Located in Biddeford, Maine
Today, on the Pool Road by the University of New England parking lot, is the second marker placed by the Rebecca Emery Chapter NSDAR. In 1904, the chapter erected a marker on a boulder in the first city cemetery. It also marks the First Congregational Church (1718-1830).
The marker set in the large boulder reads:
“TOWN BURYING GROUND
1719 — 1830
A MEETING HOUSE
30 FEET X 35 FEET WAS BUILT BY THE TOWN ON THIS LOT FORMERLY CALLED
HENDERSONS HILL ABOUT 150 FEET EASTERLY FROM THIS POINT.
1719
THIS MEMORIAL PLACED HERE BY REBECCA EMERY CHAPTER,
DAUTHERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
1904”
There is quite a story connected with the Old Burying Ground. It was a private lot belonging to Benjamin Haley until, in 1719 he exchanged it for a “thatch bed.” Years passed and the city forgot that the Old Burying Ground was theirs. A road was cut through one corner, the fence of the remaining portion was torn down, and the graves desecrated. Children were using the human bones as clubs in their play and one nearby resident was using a broken gravestone as a doorstep. Under the chapter’s influence, the city proved its ownership, fenced the land, and turned it over to Rebecca Emery Chapter NSDAR for good keeping. As of 2012, there were about eight stones left standing, five intact and three broken.
