Truro Congregational Cemetery, Truro, Massachusetts
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Location: Truro, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States
Surnames/tags: Cemeteries Barnstable, Massachusetts
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| Truro Congregational Cemetery, Truro, Massachusetts |
CEMETERY NAME: Truro Congregational Cemetery, also known as Congregational Cemetery, First Congregational Church Cemetery
ADDRESS: 3 1st Parish Lane, Truro, Massachusetts 02666
GPS COORDINATES: 41.99920, -70.04781
Truro Congregational Cemetery was laid out north and east of the First Congregational Parish Church. While the church was built in 1827, the earliest recorded burial was in 1812, that of Delia Payne. Situated on Bridge Road, the old section of the cemetery includes about 0.85 acres; the cemetery has been expanded downslope to the west in 1982 so that it incorporates a total of 2.29 acres. A significant feature, still extant, is the receiving tomb, found at the south edge of the cemetery in close proximity to the church.
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| Receiving Tomb |
The Congregational Cemetery which surrounds the Meeting House does feel like the old religious graveyard that it is. Stones nearest the building are arranged in pew like rows where original pew holders Knowles, Atkins, and Davis, among others, rest while the newer section marks the passing of more recent stewards of the Parish like Dr. Charles Davidson and Robert Bostock. Town Clerk John B. Dyer and his son selectman and civil engineer John R. Dyer Sr. have markers on the edge of the yard. John R. oversaw the 1955 renovation of the church and together with his father and son, the lawyer and selectman John R. Jr. (Snow Cemetery), enabled an unbroken tradition of “John Dyers” to be Clerk of the Parish from 1914 to 1995.
Thoreau noted the devastation to Truro caused by the 1841 widow maker gale when 57 men and boys of the town perished in 7 fishing boats. The fenced obelisk on the Congregational Cemetery’s eastern edge that marks their passing joins many graves of mariners lost at sea in both yards.
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| 1841 Gale Monument, Looking Northeast |
Another smaller obelisk in the Hopkins family plot describes the Civil War service and death of John L.D. Hopkins in a Confederate prison camp. Nearby is the grave of artist and Truro Historical Society founder Courtney Allen.
606 Memorials | Date Range: 1810-
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