Subterranean Celebrity: John Austin
The Eastern Cemetery in Portland, Maine holds the memories of around 7,000 persons. Some of them are known; some are not. As we uncover stories of their lives, we share them through our e-newsletter. Sometimes the tidbits are not of life, but only of the artifact that remains. These are our subterranean celebrities.
Sandstone grave marker for John Austin. Photo courtesy of Ron Romano
The gravestone for Mr. John Austin is in great peril. It’s one of the few remaining markers at Eastern Cemetery made of sandstone, which over time crumbles and fails. John died at age 31 in 1802, and his stone was carved in the Bartlett Adams shop. The design is an urn with a unique 4-petal flower bud and the epitaph on his marker is fitting for this young man:
In memory of
Mr. John Austin
who died
July 18, 1802
AEt. 31
Sudden was his flight
& short the road
He clos’d his eyes
& saw his God
His stone can be found in section J, plot 44. With luck, it will survive for a while longer.…
This information was first published in the April 2024 issue of Spirits Alive eNews. It will be updated here as more information is available, but my contain information that is not quite right or needs to be corrected. Text may have been edited to make sense for this page as opposed to the eNews issue it had been a part of.
Last update: September 2026