A Mystery Solved: Disinterments at the Cos Cob Family Plot

For as far back as anyone alive today can remember the family burying ground at Cos Cob has posed a mystery. 

Upon ascending up into the cemetery visitors notice a small downswing off to the right side closest to the Mill Pond. Why was it there? It certainly did not appear to conform to the rest of the landscape.

I was going through my collection of 35mm slides for donation to the Greenwich Historical Society’s archives. This collection mostly consists of research I conducted on the cemeteries in Greenwich, Connecticut during the 1980s and early 1990s. I had some of these professionally scanned. 

While going through them I noticed the image pictured above.

The area in question was the site of graves that were disinterred in the 1880s. The image is one taken of records kept at Greenwich’s Town Hall showing that a number of graves were disinterred from this cemetery and reinterred in Putnam Cemetery. 

The name ‘Thomas Young’ is the sexton who, by definition, is someone employed or perhaps a church officer whose responsibility is to care for church property, including the digging of graves.

This is where the graves are today in Putnam Cemetery off Parsonage Road:

The names and dates of those disinterred are:

Samuel H. Mead, son of Nehemiah and Ruth Mead, b. December 2, 1796, d. October 15, 1854:

Henry Richards, son of James and Ruth Richards of Norwalk, d. September 28, 1800, aged 17 years and 9 months:

Nehemiah Mead, Jr., d. March 21, 1826, aged 54 years, 3 months and 17 days:

Nehemiah Mead. Sr., d. August 16, 1791, aged 70 years:

Mrs. Ruth Mead, wife of Nehemiah Mead, b. April 25, 1770, d. February 13, 1854:

Mrs. Sarah Mead, d. August 20, 1808, aged 74 years, 3 months and 27 days:

Sarah Mead, daughter of Nehemiah and Ruth Mead, d. May 12, 1871, aged 72 years, 10 months and 9 days.

Aside from the list of names, the genealogical information was taken from Spencer P. Mead’s Abstract of Records of Tombstones of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, 1913. 

As to why the graves were disinterred, that remains a mystery. I suspect it always will be.

Jeffrey Bingham Mead

Back to Historical Blogging!

I am please to report that I have not fallen off the side of the Earth, as some have pondered recently. I just recently moved to a new home with a decidedly country air to it. My hope is that my career in condominium living is over.

I also had some 35mm slides scanned which relate to the family cemeteries. These will be posted with historical commentary in the days ahead.

It's nice to be back. Cheers!

Historically yours,

Jeffrey Bingham Mead

Gravestone Motifs: Weeping Willows and Urns

In the 1980s I wrote a local history column that appeared in the Greenwich Time newspaper. I was a member of its Board of Contributors in those fun-filled days when I also served on the board of the Greenwich Historical Society.

Last night I was inspecting my files of old published articles from my column when I found one that focused on the motifs and iconography carved on gravestones. “The motifs found on a number of gravestones throughout the burying grounds of Greenwich have withstood most of the effects of the elements, leaving meanings and significance for us to ponder,” I quote from ‘Unlocking the Secrets of the Past.’

Perhaps the best-known proponent of analysis and study of New England’s ancient burying grounds was the late Harriette Merrifield Forbes. “To interpret them properly it is necessary to close our 20^th century eyes and look at them with the eyes of the past. Thus we can appreciate the beauty and craftsmanship of those designs and perhaps find a lesson for ourselves in a few of them at least.”

I think anyone walking through the cemeteries and burying grounds today would notice the carved weeping willow trees that appear on 19^th century marble stones. This motif started to appear on gravestone markers in the early 1800s. Often the weeping willow tree stood alone or with an urn to its side. The Greeks and Romans to store cremated ashes utilized urns. Their appearance also reflected a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman architectural styles that also found their ways on to home and government buildings built in the early 19^th century.

The most significant feature of live weeping willows we see on today’s landscapes and the carved examples on marble gravestones are the drooping branches. The image conveyed a sense of mourning and sadness felt by the living as a special loved one was laid to eternal rest.

Featured here are some examples of the weeping willow tree and urn motifs found on the gravestones of a few of our ancestors in Greenwich, Connecticut cemeteries.

Mead Burying Ground at Lot & Drake's Corner

The family burying ground featured today is the smallest of the three the Association preserves. It is located near the intersection of North Street and Taconic Road within sight of one of the family homesteads. In 1971 Edgar T. Mead, Jr., a direct descendant of those interred here, published a book entitled The House on Lot and Drake's Corner, that we highly recommend.

The three final pictures featured at the link below were taken during the last week of June, 2010 by my cousin Robert Keeler, who is maintaining the cemetery off Relay Place at Cos Cob's historic Mill Pond and the cemetery off Cliffdale Road in North Greenwich.

Go to this link to the Association's web-based albums to view the pictures.

The Silleck House, a Mead House, Built Circa 1827

As I sit writing from my home in Honolulu I have read that temperatures at Yankee Stadium in New York City stand at 110F. It seems that the horrid winter experienced by some many in the Northeast is to be followed by one equally hot. You have my sympathies! If we in Hawaii were experiencing some trade winds I'd gladly send them your way.

This news reminded me of how in any historical age people will do what they can to seek comfort. The above picture was taken by me on a ride to and from Island Beach off the Greenwich coast in Long Island Sound in 2008. The building is located adjacent to the Indian Harbor Yacht Club off Greenwich Harbor. For many years it was known as the Silleck House, one of the earliest shore hotels in the region. I've long wondered if any of our family ancestors built the place.

I contacted Anne Young, archivist of the Greenwich Historical Society with a request for some information. After inspection of the materials I received my curiosity appears justified.

From the Greenwich News & Graphic story dated March 14, 1919 entitled 'Silleck House To Be Sold' is the following excerpt (original spellings and typographic errors retained):

The Silleck house is the oldest hotel on either shore of Long Island Sound between Sands Point, which is located opposite City Island, New York, and Stonington, Conn. It was build by the late Jared Mead in 1827, the frame construction being erected on dirt cellars which had been on the property a number of years prior to that date. Mr. Mead was a great-grandfather of W.P. White of Field Point Road. During the first few years it was run by Mr. Mead as a boarding hotel under the name of 'The White House,' the project did not prove successful and in the spring of 1849 Mr. Mead sold the building and grounds to Mrs. Fannie Runyon and Mrs. Mary Dennis, who in turn resold it to Thomas Funston on February 9, 1850. Thaddeus Silleck, grandfather of Elbert A. Silleck, became the owner on May 25, 1855, and later it fell into the hands of Mr. and Mrs. Elbert A. Silleck and Edward T. Foote. Mr. Silleck for many years conducted a most successful fashionable summer hotel there.

Why was Jared Mead unsuccessful? Businesses thrive or fail for any number of reasons. I wondered about this. I found out why in one of my favorite Greenwich history books, 'Other Days in Greenwich,' by the late Judge Frederick Hubbard. On Page 262 Hubbard wrote:

"Situated near the shore with a dense forest on three sides, it was an ideal spot for a quiet summer retreat. The trouble with the "White House," as Mr. Mead called it, was due to the fact that table supplies were difficult to obtain. At that time there was no market in Greenwich. To supply the table with meat it was Jared Mead's custom to purchase lambs and calves of the farmers and butcher them on the premises. Vegetables were secured at market sloops. Butter was difficult to buy as the farmers preferred to send it to New York. The cows were pastured on Field Point, assuring a good supply of milk and cream. The water was brought from one of the Field Point springs, there being no well near the hotel. Apples were free to anyone who would gather them.

"Mr. Mead had a good class of boarders at what then thought to be remunerative prices, but he found it quite a struggle to maintain a satisfactory table. His fried fish, broiled lobsters, succulent oysters and scallops were considered most palatable, but there always came a time when the appetite demanded fresh meat."

The above-mentioned Greenwich News & Graphic story lists the names of some of the luminaries who stayed at the Silleck House. The include William B. Taylor, former postmaster of New York City; Horace Greeley, John Hoey, Robert M. Bruce, Charles A. Whitney, the New York banker; and a "Professor King" of Columbia University. Yet perhaps the most famous -or infamous- was none other than William M. Tweed, better known as "Boss Tweed" of New York.

"From a small building it was enlarged from time to time until it becamse one of the finest and most up-to-date hotels outside of New York and hundreds of prominent people from all parts of the country used to spend their summers at this popular hostelry, " continued the Greenwich News & Graphic. "In the early days boarding rates were $2.50 a week while of more recent date enormous prices have been charged not only at this but other similar hotels in Greenwich. Summer sojourners will now pay most any prices to get a breath of real country air and enjoy the many privileges afforded at these resorts."

The Passing of Herbert Bingham Mead 1924-2010

(Note: I have established another blog about the book I am researching on my father's service in postwar China. Go here: MyDadtheUSChinaMarine.blogspot.com)

I have not been posting for some time due to the recent passing of my father, Herbert Bingham Mead.

Dad died in the closing moments of his 86th birthday at a nursing home in Croton-on-Hudson, New York on February 25. He is dearly missed. Dad enthusiastically supported the creation of our cemetery association in 1990. In his younger days he maintained the cemetery property off Relay Place near Cos Cob's Mill Pond. When he and my mother were first married they lived in a small cottage nearby that has since been demolished. Up until five years ago Dad would go down to the Cos Cob plot and two others the Association maintains and keep them in good order.

He was a World War II veteran serving as a radioman in the U.S. Marines 1^st and 4^th Marine Division from 1943 to 1947, at Guadalcanal, Peleiu, the front lines in the Battle of Okinawa, and stationed for several years in Tianjin and Beijing, China after the Japanese surrender.

For many years he was employed in the Clairol’s research division of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Corporation in Stamford, Connecticut. After his retirement he started and operated a garden design and landscape business until six years ago.

My father was an active and passionate volunteer for over 40 years in Greenwich’s fire department services including serving as chief of the Round Hill Volunteer Fire Department and the Amogerone Volunteer Fire Company, contributing his time and energies. He was also a proud supporter of various US Marine Corps organizations.

I am very grateful for his guidance and support when the Association was first created and in the years since. Rest in peace, Dad. Thank you for all that you did -and for your example.

Jeffrey Bingham Mead

Moonlight Marriages Barred in Greenwich: January 12, 1900

We found this article in the archives of the New York Times. Published on January 12, 1900, it features comments by then-Town Clerk James R. Mead. It seems New Yorkers were venturing to Greenwich in order to be married under the evening moonlight, spoiling many evenings for Mead, his assistant, Greenwich clergy and Justices of the Peace. Enjoy!