Part 2: Visited Old Fields Burying Ground - Some Local Famous People

 In Part 2 of our visit to the Old Fields Burying Ground in South Berwick, Maine, you'll meet some of the famous local people who were interred there. One weekend last month, our friend Jeff (and our dogs and his dog) accompanied us.  On a side note, although it's Halloween season, it's important to know that cemeteries aren't usually haunted (unless someone loved hanging out in one when they were alive, and chose to stay there). Thanks to the Old Berwick Org website, I'm able to give you some history.   

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ONE OF THE FAMOUS INTERRED THERE -  Hon. Benjamin Greene, (1764-1837). A Harvard graduate of 1784, he came here as preceptor (headmaster) of Berwick Academy, then settled in the community. While Maine was still part of Massachusetts, he served as representative to General Court in Boston from 1809 to 1811 and 1813 to 1817, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas from 1811 to 1822, and Speaker of House in 1824.

Greene is remembered in Maine for helping to draft our constitution in 1819, just before Maine became a state. Greene also served as the fifth U.S. Marshal for the District of Maine. He was appointed by President James Monroe in 1824, was reappointed in 1828 and held his position until 1830.

(Photo: While waiting in the truck, Cody was doing his best impersonation of a ghost.)   

(Photo: This display shows some of the headstones of South Berwick and Berwick's most famous people buried in the Old Fields Burying Ground.) 

(Photo: Myrtle was wondering when her dad, Jeff and uncles were going to stop looking at "rocks" and come back to the truck)

ABOUT

 GENERAL JOSEPH HAYES - 1835-1912) – 

A Civil War brevet major general, one of only about 500 who served the Union as general officers. Born in the Hayes House on Academy Street, he attended Berwick Academy and Harvard, then worked as an engineer building railroads out West.

Entering the war at 25, he fought with distinction in the major eastern campaigns, including Gettysburg and the Wilderness, where he suffered a head wound. 

   Captured at Petersburg, he was held in Richmond’s notorious Libby prison

and other military institutions for seven months. 

 (Photo: A tombstone with an inscribed "angel" at the top for a woman named Mary Hill who passed in 1785.) 

As Brevet Major General, Commanding, Advance Brigade, Army of the Potomac, he served through the Appomattox Courthouse surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865. His portrait today hangs in Harvard’s Memorial Hall.