From the 1984 Hartland Village Cemetery directory by H. Atwood, beginning on page 65 of the manuscript. Page references are to this document, which can be viewed at the Hartland Historical Society library.
There are at least fourteen people whose death date on their gravestone occurred before the Hartland Village Cemetery was established — after 24 February 1834, that is. See deed on page 67 and others that follow.
Some of these person's names and dates were placed on large family monuments by their descendants. Some have brought their ancestor's original gravestones from older cemeteries in town to this new cemetery. The remains of some people were re-buried in the Hartland Village Cemetery, others were not.
Charles E. Colston lot, page 28: Sukey, wife of Charles E. Colston, died Dec. 20, 1828, aged 44, also her daughter Manerva, aged 2 years. Josiah Brown, died March 7, 1827, aged 25. His widow, Lucy Bagley, later married Charles E. Colston. Lucina C., daughter of Josiah and Lucy Brown, died April 1, 1828, aged 9 months. (The original burial place of the above persons is unknown.)
W. S. Crooker lot, page 12: Barker Crooker, died Dec. 30, 1825, aged [blank] Barker Crooker, his wife Deborah, William S. Crooker's wife, Paulina (Paul) Crooker and their daughter Eliza were originally buried in the Center of Town cemetery. See note on page 12.
Benjamin F. Gates lot, page 43: Catherine L. Gates 1832-1833 John Nelson Gates, M.D. died August. 12, 1827, aged 27. Elizabeth, daughter of Zelotes & Margaret Gates, died Aug. 12, 1822, aged 21. Zelotes Gates, died March 19, 1823, aged 67. The Gates family members were buried in a private cemetary on the Gates-- Spear homestead in the Weed district, which is still owned by descendants. Many years ago their gravestones and bodies were removed to the Hartland Village Cemetery, according to their descendant, Stanley Gates Spear. (His brother Ernest A. Spear was an undertaker in Woodstock, Vt.) The removal must have taken place before 1907 because these and other members of the Gates family are recorded as being in the Hartland Village cemetery by Byron P. Ruggles in 1907.
James Hyland lot, page 26: Children: William L. Hyland, died March 8, 1819, aged 1 year, 7 months. John B. Hyland, died Feb. 13, 1824, aged 1 year, 8 months. He has a gravestone in the Walker Cemetery, near Charlotte Gilbert's late home, and Helen T. Hyland, John's sister also has a gravestone there. She died Sept. 22, 1835, aged 3 months.
Buckley Marcy lot, page 8: Mary Hadlock Marcy, wife of Buckley Marcy, died Dec. 24, 1834, age 34. Was she one of the first burials in this new cemetery? She was buried at first in the Walker cemetery. Her gravestone is still there, badly broken and lies flat on the ground. Its record is barely legible. [The stone was repaired and was standing as of 2011.]
George Merrill - Joseph C. Bates lot, page 27: "In Memory of Mr. Jofeph Bates, who died Augt 27th 1789 in the 68th year of his age." His former place of burial is unknown.
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James N. Willard lot, page 26: Children: Eluthera Willard, died May 13, 1823, aged 8 weeks Louisa Maria Willard, died Sept. 9, aged 1 yr, 4 months
William Short lot, page 18: Charles H. Young, died Dec. 17, 1867, aged 28 years, 19 months. Although he died some 33 years after the cemetery was established, he is included in this list because he was also buried elsewhere. At first in the Center of Town cemetery and later re-buried in the Hartland Village Cemetery. He was listed in the "Middle of Town Cemetery" on July 30, 1907, but was not listed by B. P. Ruggles in Aug. 1907 in the Hartland Village Cemetery, so his re-burial must have taken place later on. His gravestone is no longer at the Center of Town cemetery.
Removing bodies to another location or even entire cemeteries is not so unusual, but usually requires an eminent domain determination.
Not so many years ago, Dartmouth College wished to expand their campus by taking over adjacent land occupied by a very old cemetery in Hanover, N.H. The villagers overwhelmingly opposed the idea and nothing has yet been done as far as is presently known. Many of the town's earliest settlers are buried there, including Eleazer Wheelock, the founder of Dartmouth College.
One of the largest projects of this sort occurred in central Massachusetts. In the town of Were, on a side road is access to the "dam of the Quabbin Reservoir, constructed (1937) in the Swift River valley" in order to increase the water supply for the city of Boston. "The towns of Enfield, Greenwich and Prescott" (including North Dana) "were inundated" entirely. All of the bodies in a number of cemeteries had to be removed. A drive through the area (the roads still remained) revealed only cellarholes where houses had been. Almost spooky in the day time. All of the forests were lumbered off. Here is an example of where "clear cutting" is excusable and necessary. What couldn't be used for lumber was probably burned on the spot.
"The reservoir has 177 miles of shore line, surrounding 39 square miles, with a maximum depth of 150 feet and a storage capacity of 415 billion gallons. The water will flow by gravity into Wachusetts Reservoir through Quabbin aqueduct, a 24.6 mile tunnel through solid rock."
About a mile away from the reservoir is "the Quabin Park Cemetery established by the commonwealth for the bodies disinterred when the Quabbin Reservoir was build."
There probably wasn't much to remove of bodies buried as long as 200 years at the most. About the best they could do with the oldest graves was to take some of the earth at the level where the body was supposed to be and put it in a new coffin.
The references enclosed by quotation marks are from the Massachusetts Guide (1937), page 526.
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Vermont Journal April 26, 1884, Hartland News by Gilbert Thayer:
The remains of deceased members of the C.H. Rodgers family, two in number, were removed from the old Weed burying ground to a recently purchased lot in Hartland Village Cemetery. (Gravestones not noted in either Weed or the Village cemetery. The Rodgers lot is recorded on page 3.)
Vermont Journal, April 26, 1884, Hartland News:
The remains of deceased members of the Weed family, four in number, were removed on Tuesday from the old Weed burying ground to a recently purchased lot in Hartland Village Cemetery.
See page 17:
Of twelve persons buried in the Weed family lot in Hartland Village Cemetery, Miss Abbie Green Weed (1849-1884), who died February 10th, may have been the first member of her family to be buried there. Seven others died after 1884. The four remaining were Abigail (Green) Weed (1788-1878); Asa Weed (1821-1862); Asa Weed (1792-1847); Eva Nannie (1860-1864); and Nathaniel Weed (1821-1862). They were the ones bought down from the Weed cemetery to be re-buried in the Hartland Village Cemetery. Only about six persons surnamed Weed have gravestones in the Weed cemetery, viz:
Nathaniel Weed (1742-1818); Rhoda Weed (1747-1816); Miss Lois Weed (1778-1803); Mr. Jacob Weed (1771-1820); Moses Weed (1782-1840); Jacob C. Weed (1820-1824). No gravestone was found for Catherine, wife of Moses Weed, nor was there one recorded by Mr. Ruggles in August 1907.
Jerry Green Hadley was buried in the Elisha Gallup cemetery on Weed Hill in 1864 and his gravestone was recorded there August 3rd 1907 by Byron P. Ruggles. After his wife Hannah A. Gallup died Nov. 22, 1907, Jerry's body was brought down to the Hartland Village cemetery and other members of his family who died after 1907 are buried there. See pages 45 & 46 of the Hartland Village Cemetery record.
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