Strafford Cemetery Assoc. Mtg. Feb. 20

The Strafford Cemetery Association will hold its annual meeting next Mon­day, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. in the upstairs room at the town clerk’s office. New members are welcome and wanted.

The Strafford Cemetery, located on the hill behind the Strafford Town House, is the only cemetery in Straf­ford that is still selling plots. It first became a burying ground when Caro­line Morrill died at age 15 in 1822. At that time, there was fear of grave rob­bing and the Morrills put her grave on the hill behind their house. It is said that a light was kept burning in a back window of the house to discourage grave robbers.

Caroline Morrill’s brother, Senator Justin Morrill, is buried in a granite mausoleum in this cemetery and it is the resting place for another Civil War- era congressman, Portus Baxter, whose son, Jedidiah Hyde Baxter, served as a medical officer in the Civil War and lat­er became physician to presidents and the surgeon general. While he is buried in Arlington Cemetery in Washington D.C., he left a large bequest for the up­keep of the Baxter and Harris plot in Strafford.

On a walk through the hillside cem­etery, one will find the names of many old Strafford families, as well as others like the Rev. William Sloan Coffin, who made Strafford his final home.