North Cemetery (Worthington, Massachusetts)

Description and history

North Cemetery is located about 1 mi north of the Worthington Corners, the town's main village center, on the north side of Cold Street just west of North Street. About 2.5 acre have been formally laid out in a roughly rectangular shape. Three of the cemetery's four sides are lined with stone walls, setting it off from the surrounding woods and fields. Access is through three breaks in the wall, two of which provide vehicular access. The eastern two breaks are marked by granite posts about four feet high that bear evidence of having had gates mounted on them. In the southeaster corner of the cemetery is the remnant of a storage vault, which was used until the 1950s to hold caskets when winter conditions made interment impossible. The cemetery has over 700 markers, mostly of granite or marble. The most prominent grave is that of the Horace Cole family, which features a zinc obelisk erected in 1877. A number of the grave markers are made out of Goshen granite, quarried in neighboring Goshen. A small number of the grave markers bear marks of regionally known stone carvers.

The cemetery's date of establishment is uncertain; its earliest grave marker dates to 1790. A number of the town's founders and early leading citizens are buried there. Graves are laid out generally with older burials in the lower (eastern) end, proceeding up the slope to the west, where 21st-century burials have been made.

References

References

1. {{NRISref. 2008a
2. "NRHP nomination for North Cemetery". Commonwealth of Massachusetts.