to the beach. The survivors were attacked by the natives, who killed the captain and cook and then pursued two other Portland men who fled from the scene. Over a few days, all the while eluding the natives, they had to contend with intense heat, sunburn, alligators, sharks, and mosquitos. They were eventually rescued by another ship and returned to Portland to tell their amazing stories of survival (and confirm John Sheafe’s cause of death)⁶

Figure 13. Gravestone for Mary Sheafe

Text from Figure 13

MRS. MARY, wife of William Sheafe, died May 17, 1831. AEt. 55. Also their Son John Sheafe, who was lost from the Brig. Alna, on the Florida Coast, Sept. 7, 1838, AEt. 29.

Died at Sea

There are twenty-six records for men who had “died at sea,” were “lost on board,” or “died during the passage [from one named place to another].” There’s a difference between one who was lost at sea—and certainly went to a watery grave—and one who died aboard the ship while on his voyage. For the latter, there is a possibility the deceased got a land-based burial somewhere, though burials at sea were common. The use of “lost at sea” and “died at sea” was not found to be consistent on gravestone inscriptions, vital records, and newspaper notices. Some who were truly lost at sea were listed as “died at...” and vice-versa, so for the purpose of this paper, I categorized each case as found in the original source documents.

Capt. Benjamin Tappan Chase died in 1821 at the age of 35. There is an eroding, broken marble marker at plot H - 17 to honor him. Jordan’s burial records note that Capt. Chase, “Died of yellow fever on voyage from Cuba.” The assumption is that he was buried at sea, but this case raises the consideration of timing. What if Capt. Chase died one day before the ship reached Portland? In that case, a burial at Eastern Cemetery is a good possibility. But as found, the burial record suggests that he died on the ship farther from home and was buried at sea. Henry Green, Jr., died at sea in 1809. He was 23 and on his passage home aboard the brig Diligence. The stone on plot A - 6 - 10 is inscribed with the words “died on his passage from Havana.” The Portland newspaper that reported his death at sea also included this commentary:

Several of the youths of this town, who promised to become valuable members and ornaments of society, have been destined to perish far from home, within the last two years....

Capt. George Loring gives us a couple of head-scratching moments. His 1847 death at sea is confirmed on a grand white marble obelisk located in Section A of the cemetery, between tombs 83 and 84. The obelisk is set on a granite base and is over six feet tall. Only one panel of the obelisk is inscribed. There we find the captain’s name, date, and age (24) along with “died at sea.” He was one of many children of George and Lucy Loring. George Sr. was a sea captain and ship builder in Portland, and his namesake son had followed in his footsteps. George Jr. became master of the Boston-based ship Eliza Warwick and as reported in the newspaper under the title “Sad Accident at Sea,” he died while on a transatlantic journey to England. With two other men at the ship’s wheel, he was “carried overboard in a tremendous gale.” The heavily damaged ship was able to reach Liverpool, England, without him.

Figure 14. Monument for George Loring

One of the odd things about this case is that George Loring’s monument, shown here and in clear view to all who visit, eluded Jordan as it is not found in either of his published sources. The monument was drawn onto the 1890 survey map, but did not make it onto the city’s record of burials later used to generate listings on the Find a Grave website. It wasn’t until I reviewed the transcription forms that I realized there was a cenotaph present. I’ve since added Loring to findagrave.com.

The most bizarre aspect of this case arose just a couple of weeks after Loring’s death was reported. His death en route to Liverpool was on January 12, 1847, and was first reported in a Boston newspaper on February 22. On March 4, a curious story appeared in the Portland paper that is best told in the words of its writer:

Figure 15

Text from Figure 15

DREAMS. — It is stated, that at the time of the loss of Capt. George Loring, Jr., overboard from his ship, a young lady, in this city, appeared in great distress in her sleep, and that her mother awaking her, she exclaimed in affright that Capt. Loring was drowned! The date was set down, and when the news came of his death, the date compared, (with proper variation for the different localities,) with that registered on account of the dream. We have stated this story as told us by several individuals. — Portland Argus.

Many of the records for those who died at sea include the ship name, ports of departure, and destination port. It’s easy to come to a conclusion that a death aboard a ship that had left Portland resulted in a burial at sea or in another port (and, therefore, a cenotaph back home). It’s not quite as clear when the ship was on its way back to Portland. An example of each follows:

Figure 16

Text from Figure 16

On his passage from Havana to Portland, on board brig Edwin, Mr. Tobias Ham, aged 18

Figure 17

Text from Figure 17

DIED, on his passage from Portland to Jamaica, Capt. James Weeks, of this town aged 21. An enterprising & worthy young man.

The memorial for George P. Richards is found in Section A, Row 16, Plot 6. It’s a white marble restored by the Spirits Alive conservation crew.

Figure 18. Gravestone for George Richards (Photo by Diane Brakeley)

Text from Figure 18

George P. Richards, Died at sea July 31, 1849. AEt. 17 yrs. & 9 mos., Sarah Richards, Died April 1, 1850, Aet. 14 yrs, 8 mos. (epitaph illegible)

The inscription under George’s name is clear: “died at sea July 31, 1849.” He was 17 when he died. He shares this marker with his sister Sarah Richards, who died less than a year later at age 14. Their father had predeceased them by about a dozen years and their mother remarried and moved to Boston.

This marble may be a true gravemarker for Sarah and a cenotaph for George. The decoration is what sets this apart from other cenotaphs at Eastern Cemetery, as it features a small tree or shrub with two broken buds which are on the ground at the base of the tree. Broken flower buds and broken branches were often carved onto gravestones in the mid-nineteenth century, representing a life cut short. That message is clear on this stone, as it memorializes two young lives lost before the prime of their lives.

The Dash (and the Dart)

We can’t ignore the fact that four of the twenty records for those who were lost at sea name the same vessel—the privateer schooner Dash. During the War of 1812 many privately owned ships were commissioned to engage in warfare at sea. They were, in effect, pirate ships with permission by the US government to seize British ships and crews and steal their cargo for their own use or sale.

The Dash was launched in 1813 in Freeport by the Porter family. Samuel and Seward Porter were merchants in Portland. The Dash was under the command of two other captains before their younger brother John Porter became her captain in 1814. The newly-married young captain, just 24, more than proved his worthiness, as the Dash is generally considered to have been among the most—if not the most— successful privateers during the war. Newspapers up and down the east coast of the US reported Capt. John’s return to Portland on January 5, 1815, after a voyage of seven to eight weeks’ duration. The bounty list is staggering, with the value of goods seized estimated to be about $1,000,000 today. The article is shown here.

Figure 19.

Text from Figure 19

MARINE NEWS
Portland, Jan. 5
“Privateer brig Dash, John Porter, commander, arrived here this afternoon, after a cruise of seven or eight weeks, and has made five captures, viz: —a schr. with fish, (arrived at Boston some time since;) sloop Mary, bound to Bermuda; with an assorted cargo; brig General Maitland, bound from Martinique to Bermuda, cargo sugar and rum; letter-of-marque schr. Armistice, Capt. Stanhope, of New York, laden with rice and cotton, which she captured; and a brig of George’s bank a few days ago.
“The Dash laded herself from the above vessels with 115 puncheons of rum,
English dry goods, copper in sheets, porter, wine, &c.—Value on board estimated at from $40,000 to $50,000.
“She has captured this cruize, property estimated per invoices at $120,000.
“The General Maitland, and Armistice were manned and ordered for Portland, the latter about 10 days since, off the Capes of the Delaware.
“She has brought in no prisoners, has had no engagement, and been chased but once.
“It is reported that a prize of English goods is in at Wiscasset, and another at Thomaston. At any rate we are in a fair or foul way to have a plenty of dry goods. Sales of a quantity here to day amount to about $100,000—sold at reduced prices—many articles below sterling cost, and such as are precisely adapted to our market.
“P.S. A brig is below, supposed the Dash’s prize, just come in.”
A letter to the owner now in this town states, that the Dash has 115 puncheons rum, 10 hhds. and 45 bbls. sugar, 5 trunks copper plates, 7 casks porter, wine, white lead, &c.
Yours, &c.
E. C. H. B.
Boston, January 7

The Dash was in port for just a couple of weeks. News of the treaty that had been signed by the US and Great Britain— effectively ending the war—had not yet reached Portland, and on January 21, 1815, Capt. John Porter set sail again. Within a couple of days, while in the vicinity of the Georges Shoals (east of Cape Cod), a fierce storm arose. Another privateer chasing the Dash turned back to the safety of land, but saw Porter sail directly into the gale. He was perhaps overconfident in his (and the ship’s) ability to weather the storm that would last for a week. Perhaps he hoped to continue his string of successes on the high seas. But nobody ever heard from him or the Dash again, and all aboard—believed to be 55 in total—went down with the ship.⁷

The four from the Dash memorialized at Eastern Cemetery are:

• John Mountfort, age 19, on his mother Elizabeth’s stone at plot D - 35
• George Roberts, age 42, ship’s carpenter, on his wife Hannah’s stone at plot A - 13 - 5
• Stephen Veazie,⁸ age 35, on his mother Rachel’s stone at plot J - 107 (Figure 4)
• Daniel Weeks, age 27, on his parents’ stone at plot D - 146. (Figure 6)

I found records for two other men at Eastern Cemetery who were lost at sea in “January 1815” and I strongly suspect that they were also aboard the Dash when it went down.

• Smith Woodward Cobb, age 22, on a shared stone with two brothers at plot D - 129 (Figure 20)
• Samuel Shaw, age unknown, on his wife Rachel’s stone at plot H - 35

Though Evergreen Cemetery in Portland would not open for another three decades, there is a cenotaph there for Capt. John Porter. The stone is broken and in the ground, but part of the inscription is still visible, reading “sailed from Portland, January 21, 1815.” Whether this stone was originally at Eastern Cemetery and moved to Evergreen or was only and always at Evergreen has yet to be discovered.

There was another privateer represented at Eastern Cemetery. On the stone for Sally Dodge at plot J - 46, her son Israel’s name is found inscribed with “Lost in the Privateer Dart.” There’s no date of death for Israel, but since the Dart was only active for a few months in 1812, we can assign a death year of 1812 to him.

Figure 20. Gravestone for the Cobb sons

Text from Figure 20

ERECTED in memory of three sons of Daniel and Nabby Cobb. WILLIAM, who died at Sea, Jan. 1805, AEt. 21; DANIEL, at St. Bartholomews, Nov. 28, 1810, AEt. 21; SMITH WOODWARD, lost at Sea, Jan. 1815, AEt. 22.

Died Abroad

I can tie nineteen more records for men memorialized at Eastern Cemetery to the sea. Rather than finding “lost at sea” or “died at sea” on their records, they instead note that they died in a specific place. The entire Caribbean region dominates, with deaths reported as far south as Brazil, Surinam and Guyana, as far west as Panama and Belize and as far east as the islands of the West Indies. Locations named in these burial records, on stones, and in newspapers include Cuba, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, and St. Barth’s. All of these suggest men traveling from Portland to the Caribbean during the very rich period of trade.

Often, the burial record or the gravemarker does not tell the whole story. Take the case of Capt. Robert Williams who died in February, 1833, at age 25. He is memorialized on the marble pedestal monument at Tomb A - 14, and his inscription reads that he “Died Wilmington, North Carolina.” From this, we might picture him walking around the city and falling victim to a wintertime flu or other communicable disease. But the newspaper provides the details. He actually died at sea while aboard the brig Hayti. The paper reported that his body had been brought to shore, and was “followed to the grave by a large concourse of citizens.” No gravemarker is known to exist for him there, so perhaps he was buried there in an unmarked grave.”

Figure 21

Text from Figure 21

Deaths. On board brig Hayti, on her passage from this port to Wilmington, 14 days out, Mr. Robert Williams, mate of said brig, and son of Capt. John Williams, of this city, aged 25 years. His remains were carried on shore at Wilmington 3d inst. and followed to the grave by a large concourse of citizens, where religious ceremonies were performed by Rev. Mr. Hunt.

We have one well-known person memorialized on an Eastern Cemetery cenotaph who was buried in the Mediterranean region. Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth, at age 20, died in Tripoli (Libya) in 1804 during the Barbary Wars. He was a crewman on the Intrepid, and on a mission to destroy the flotilla of pirate ships in Tripoli’s harbor. His small boat, loaded with explosives, accidentally blew up before they could accomplish their mission, killing Wadsworth and 12 other men aboard. There’s a memorial of some type in Tripoli for these men who perished over 4,000 miles from home. The large pedestal monument shown here at plot H - 13 in Eastern Cemetery was erected by his grandfather. Having been vandalized many years ago and left in pieces, it was restored by the Spirits Alive conservation crew in 2013. And of course, one of Portland’s favorite sons—the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow—was born in 1807 and named in honor of his fallen uncle.

Figure 22. Monument for Henry Wadsworth (Photo by Dave Smith)

The person memorialized on a cenotaph who was buried farthest from home is another young man named Henry: Henry Tukey. He died in the Dutch East India port of Batavia (today’s Jakarta, Indonesia), nearly 10,000 miles from Portland. The small slate marker at plot G - 33 understates his place of honor as the person who died farthest from home. The stone was placed after the death of his father in 1826. After his father’s inscription we find:

Also,
his son Henry Tukey,
died in Batavia
Oct. 3, 1821
AEt. 26

Epitaphs

Gravestone inscriptions contain the facts: name, age, dates, and perhaps place of death, but the more poetic epitaphs—when found—may give clues as to where a person was laid to rest.

John Cox was a seaman who died at age 20 in 1785. His marker at plot E - 60 is not a cenotaph, but a true grave marker, as confirmed by his epitaph:

Boreas’ winds & various seas
Have toss’d me to & fro,
In Spite of both, by God’s decree,
I harbor here below

Figure 23

“Boreas” is the personification of the north winds, (Figure 23). There’s a second verse to this epitaph, but the point is made in the first verse... that John successfully made his way through his brief career as a seaman by avoiding being swept overboard or lost in a wreck. So congratulations to John for avoiding the watery grave. But still, he died at age 20! His was far too short of a life, and though he probably died of a communicable disease, the truth is not known but for the fact that he was buried at Eastern Cemetery.

Figure 24. Detail of gravestone for Mary Stonehouse

Text from Figure 24

Mrs. MARY STONEHOUSE, of Boston, relict of the late Capt. Robert Stonehouse. She was drowned from the Portland Packet July 12, 1807: aged 62 years.

Similarly we have Mary Stonehouse, who was drowned off Cape Elizabeth in 1807. She, her daughter, and grandson were among the 16 who died when a packet ship heading home from Boston fell short. Only seven bodies were recovered; the rest were lost at sea. The three generations are memorialized on two stones placed side by side at Eastern Cemetery.⁹ Mrs. Stonehouse’s inscription reads in part, “She was drowned from the Portland Packet, July 12, 1807, aged 62 years.” That alone does not tell if she was lost at sea or washed ashore. But the first three lines of her unusually long epitaph confirm what happened:

From the cold bosom of the wave,
Where others found a watr’y grave
This lifeless corpse was bourne!

So she (along with her daughter and grandson) was recovered and buried at Eastern.

Contrast the Cox and Stonehouse gravemarkers with the cenotaph for three sons of Daniel and Nabby Cobb at plot D - 129 (Figure 20). John died at sea in 1805 (age 21), William died at St. Bartholomews in 1810 (age 21), and Smith W. was lost at sea in 1815 (age 22). The epitaph on this stone reads:

Far distant from their native land They perished in the yawning deep Without a friend to stretch the hand And none their early fate to weep.

Likewise, Daniel Moody’s cenotaph, found at plot G - 10, confirms he was not buried at Eastern Cemetery. His inscription states that he died at Havana in 1821 at the age of 21. The epitaph then reads:

No friendly hand could rescue or could save The much lov’d victim from a distant grave.

Cenotaphs within the Cemetery

We tend to think of empty graves decorated with cenotaphs as being for people buried far away, but we might apply the concept to intra-cemetery moves as well. I mentioned Thomas Hilton, first husband of Rachel Shaw, above as likely being buried somewhere at Eastern Cemetery, just not with his wife. Additionally, three of Bartlett Adams’ children, two sisters in the Owens family, a girl named Cornelia Rogers, and another girl named Abigail Babcock all have two burial listings at Eastern Cemetery. Each was assigned a plot (and stones are found on them) but they also are listed on tomb rosters.

I believe that when these children died, they were buried in the older section of the cemetery in their own graves (and with stones). Later, their families purchased family tombs in the newer section and they had their kids’ names inscribed on the larger tomb monuments (thus the “burial” record), even if they didn’t move the remains into the tombs. Though I left these kids off the intentional cenotaphs roster, I mention them here for further consideration.

3 Honorable Mention Cenotaphs

The most grand cenotaph at the cemetery is for Alonzo Stinson, who died—and was laid to rest—at Bull Run, Virginia. He was the first Portlander to fall in the Civil War.¹⁰ The monument was erected 50+ years later to great fanfare in the front corner of the cemetery where Congress and Mountfort Streets meet. In this image of the monument’s unveiling celebration in 1908, the Stinson monument can be seen center left.

Figure 25. 1908 Celebration in Eastern Cemetery

It is an impressive monument in its own right and a wonderful memorial to Stinson. But its placement came only after the remains of the African Americans originally laid to rest in that patch were removed and put in a mass grave nearby to make room for it.

Figure 26. Gravestone for Caleb Libby

Of the 85 intentional cenotaphs at Eastern Cemetery, 84 are for males. Sarah Libby is the only female to be so memorialized. She lost her husband, Caleb Libby in 1837 and then headed to the midwest. A marker was put on his grave in Section A, Row 8, Grave 10. She died in La Salle, Illinois in 1854 at the age of 60. Back home in Portland, her family had her name inscribed on Caleb’s stone, for it reads “His widow died in La Salle, Ill. Aug. 18, 1854.” Sarah was buried at the Oakwood Cemetery in La Salle and has a marker there on her grave, so her memorial at Eastern Cemetery, a secondary cenotaph, is quite unique.

Figure 27. Monument for Bill Jordan (Photo by Dave Smith)

And finally, we end where I began, talking about Bill Jordan, a historian of the cemetery and author of two of the primary sources used for this research. Tomb 80 was in his family’s possession for many years, having changed hands from the Mussey family around 1870. It was Bill’s stated desire to become the last person buried at Eastern Cemetery, but upon his death in 2015 his family had his remains interred at Forest City in South Portland. They installed a white marble bench on the Eastern Cemetery tomb, to encourage visitors to sit and appreciate the history and beauty that the cemetery offers. The bench was installed in 2016 and is inscribed with Bill’s dates of birth and death as well as “In honor of...” an “Educator, Antiquarian, Bibliophile, Historian.” Though not of a typical gravemarker shape, it serves well as a modern-day cenotaph.

Final Thoughts

While the roster of cenotaphs is solid, I suspect there are more at Eastern Cemetery that have yet to surface, particularly among the 700 records of removals and the 225 records of veterans. The Spirits Alive conservation crew continues to unearth stones that have been subsumed by the sod over many years. And as more records appear for burials at other cemeteries, our list of unintentional cenotaphs should grow.

I thank Larry Glatz for setting me on this journey. He, Herb Adams, and Janet Joyce helped me sort out the list of men who died in the wreck of the Dash. I thank Penelope Hamblin for reviewing the veterans roster, and those named below for posting photos on the Find A Grave website I used in this paper. Martha Zimicki and Holly Doggett are owed a big thank you for the fine work they and their teams have done on the Spirits Alive transcription project. That work continues.

Appendix A - Cenotaphs Plot Map

Figure 28

Appendix B - Transcription Form (2 pages)

Figure 29

Figure 30

Table A - Intentional Cenotaphs

Notes: Intentional Cenotaphs

Table B - Unintentional Cenotaphs

Notes: Unintentional Cenotaphs

Appendix C - The Only Survivor of the Wreck

This paper is about the empty graves at Eastern Cemetery. The predominance of those who died at sea means that details about their deaths are often sparse. One notable exception is the case of John Sheafe. But I came across another shipwreck—of the barque Lloyd in 1839—that was well documented and such a compelling story, I wanted to share it as an appendix to the paper. Eastern Cemetery has true gravemarkers for three men lost from the Lloyd: Captain Daniel Mountfort, mate Frederick Huntress, and cook Henry Peck.

Figure C1. The only survivor of the wreck illustration

The Lloyd was one of 90 vessels lost off the coast of Massachusetts during a horrific season of hurricanes that battered the US northeast coast in December of 1839. The only survivor of the wreck was crewman George Stott, who told his story to the Massachusetts newspaper Hingham Patriot about a week after being rescued.

Figure C2

Figure C3

Figure C4

Figure C5

Text from Figures C2 – 5

Distressing Shipwrecks.
We have had a conversation with George Stott, the only survivor of the crew of the barque Lloyd, Mountfort, master, wrecked on Nantasket Beach on Monday, and from him have obtained some additional particulars and corrections of the brief notice which we published in a slip contained under our Marine head. We obtained from him the names of the crew as follows: Daniel Mountfort of Portland, master; Frederick C. Huntress of Maine, mate; George Stott of Baltimore, a native of Liverpool, Eng.; John Hindmarch, alias William Leslie of Berwick upon Tweed, Eng.; William Birch a native of Portsmouth, Eng.; Joseph Scott of Portland, a native of Yarmouth, Eng.; Benj. Knights of Portland a native of England; John Stevens a Frenchman from St. Maloes; Henry Peck (colored) of Portland, cook. These were all on board when the barque was wrecked. It is probable that the places of residence may not be correct, as some of the crew had no home but on the ocean. The roll of equipage, published in the Boston Daily Advertiser, contains the names of some not mentioned above. The Lloyd sailed from Havana 9th ult. with a cargo, as appears by the manifest published in the Daily Advertiser, of 550 hhds. molasses, 160 boxes (80 m.) cigars, 5 logs mahogany, 11 bags coffee, 4 casks pumpkins, a quantity of oranges consigned to Greely & Guild, 10 pipes aguadiente, 40 casks of wine, 56 jars olive oil, 5 bags anniseed, 1 box sugar to muster. They made Cape Cod Light on Sunday last at 8 P.M. At 10 hove too under close reefed main topsail, laid with her bed to the North till Monday 4 A.M.—then set reefed foresail afterwards set close reefed foretop-sail and fore-top mast staysail and run till they made Cohasset Rocks, then run a W.NW. course,—Stott and Stevens being on the look out on the main yard. They soon discovered the schr. Charlotte (ashore on the beach) and called to the captain that she was on hermaphrodite brig under way—soon after discovered and made known their mistake, but thought she was at anchor immediately saw breakers—when they attempted to luff, but not succeeding, put the helm up and run ashore at 15 minutes before 11 o'clock A. M. She struck 150 fathoms from the beach, bilged instantly, and the sea made a complete breach over her. Stevens soon proposed to swim ashore. The captain advised him not to do so, but he persisted and was drowned. All those remaining except the captain and Knights then took the long boat which was floating over the lee rail—but she filled and capsized almost as soon as she cleared from the barque, and five of the six persons on board perished. Stott seized the only oar they had in the boat and by its aid was buoyed up till he was reached in the surf by a boat-hook by which he was pulled on to the beach, much exhausted, by persons on shore.
The Captain, according to Stott's account had placed himself on the windward side of the companion-way and there held on till he was driven from his hold by the sea into the mizzen rigging to leeward—he called for a rope's end, and Stott, who was standing by the main-brace, passed the end of it to him, with which he again pulled himself up to the weather side of the companion way, which was the last he saw of him. It was near this place that he was found lying on the deck, life being extinct as is believed. It is probable that he was injured by severe bruises as there were marks of them upon his head. Knights was washed overboard from the rigging. Capt. M. was taken off by four men in the Charlotte's boat in a very heavy sea, after two unsuccessful attempts had been previously made. We saw him but a short time after he was brought on shore, in one of the huts of the Humane Society, where every effort was made to restore life—but in vain. His body was soon after removed to the village of Hull. We were on the beach about 3 o'clock and the barque was then a complete wreck—her fore and mainmasts gone, her bottom broken up and scattered with the wrecks of the cargo along the shore.
On Wednesday the bodies of the mate and Leslie were found in the surf and have been buried in the burial ground at Hull. Another body came ashore on Thursday which was supposed to be that of Stevens, the Frenchman. The Captain and Mate, we learn, have each left families—the former a wife and three daughters in Portland. He was about 45 years of age, and was highly respected. He had been successful in former voyages and it was said this was to be his last voyage. It has proved to be a melancholy truth.

Figure C6

Text from Figure C6

BARK LLOYD.—Four of the bodies of the crew of this unfortunate vessel came ashore on Hull beach on Sunday. They were identified by Stott, the survivor, as those of Wm. Birch, Joseph Scott, Benjamin Knights and Henry Peck. Those of the captain, mate and two others had previously been saved. Those with Stott, composed the whole crew.—Hingham Patriot.

Figure C7. Gravestone for Henry Peck

The ship’s cook, Henry Peck, was 29 when he died. His small slate gravemarker shown here is found among the other African American markers in Section A, (Row 10, Grave 33) close to Congress Street and three rows away from the monument for Alonzo Stinson. Henry does not appear in the Portland city directories of the 1830s, but there is a vital record of his marriage in Portland in June of 1836 to Janette C.P. Barnett. No children are known for this couple, and no further records are found for Janette Peck after Henry’s death.

Figure C8. Gravestone for Frederick Huntress

The ship’s mate was 34-year-old Frederick Huntress. His grave is in Section A, Row 1, Grave 4. His inscription confirms he was “lost from Barque Loyd, Dec. 23, 1839.”

And his epitaph further confirms his burial at Eastern, for it reads:

The mariner's voyage of life is o'er.
He sleeps beneath the sod;
The storm, that bore his corpse on shore,
His spirits home to God!

The newspaper accounting of the wreck noted that Frederick had left a family behind. There is a vital record of marriage for him in Portland in 1834 to Abigail Curtis. They had at least one child, a son Charles Fred Huntress, born 1835. Charles appears as a 15-year-old sailor living in the home of his stepfather Solomon True in the 1850 census. Abigail married Solomon in 1842 and had at least three children with him.

Frederick appeared in the Portland city directories of the 1830s as a mariner. In the 1841 directory there was a listing for an unnamed widow Huntress, surely this was Abigail shortly before she remarried.

Figure C9

Text from Figure C9

DIED. The remains of the late Capt. Daniel Mountfort has been brought to this city for interment. His funeral will take place from his residence, Congress Street, on Wednesday next, at 3 o'clock pm. Relations and friends are requested to attend. Capt. M. was 45 years of age, and not 55, as has been erroneously reported in the papers.

The captain was Daniel Mountfort Jr., born 1794. He was the brother of John Mountfort, who is covered in this paper as one of the young men who died in the wreck of the Dash in 1815. The brothers’ names are inscribed on their mother’s marker at Eastern Cemetery in Section D, but they’re not buried there with her. John was lost at sea, while Daniel and his wife Mary were buried in Section A (Tomb 35). The pedestal monument on that tomb bears their names.

A Portland newspaper (right) reported on December 30—one week after the wreck—that Daniel’s body had been recovered and returned to Portland for burial.

The Hingham newspaper accounting of the wreck of the ship mentioned that Capt. Mountfort had left behind a wife and three daughters. In fact, three daughters were known for Daniel and Mary at the time of his death: Mary Caroline (age 16); Frances Elizabeth (age 13); and Anna Barnard (age 11). They would all reach adulthood, be married, and live long lives.

And what became of the only survivor of the wreck George Stott? We know from the newspapers that he was from Liverpool, England, and living in Baltimore at the time of the calamity at sea. But that’s it. He had his “15 minutes of fame” as the eyewitness to the wreck in December of 1839; wherever he went and whatever he did from there has not been discovered.

References