Thursday, April 16, 2009

Ebenezer PERKINS

This is a partial piece of a footstone which reads E.P. 1823 which rests in a lovely circle (created by a Boy Scout) at the Trinity Churchyard in Bridgewater, MA. When I saw this, I knew that it was orphaned and placed lovingly apart from the headstones.

It must be the footstone for Ebenezer PERKINS (1752-1823) but when I looked at the map of the cemetery, I knew that something was amiss! The headstones of Ebenezer and his wife Mary PRATT were missing. I walked all around the cemetery and didn't find them.

I emailed a Perkins family member who said, "Yes, they were moved to Mt. Prospect Cemetery!" It seems that the grandson of Ebenezer and Mary, had a wife who was unhappy with the Episcopal Church and decided to move the headstones to Mt. Prospect Cemetery.

Anyone looking for these gravestones would be mystified as to where they went, wouldn't they? It doesn't seem to be recorded anywhere. So, today, that family member and I went in search of the headstones of Ebenezer and Mary.

Now, the question remains...did they move the bodies as well as the headstones? We still don't know.

1 comment:

Eben said...

I'm betting the bodies were moved. Ebenezer Perkins's granddaughter-in-law (Amelia Bartlett Perkins) had the financial resources and she didn't do anything halfway.

The lot card (I was instructed by the records keeper) suggests strongly the bodies are at Mount Prospect not at Trinity as originally interred.