Join Me On My Cemetery Tour

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Saturday, @DWDavis asked me if I had written a post about the cemetery itself. I told him no but maybe I would so here is a shortened version of the tour I gave. By 1835 a considerable number of Irish Catholics had come to the Middletown, Ct area. Among them were Edmund Higgins, Michael Keefe, James Sheridan and John Dunn. All of these men are buried in what is known as Old St John Cemetery. Welcome to St John Cemetery. Having a plot in the original cemetery behind the church is quite an honor. Well, honor isn't exactly the right word, what it means is that these parishioners donated to either the building of the original church or the current church. For a donation of $10 you got half a plot and for $20 a full plot. When you consider that an average worker earned 96 cents a day in 1850, you realize what a sacrifice they made to donate either 2 or 4 weeks pay. The cemetery opened in 1843. Walking in this cemetery tells a story. A story of people who left their homeland behind to find a new life, to escape hunger and to get their piece of the American dream. All of the monuments you see here are a success story. My family is buried back here, no success story, just a very typical struggle to make ends meet with a large family. I guess I will never know how they came up with the money to make the original donation but they never put up a monument to those buried here, my 2nd great-grandfather William O’Connell and his wife Julia Tallent and some of their children, son William, daughter Agnes and Lucy You will notice that some of the stones tell a story. Some give information about where they came from in Ireland. You will also notice that many of the places are in the same county, among the most popular are Queens County (where the O'Connells and Tallents came from) and County Cork. I love just walking through the cemetery and trying to learn the story of these brave pioneers. You will see tragedy and triumph, bravery and vocation. One thing I found particularly interesting was how many people were from Middleton/Middletown, County Cork. Other counties Dublin, Cavan, Carlow, Wexford, Roscommon, Monaghan, Longford, Waterford, Kerry, Kilkenny, Donegal, Clare and Galway. I then pointed out some stones of interest to the people on the tour including Andrew Cody who was the first teacher at St John School. I pointed out a few other things then basically took questions.