Category Archives: cemetery

December 30, 2018

Wreaths Across America (Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Agawam, MA)

Dates Of Visits: December 23 & 29, 2018

Location: Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 1309 Main St, Agawam, MA (4 miles southwest of Springfield, MA and 26 miles north of Hartford, CT)

Hours: The cemetery is open everyday from dawn until dusk. The annual wreath ceremony takes place the third Saturday in December. The wreaths will be at the cemeteries until Jan. 15

Parking: Visitors can park on the side of the road in the cemetery and there is a parking area on the upper level of the cemetery. There may also be limited street parking near the cemetery.

Handicapped Accessible: Yes

Highlights: 7,500 wreaths adorn the headstones of the graves at the military cemetery

Websites: Wreaths Across America

Agawam National Veterans Memorial Cemetery

Agawam Wreaths Across America

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It all started with one man and his wreaths.

In 1992, Morril Worcester, owner of Worcester Wreath Company and resident of Harrington, Maine, noticed he had a surplus of wreaths after the holiday season. Thinking back to his visit to Arlington National Cemetery when he was a young boy, Morril decided to donate his surplus of wreaths to the cemetery. With the help of then Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, Worcester sent his wreath surplus to Arlington Cemetery. Special attention was given to lay wreaths at graves that seemed to get the least amount of visitors.

Over time, this cause grew. Volunteers offered to transport the wreaths to other cemeteries from Maine to Virginia. Then, in 2005, things changed.

After a photo of the graves at Arlington adorned with wreaths and covered in snow went viral in 2005, requests to help and expand this ceremony to all of the states poured in. People offered to distribute and lay the wreaths at the cemetery, decorate the wreaths and help in many other ways.

Through the years, the cause has grown to include every veteran from every branch of the service including veterans who were prisoners of war and missing in action.

Now, Wreaths Across America conducts wreath laying ceremonies at more than 1,400 cemeteries, including Arlington National Cemetery, in all 50 U.S. states, at sea and abroad. Veterans from all wars and conflicts the U.S. has been involved in are honored with a wreath. While many, if not all, of the veterans cemeteries have wreath laying ceremonies conducted in them, they are not the only cemeteries where wreaths are laid. Public cemeteries also have wreaths laid at the graves of veterans. Wherever a veteran has been laid to rest you will find a wreath.

The goal of the Wreaths Across America group is to “remember, honor and teach” others throughout the year about the sacrifices of our veterans. One way to do this is to sponsor a wreath. The money from sponsoring a wreath is used for the wreath laying ceremony and the cost of transporting the wreaths.

One of the cemeteries where a wreath laying was conducted is the Agawam Veterans Memorial Cemetery. Over 7,500 wreaths were laid at the cemetery.

I stopped by Agawam Veterans Memorial Cemetery to view and photograph some of the wreaths that have been laid by each veterans’ grave. Agawam is one of three Veterans Memorial Cemeteries in Massachusetts. The other two are in Bourne, which is a naational memorial cemetery, and Winchendon which, like Agawam, is a state memorial cemetery.

It was bittersweet to see the care and honor given to all of the veterans’ graves at the cemetery. The wreaths will be at each of the headstones until Wreath Clean Up Day on January 15.

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I also have also posted on my secondary, companion blog, Hidden New England, which you can find here: https://hiddennewengland.com/

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11 Comments | tags: Agawam, Agawam Memorial Cemetery, Massachusetts, New England, photographs, Photography, photos, wreaths, Wreaths Across America | posted in Agawam, cemetery, Massachusetts, New England, photographs, photography, photos, Uncategorized, wreaths, Wreaths Across America

October 30, 2015

The Burying Point (Salem, MA)

By New England Nomad

Nestled behind the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, is the final resting place for some of Salem’s earlier residents; the Burying Point. Located among the bustling downtown Salem area, the Burying Point is the oldest cemetery in Salem, MA,

Tour groups and visitors from all over the country walk over sacred graves. In fact, the Burying Point is one of the most popular attractions in Salem.

The cemetery is well kept and the vast majority of the visitors are respectful of the tenants there. The one thing I find to be a little weird, besides the obvious weirdness of walking around a cemetery as though it was an “attraction”, was the “haunted house” located feet away from the cemetery. I’m generally not one to care either way, but it still felt odd hearing ghastly screams and people ordering hot apple cider while we stroll along the cemetery.

Although many headstones are difficult to read, it is worth observing that many of them show the female deceased as the “wife of…” Just another sign of the times.

While many of his relatives reside in the cemetery of the overly commercialized town of Salem, Nathaniel Hawthorne is not buried in Burying Point. Instead he rests in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.

The storied feud of Nathaniel Hawthorne and his ancestors is of legend. Just to recap, John Hathorne, a Salem magistrate, was appointed by the then Governor Sir William Phips to be a judge in the Salem Witch Trials. However, during the trials, he acted more like a prosecutor than a judge. He would often presume the guilt of an accused witch and demand they confess to witchcraft as well as pressuring accused witches to name other witches after they were inevitably found guilty or they confessed under pressure of Hathorne and his court. He became known as a “hanging judge”.

In light of his ancestors misdeeds, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Judge Hathorne’s great grandson, would change his name by adding a “w” after the “Ha” in his last name and he would distance himself farther from Judge Hathorne by penning The Scarlet Letterand speaking out against the deeds of his ancestor.

Judge William Hathorne’s grave is on the left in this photo, next to his son’s much larger gravestone. No one left anything on his gravestone.

I wanted to thank everyone who reads, likes and leaves comments on my blogs. It is appreciated. I also wanted to mention that I have begun (resumed) blogging as Mr.Wayne after a fairly long hiatus. I have always been a writer at heart and, after being inspired by so many wonderful blogs on wordpress, I have decided to resume my written blogs again, in addition to my photoblogs. Please view my most recent post What Could Have Been. Thank you.

34 Comments | tags: Burying Point, cemetery, graves, gravestones, headstones, Historical, history, John Hathorne, Massachusetts, Nathaniel Hawthorne, New England, Photography, photos, Salem | posted in Burying Point, cemetery, graves, gravestones, headdstones, historical, history, John Hathorne, massachusetts, Nathaniel Hawthorne, New England, photography, photos, Salem

October 15, 2015

Rebecca Nurse Homestead (Danvers, MA)

By New England Nomad

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, not all of the accused witches from the Salem witch hysteria came from Salem, Massachusetts. In a quaint, unassuming town once known as Salem Village (now Danvers, Massachusetts), a number of people were accused of “consorting with the devil.” One of the denizens of Danvers who was accused of such transgressions was Rebecca Nurse. The Rebecca Nurse Homestead in Danvers keeps Rebecca’s memory and the memory of all the victim’s of the hysteria alive.

The main living quarters has been renovated and maintained through the years but it still keeps the basic feel of what living in that era was like.

The early settlers planted most of their crops in their yard. The staff at the Homestead continue growing these crops such as mugwort, sage and chamomile.

Pictured below is the front of the house. The front part of the house is what we might consider “the back” because the settlers always wanted their houses to face the south.

The accommodations are what a modern day realtor might call “cozy”.

They were “spinning” before it was cool.

There is also a meeting house, shoemaker shed and wood shed that still have a very rustic feel to them.

The Homestead also keeps their grounds well maintained.

According to legend, after being hanged, Rebecca Nurse was buried in a shallow unmarked grave because people convicted of witchcraft were not considered worthy of a Christian burial. Her family dug her up and buried her at the Nurse Homestead and they erected a memorial in her honor.

George Jacobs, another victim of the witch hysteria, is also buried at the Nurse Homestead.

Rebecca’s great grandson, Francis Nurse, resided st the homestead until he joined the Massachusetts Militia during the Revolutionary War. He is know interred at the Rebecca Nurse Homestead.

There are also a number of other monuments and graves in the Nurse gravesite

There is also a variety of wildlife on the Nurse Homestead grounds. I ran into these turkeys during my visit.

And I met a bear. Well, sort of. One of the workers was dog sitting and he brought his Golden Lab, Bear with him to the homestead. Bear likes to play catch.

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New England Nomad

5 Comments | tags: cemetery, Danvers, dog, Historical, Massachusetts, New England, Photography, photos, Rebecca Nurse, Witch Trials | posted in attraction, cemetery, Danvers, dog, historical, massachusetts, New England, photography, photos, Rebecca Nurse, witch, witch trials