The first cemetery in Princeton was the old burying ground on Meeting-House Hill across the road from the first church building, near 58 Mountain Road. In those early days the burying-ground (God’s Acre) was invariably an adjunct to God’s house.
In 1773 the Town voted to have built around this cemetery a stonewall five feet high. There appears to have been a delay in the executing of this order, for six years later it was specified that the wall was to be “faced upon the road”. Whatever caused the delay could not have been lack of stones. In any case, there is a wall of excellent workmanship about five feet high parallel to the Mountain Road; the walls completing the perimeter are of lesser height. In the north corner is a flight of stone steps affording easy access to the graveyard. A gate was hung in the wall facing the old Fay Road.
Permission was granted to the widow of Capt. Dana to build a tomb, and later two other persons were given similar permission. The tombs are in the wall near the Fay Road.
Most of the gravestones are slate and look toward the setting sun. They are placed in lines diagonally with the walls. This was probably brought about when the wall was “faced upon the road”.
Here is the grave Capt. Elisha Allen “foully murdered by Samuel Frost” in July, 1793, ten years after Frost had killed his own father. Formerly acquitted on the plea of insanity, the murderer this time paid the penalty for his crime, being hanged in Worcester on October 31, 1793.
Here too, lie three of the slaves of the Hon. Moses Gill. One of them, Thomas, was 89 years old, bespeaking of the care which Gov. Gill bestowed upon his black servants.
One headstone bears the inscription:
Sally Cheever, wife of Wm. D. died Sept. 29, 1802 age 16 yrs. 8 mo., Youth like a vernal flower appears, Most promising and fair, But Death, like an untimely frost, Puts all in silence there.
Miss Ethel Mirick
This was copied from the Princeton News, Vol. II, No. 5, dated May 1, 1953 and updated/clarified in August 2015 by the PHS.