Joanna Brickley Gorman A lonely grave lies beneath several tall trees on an embankment on the side of North Road. Buried here is Joanna Brickley Gorman and her infant child who died one summer day in 1883, leaving behind Joanna’s husband, Richard Gorman. Joanna Brickley Wife of Richard Gorman Died…

Finding the Crocker Burial Site was difficult at first. The directions to the site are vague: It was said to be located “on an old abandoned road that is overgrown off Butlertown Road.” Butlertown Road is about two miles long of heavy woodland, so where was the old abandoned road…

Waterford established its first public accommodation for the poor with its purchase of the Walter-Moore farm at 21 Gurley Road in 1847.¹ Until the farmhouse was torn down in 2012, the structure was the oldest surviving colonial in Waterford.² The two story house was built in 1691 by Samuel Waller…

Vauxhall Street Extension Four Related Burial Sites Today the driveway is wide and paved with just a narrow shoulder for parking. After parking on the narrow shoulder, the burial stones are a short walk down a leafy path. Probably then, sunshine shone down on the tall grass in the open field. The first burials at this lonely…

A small burial ground tucked in next to a rambling old farmhouse is the only sign that this farm was once the home to the Richard Dart family over three hundred years ago. A low stonewall surrounds the small square burial site with three gravestones next to the house. A…

Margaret (Read) Lake is said to be the first European woman to set foot in “Pequot Plantation” (the settlement that became New London…

Since ancient times, smallpox had been a devastating disease that raced through whole communities, leaving most victims to an excruciating death. The colonists first encounter with the disease was in 1677, followed by another siege in 1689–1690. From time to time, other significant outbreaks occurred, and the population was never…

Two lonely gravestones stand in the corner of a large grassy field on the corner of Douglass Lane and Route 85. At one time there were at least 20 graves on the grassy site, according to the late Waterford town historian, Margaret Stacy. Most likely during the centuries farming and…

A few years ago, the Waterford town historian, Bob Nye, secured a state grant to remove several large trees that were endangering standing headstones in the Wheeler Cemetery, an abandoned burial ground located on a residential property, just off Route 32 in Quaker Hill (just a little down the road…