HERE LYES THE BODY OF DAVID SON TO MR WILLIAM AND MRS ELISABETH GREGG HE DIED MARCH 6TH 1749
David Gregg was eight years old. His parents buried him in a small wooded area, and soon after, the town voted to set aside one acre as a "Burying place Where William Gregg hath Buried his son." That acre became the Cemetery on the Plain. Its entrance is on Cobbett's Pond Road, and many people in town drive past it every day.
For all of October, the Windham Cemetery Trustees are running a self-guided tour of the grounds. They set out markers at 23-plus stops, and each one has a "250" symbol and a red flag. Booklets describing each monument have been available since October 1 at Town Hall, Nesmith Library and Howies' Store. The town's America 250 year has included a living-history encampment, a Town Day and museum programs. This walk lasts the whole month and needs no ticket, and it may be the most lasting part of that year. It also comes with a catch. The flags mark the stones that made it through more than 270 years, which is a smaller group than the people buried there.
A Town That Buried Its Dead in Derry for Seven Years
Windham was incorporated in 1742 but had no burying ground of its own until 1749. Until then, families made what the town's cemetery history calls "the long trek" to the burial yard at Derry Upper Village. The town only stopped sending its dead out of town when one family dug a grave close to home.
The town also gave less than it voted for. Of the acre set aside, only half was actually laid out and walled in. A second burying ground, the Cemetery on the Hill, was laid out in 1753 when the first meetinghouse went up. It covered about three-quarters of an acre, and from its summit there was a clear view of Cobbett's Pond. Its first known burial was Agnes Smith, age 83, that same year.
Cemetery Trustee Wendi Devlin's history of the town cemeteries puts the space problem plainly. For more than 80 years, the town had only about an acre and a half for burials, so it is "highly likely" that unmarked lots were reused over time, which was common practice across New England. Devlin is also one of the four trustees named on this month's tour notice.
Why the Flags Mark What Survived
Families who could afford it put up slate markers, and Devlin writes that "a good number" are still readable after centuries of weather. Families who couldn't afford slate left markers that didn't last, or no markers at all. The red flags can only point to stones that are still there.
The rest of the record points the same way. In 1835 the town set aside a pauper lot, also called a potter's field, in the middle of the Cemetery on the Plain, west of the main Tarbell Gate. Burial there was free for people who couldn't afford a lot, for transient residents and for unidentified people. Today it is lot 183, and new burials there are very rare. Ground-penetrating radar surveys in the 1990s found some evidence that several unidentified people may be buried "beyond the pale," meaning outside the cemetery walls.
Before you go, keep in mind that the trustees' notice does not list the 23-plus stops. You'll need to pick up the booklet to find out which monuments they chose.
The Lieutenant Who Fought at Bennington
One stone at the Cemetery on the Plain is better known than most. Nutfield Genealogy photographed it there and transcribed it as follows.
LIEUT. DAVID GREGG, BORN 1750, DIED 1831, A SOLDIER IN THE BATTLE OF BENNINGTON IN 1777
Leonard Morrison's History of Windham in New Hampshire adds the story behind the inscription. During the battle, Gregg felt a sting in his thumb. The smoke was so thick he could hardly see. When he put his thumb to his mouth, he found it hanging by a piece of skin, so he bit it off and kept fighting. Morrison writes that Gregg later turned down a captaincy, received his lieutenant's commission after the war, and served as selectman in 1778, 1794 and 1795. He became an elder in the church and cared for his parents in their old age. Late in life he lost his property and depended on the charity of friends and the town.
Don't mix up the two David Greggs. The boy whose burial started the cemetery died in 1749. The lieutenant was born in 1750. Morrison lists the lieutenant's father as a William, and the boy's stone also names William as his father. Families in that era sometimes gave a new baby the name of a child who had died, but neither source here confirms the two were brothers, so treat that as an open question. The booklet doesn't say whether the lieutenant's stone is one of the flagged stops either, though it is in the same cemetery in either case.
Reading the Stones Once You're There
Devlin's history explains a few things that make the old sections easier to read than they first look:
- The carvings. The most common designs in Windham are the death's head, a winged skull or face that stands for the soul of the dead person, and the willow, a sign of mourning by the family left behind.
- The layout. The old sections look like they have no order, but nearly every grave has its head to the west so that the person buried there faces the rising sun.
- The 1827 additions. That year the town approved a hammered granite Receiving Tomb, bought a hearse and built a house for it. Until then, coffins were carried to the cemetery on foot under a town-owned "mort cloth" that cost $150 in 1758.
- The memorial most people miss. In 1913, Mrs. Horace Berry created "Garaphelia Sylva" in memory of her sister, Harriet Garaphelia Hughes. The marble monument stands outside the split-stone wall in a heavily shaded spot. In 1924 she added a memorial wall with a bronze plaque reading, in part, "Love endures beyond the tomb." You can see the plaque just to the right of the Cobbett's Pond Road entrance.
The grounds grew over time. In 1872 the town bought three-quarters of an acre for $55.39, and in the 1970s it combined several purchased parcels into the New Plains Cemetery, dedicated in 1977. That gives you a sense of scale. The town's original burial ground was half of a voted acre, and the flagged stones sit inside a cemetery that took more than 200 years to fill out. If the Cobbett's Pond end of town is home, our earlier post on living near Cobbetts Pond in Windham covers more of the area around it.
The Rest of October Fills In the Story
Several other dates this month connect to the walk. One of them adds names the cemetery doesn't show.
- Friday, October 2, 10 a.m. to noon: an NH Preservation Alliance Forum at Searles School & Chapel, according to the trustees' August minutes.
- Wednesday, October 7, starting 11 a.m.: the Woman's Service Club of Windham's monthly meeting and lunch at the Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall, 2 Church Road, with guests welcome.
- Sunday, October 11, 2 to 4 p.m.: the Windham Museum at 3 N. Lowell Road opens with children's activities and information on the Revolutionary War soldiers named on its plaques. The cemetery booklet tells you who is buried on the Plain, and the museum plaques tell you who served. Seeing both is the closest this month gets to a full picture.
- Saturday, October 17, noon to 3 p.m.: Windham Recreation's free Harvest Fest at Griffin Park. The tentative schedule includes DJ Mike from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wildlife Encounters from 12:30 to 2:30, a family magic show at 2 and a kids' costume parade at 2:45. The Walking Gourmet food truck will be there from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Union Leader also lists the schedule as tentative.
- Saturday, October 31, 8 a.m.: the Scarecrow Contest on the Town Common. The Recreation calendar also lists Trick or Treat in Windham from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in its final week of October. That row appears to fall on Sunday, October 25, so check the town calendar for the date before you plan around it.
One warning if you search online. A "Fall Harvest Festival" on October 10 at a Village Green shows up under the Windham Historical Society name, but its newsletter gives a Windham, Maine address. Check the location before you load the car. For more Windham history after the walk, see our guide to Windham's history and historic landmarks. If you'd rather walk somewhere newer, here's what most people walk past on the rail trail.
The flags are up only through October, and the booklets are at Town Hall, Nesmith Library and Howies' Store. Start at the Cobbett's Pond Road entrance, where the bronze plaque is on your right. Look for monument 138 in the Old Plains, the grave the cemetery began with.
At DiPietro Group Real Estate, we're a Windham-based team, and we keep up with the town's stories like this one because they're part of what makes Windham home. If you own an older property near the town center and want to know more about its history, or how that history might matter if you sell, schedule a free buyer or seller consultation with our team.
