We took a walk through Mt. Pleasant Cemetery on a recent damp morning to see if we could fulfill any Find-A-Grave requests for Mt. Pleasant. Although we were not able to find any of those requested gravestones, we did notice some interesting things about this local cemetery.
Find-A-Grave provides a wonderful map (a very rare occurrence and a HUGE bonus) drawn by Matt Hautala in 1995; revised and expanded by Peter Tysver in 2008 and added to Find-A-Grave by Mark G. Spencer in 2015. Huge shout out of thanks to these guys! This kind of tool is invaluable to researchers.
Find-A-Grave states there are two famous interments: John F. Bickford Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor recipient 1843-1927 (he must have been a VERY young Civil War soldier) and Jessie Ralph, actress 1864-1944, but I think the most interesting one I located was the Amos Story family. The land upon which the cemetery is located belonged to him and his family has a long history of service to our country. Jesse Story was killed at Bunker Hill and Joseph Story died during the Civil War.
The cemetery was built Victorian style, also known as park style and you can see this in how the pathways are designed almost like sidewalks or park trails.
It was a dreary day and the ground was wet, but I found this cemetery to be peaceful and interesting in its variety of gravestone types. In fact, I do have at least one member of my family line buried here and it’s good to know he is well taken care of. We could hear children’s voices from a nearby playground but it was otherwise quiet. We did get a visitor though! After the hawk stopped by to watch us, I knew there must be a message being shared. A little bit of research indicates that hawks forebode enlightenment and that we should be ready to receive a message. Shiver…… I should have taken note, but I think this might even be the Amos Story monument. So I am expecting a message from the past. I will keep you posted.
Good Morning Gloucester 