Pine Grove Cemetery Walking Tour
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Pine Grove Cemetery Walking Tour A walking tour of the final resting place of many prominent members of the Brunswick Community. Brief History: With the utilization of all plots in the Brunswick burying ground adjacent to the meeting house on upper Maine Street, three citizens contracted with Bowdoin College to acquire land for a new site. In 1821 a tract was obtained and subsequently—in 1886 and 1973—two adjoining parcels were purchased and developed. As a condition of each sale, Bowdoin College was deeded a row of plots to allocate as they wished. Traditionally, they were assigned to individuals and families who had given distinguished service to the College. The remaining plots were made available to local citizens and a walk of the grounds will find numerous prominent Brunswick names, some of which may be found within these pages. The accompanying map on the back of this booklet provides a guide to specific grave sites. For more information about those buried at Pine Grove Cemetery, we suggest the survey prepared by Cheetham & Cheetham, available at Brunswick’s Curtis Memorial Library, Bowdoin Col- lege Library, and the Pejepscot Historical Society. Portions of this survey are also available online. Walking Directions: From the Visitors Center/Maine Street Station proceed to Maine Street and turn right up the hill, towards First Parish Church at the intersection of Maine Street & Bath Road. Turn left onto Bath Road, walking between the Church and the Bowdoin College Campus and through the traffic light at Federal Street. Approximately one hundred yards ahead on your right is the Cemetery. Driving Directions & Parking: Follow the same route as walking directions above. Limited parking is availa- ble within and along side the Bath Road outside Pine Grove Cemetery. 1 & 2. Joseph McKeen (1757-1807) - A 6. William Smyth (1797-1868) Congregational minister from New Hampshire, - A Bowdoin grad and professor, McKeen served as Bowdoin College’s 1st president. Smyt h is credited w it h When he was installed in 1802, there were only 8 introducing the blackboard to the students and 1 professor. A strict disciplinarian, college. He was also the father of McKeen punished students for everything from the Brunswick public school sys- lighting bonfires, playing cards, stealing & butcher- tem, an ardent anti-slavery advo- ing geese, using firearms, and riding a horse on a cate, temperance supporter, and Sunday—he even reprimanded future governor Rob- worked feverishly to have both ert P. Dunlap for skipping chapel. Upon his death, the First Parish Church and Bowdoin helped pay for his funeral & tombstone, Bowdoin’s Memorial Hall built. which is entirely in Latin. Though he was an excellent fundraiser, Smyth was 3. Rev. Jesse Appleton (1772-1819) - Like his also reportedly an extremely difficult person to work predecessor, Appleton was an accomplished with, and would often get into heated debates with the architects of both buildings. Congregational minister. He & his wife Elizabeth were both born in New Hampshire, but moved to 7. William DeWitt Hyde (1858-1917) - Named Brunswick when Jesse accepted the position as Bowdoin’s 7th president at the age of 26, “the boy Bowdoin College’s 2nd president in 1807. Jesse president” is the youngest to hold the office. His reportedly worked himself to death at Bowdoin, tenure at the college and the great improvements he dying at the age of 46. His last words were: “God has made to it—notably, modernizing the curriculum— taken care of the college, and God will take care of were cut short when he died due to a nervous condi- the college.” Jesse & Elizabeth’s daughter Jane tion at the age of 49. would marry future president Franklin Pierce in 8. Parker Cleaveland (1780-1858) - A Bowdoin 1834 and served as a First Lady from 1853 to 1857. professor & mineralogist with his own mineral 4. Alpheus Spring Packard named after him, he wrote the first American (1798-1884) - A graduate of textbook on the subject and was crowned “the Bowdoin, Packard worked for his Father of American Mineralogy.” Yet he was a very alma mater for 64 years—possibly cautious man, desperately afraid of lightening, mod- the longest of any college professor ern forms of transportation like trains and stage- in America. His students included coaches, and even crossing bridges until he had future president (& later his brother- thoroughly inspected them. Henry Wadsworth in-law) Franklin Pierce, Joshua L. Longfellow, one of his former students, wrote a Chamberlain, and poet Henry H.W. touching poem in tribute to the deceased professor Lo ngf ello w — w ho ment io ned & father of the Brunswick Fire Department. Packard in the poem “Morituri 9. Thomas & Phebe Upham— Phebe Lord(1804 Salutamus.” Packard was also in- -1882) & Thomas (1799-1867) Upham were 2 of volved in the anti-slavery & temperance movements, Brunswick’s most prominent citizens. Phebe was a as well as the Maine Historical Society, First Parish passionate women’s rights and along with her hus- Church and the local fire prevention group. band, anti-slavery supporter. Both were friends with 5. Joshua L. Chamberlain (1828-1914) - Harriet Beecher Stowe and her husband Calvin, who Chamberlain was a Bowdoin College student, pro- like Thomas was a Bowdoin professor. Thomas fessor and president during his lifetime, but his became a renowned philosophy writer and leader in most famous accomplishment was as a Civil War the Holiness Movement. Together, the couple raised hero defending Little Round Top during the battle 6 adopted children. of Gettysburg. Chamberlain became a 2-star gen- 10. Thomas H. Riley (1857-1937) - Coming to eral due to his bravery & leadership during the war, Brunswick to attend Bowdoin College, Riley made and would return home to serve as governor from the town his permanent home and served as both 1867-1870. Chamberlain has two gravestones—the president & director of the public library white footstone recognizes him as a recipient of the association. He was president of the Brunswick Medal of Honor. The medal, now on display at the Savings Institution, but most famously worked at Bowdoin College Library, was actually mailed to his father-in-law’s insurance company on Maine Chamberlain in 1893—30 years after the battle at Street, which now bears his name. Little Round Top for which he earned it. 11. The Dennisons—Col. Andrew (1786-1869) & 16. Narcissa Stone (1801-1877) - Stone, an his daughter Matilda (1828-1902) worked together accomplished businesswoman, managed not only to to found the first paper box company in the country. increase the fortune her father left her, but also raise Along with the rest of their family, they began mak- all 9 of her younger siblings when they became ing paper boxes for their brother in Boston in their orphans. Stone donated to several of the town’s Everett St. home. Matilda later oversaw production churches. She never married and was worth over $1 in the Maine St. factory until the company moved to million in today’s money when she died. Massachusetts. Today, the company has merged 17. Kate Furbish with another to become Avery-Dennison, one of the (1834-1931) - Always a largest office supply companies in the world. fan of wildflowers, 12. John C. Humphreys (1798-1865) - An Furbish developed a entrepreneur who held a variety of jobs, including scientific interest in part ownership of mustard, wool, cotton, matchstick flowers and became a factories and an insurance company, Humphreys prominent American never seemed satisfied. He was appointed Bath’s botanist who created port collector in 1845, when the city was the 5th beautiful paintings of largest port on the east coast. Humphreys also ran a her subjects. The wild steam lumber mill and boat yard on the snapdragon was named the Furbish Lousewort in Androscoggin River and was a devoted member of her honor. When the flower, believed to be extinct, the Masons. was rediscovered in the St. John River Valley in 13. Theodore McLellan (1811-1904) - At the time 1976 it prevented the building of a dam which would of his death at age 93, McLellan was the oldest have flooded the region. When Furbish died in 1931 printer in the state. Having once worked in Cal- at the age of 97, she was the oldest resident of Brunswick. ifornia gold mines, McLellan returned to his home state, where he had befriended Nathaniel Haw- 18. Benjamin Greene (1818-1904) - Agent of thorne & Franklin Pierce, and was the first publish- Cabot Mill for 35 years, Greene is perhaps best er of Longfellow’s “Outre Mer, or Tales of the Sea.” known for the house he built at the corner of Maine 14. Phebe Jacobs (1785-1850) - Born a slave on a & Cumberland Streets. Called “the finest house in New Jersey plantation, Jacobs came to Brunswick Brunswick”, it was purchased after his death in 1904 as servant to the wife of Bowdoin College president by the Bowdoin fraternity Delta Sigma. The fraterni- William Allen. Freed in 1839, Jacobs devoted herself ty decided to move it closer to the college at the top to Christ and attended the First Parish Church. Her of the hill and so in 1905 the entire building began piety inspired Phebe Upham to write a booklet its trip up Maine Street, only to be stopped by 2 about her. Jacobs’ funeral packed the church, and trains parked on the tracks. The train company was one of her pallbearers was former governor Robert worried the weight of P. Dunlap. the house would damage the tracks, 15. Robert Pinckney Dunlap (1794-1859) - Dun- but after negotiations lap, a native Brunswicker, was a lawyer & Maine the trains were politician.