Many times the
only trace that a person once existed is the tombstone in the cemetery and the cemetery the only place people can go to try to connect with them physically. When North America was less densely
populated, families often had their own small burial grounds near where they
lived. In the diagram below taken from Early Burial Grounds in Egremont,
Massachusetts, the numeral 7 in the lower left corner represents where the burial ground of the Native American and German Van Gilder family once lay. According to Henry C. Warner in
the April 1901 issue of the Berkshire
Hills magazine, it was located 40 rods east of the “present Bradford
residence,” near the present Jug End Reserve.
There is no
record of who was placed to rest in the Van Gilder burial ground. Van Gilders were certainly buried there and
most likely those with other surnames who married family members, Karners and Winchells for sure.
The burial
ground no longer exists. It is noted as being in existence after 1817, with gravestones and
mounds. Mary L Fratalone and Diane
Fratalone report in Early Burial Grounds
in Egremont, Massachusetts that in 1954 at least a portion of the burial
ground was dug up and used for road fill, even though a skeleton and many
scattered bones were found. One wonders
how it was possible that a person, company or government thought it was
acceptable to dig up a family burial ground and use its contents for road fill
where it could be ground up into particles.
