USGenWeb Genealogical Site for the Town of

	Bridgewater  Massachusetts

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Bridgewater Cemeteries and Cemetery Transcriptions

     Collecting information about the cemeteries of Bridgewater is an ongoing effort, and this page will be revised as needed.   If you have cemetery information or gravestone transcriptions that you would like to share please send me email.

     Where I have been able to determine it, the records repository for a cemetery is indicated.   In the entries for the individual cemeteries, if one has its own web site or a portion of a web site the cemetery name provides a link to that site.   When the location of a cemetery is known there are links to street and topographic maps to help you find it, as well as a brief description of the location and, perhaps, direction for reaching it.   Below these paragraphs is a locator map of the town showing the cemetery locations - place the mouse cursor over a sector to highlight it, and click to bring up a sector map showing the cemetery locations in that part of the town.   Any gravestone transcriptions online also have links.   At the bottom of the page is a seperate section listing all online and published gravestone transcriptions that I have found for these cemeteries.

     When a cemetery has had more than one name during its history the first name listed is the one by which it is usually known today, and alternative names are listed in square brackets.   In some cases a cemetery has been abandoned, its burials have been removed to another cemetery, or its location has been lost.   In those cases the name indicates that it is a cemetery site, meaning that no gravestones are to be found there.   The year in parenthesis next to a cemetery name is my best estimate of the year in which that cemetery was established.   In some cases the year is mentioned in town records, a town history or some other source.   In other cases it is the year of the oldest gravestone for which I have found a record.

     I would like to thank Justine Sheehan of the Bridgewater Town Clerk's Office, who made available a great deal of information kept in that office concerning these cemeteries.

 

Conant St. Cemetery (1829)
[Conant-Town Cemetery]
Conant St., Bridgewater, MA
Abbreviated in Vital Records of Bridgewater as G.R.4.

Photograph Copyright © 2003-2008 by Arthur Richardson
A high-resolution version of this photo (218k) is available.

Locator Map
Street map
Topographic map from TerraServer USA

Transcriptions in Hawksley and Thatcher

For records contact:   Arthur T. Holmes, 459 Flagg St., Bridgewater MA, 02324.

Location:   East side of Conant St., just south of Flagg St.

Contains about 75 stones, with burials from 1829 to the 1960s, mostly from 1829 to 1910.   The most common surnames are Conant, Hayward, Holmes, Leach, Leonard and Waterman.   One of the oldest stones is Zerras Conant, 1829.

Location:   East side of Conant St., about 1/2 mile south of Flagg St.

First burials were of victims of the 1778 smallpox epidemic.   Contains burials from 1778 to 1793.

For records contact:   Catholic Diocese, 103 Center St., Bridgewater MA, 02324;   Phone: 508-697-9528.

Location:   West side of Center St. directly behind St. Thomas Aquinas Church.

Contains about 500 stones from the 1850s to the present.   Many of the burials were Irish workers from the Stanley housing development, employed by Lazell's Iron Foundry (1780-1836) and Bridgewater Iron Co. (1836-1893).

For records contact:   Town Clerk;   Email: clerk@bridgewaterma.org;   Address: Bridgewater Town Hall, 64 Central Sq., Bridgewater, MA 02324;   Phone: 508-697-0921   Fax: 508-697-0941;   Hours: Mon. 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Tues. - Thurs. 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Fri. 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Location:   South side of Cherry St. west of Childs Bridge.

Contains about 75 to 100 stones, with burials from 1840 to the present.   Most common surnames are Harlow and Wilbur.

For records contact:   Town Clerk;   Email: clerk@bridgewaterma.org;   Address: Bridgewater Town Hall, 64 Central Sq., Bridgewater, MA 02324;   Phone: 508-697-0921   Fax: 508-697-0941;   Hours: Mon. 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Tues. - Thurs. 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Fri. 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Location:   South side of Auburn St. east of Glenwood Dr.

Contains about 150 stones, with burials from 1813 to the 1980s, mainly from 1813 to 1860.   The most common surnames are Allen, Mitchell, Washburn, Whitman and Wood.

For records contact:   Donald Dewhurst, 65 Bridge St., East Bridgewater MA, 02333.

Location:   Northeast corner of the intersection High St. and Plain St.

Directions:   From Rt. 106 in East Bridgewater, heading east towards Plymouth, take the first right about ½ mile beyond the Family "Y", across the street from a farm with a silo, onto Bridge Street.   Go past one stop sign and the cemetery is about one mile on the left.

From the Plymouth area, take Rt. 106 until you come to Rt. 104 on the left.   Follow Rt. 104 just one mile and turn right turn onto High Street, opposite a stone and gravel pit.   4 tenths of a mile ahead the cemetery will be on the right.

From Rt. 24, take Rt. 104 east through Bridgewater Center following Rt. 104 carefully.   Cross over the river about 2 miles from the town center and Bridgewater Farm Supply will be on the left.   Take an immediate left onto Mill St. and follow to the end (¼ mile).   Turn right onto High St. and the cemetery will be on the left 100 yards ahead.

It is uncertain how the name "Japan Cemetery" originated.   Most burials are from 1750 to 1830.

Location:   East side of Conant St., about 1/2 mile south of Flagg St., behind the Conant St. Smallpox Cemetery.

Burial location for residents of a succession of institutions preceeding and including the Bridgewater Correctional Complex and Bridgewater State Hospital.   The graves are marked with numbered stones.

For records contact:   President Kendall Burrill, 64 Pleasant St., Bridgewater MA, 02324;   Vice-President Harold Peters, 240 Summer St., Bridgewater MA, 02324;   Caretaker David Perault, 423 Walnut St., East Bridgewater MA, 02333.

Location:   North side of Mt. Prospect St., across from Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School.

Contained about 2,000 stones in 1976, with burials from 1842 to the present.

For records contact:   Town Clerk;   Email: clerk@bridgewaterma.org;   Address: Bridgewater Town Hall, 64 Central Sq., Bridgewater, MA 02324;   Phone: 508-697-0921   Fax: 508-697-0941;   Hours: Mon. 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Tues. - Thurs. 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Fri. 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Location:   West side of Walnut St. at the intersection of Orange St.

Contains about 100 stones, with burials from the late 1700 to the present, mostly from 1830 to 1870.   Holds the graves of Revolutionary War soldiers and Pratt Town Paper Mill workers, as well as those of Capt. Jacob Leonard (d. 1841, a. 84), Solomon Hayward (d. Oct-1832, a. 79), Capt. Simeon Pratt (d. Sep-1848), William Hooper and Ensign David Leonard.   The most common surnames are Keith and Pratt.

Location:   East side of Pine St. south of Ivy Circle.   During a 2004 visit I was unable to locate this cemetery.

For records contact:   Catholic Diocese, 103 Center St., Bridgewater MA, 02324;   Phone: 508-697-9528.

Location:   North side of Aldrich Rd. west of Center St.

Contains burials from about the 1950s to the present.

For records contact:   Randy Ellis, 1474 Old Pleasant St., Bridgewater MA, 02324.

Location:   North side of Rt. 104 (Pleasant St.) across from the intersection of Brownfield Dr.

Directions:   From Rt. 24 take the Rt. 104 exit towards Bridgewater.   Travel through one set of stoplights and the Scotland Graveyard is about ½ mile ahead on the left, just prior to a second set of stoplights.

From Rt. 18 / 28:   From the Town Common in Bridgewater center follow Rt. 104 west for approximately 1½ miles through the first set of stop lights about 100 yards and the graveyard will be on the right.

Contains about 400 to 500 stones, with burials from 1753 to the present.

For records contact:   Catholic Diocese, 103 Center St., Bridgewater MA, 02324;   Phone: 508-697-9528.

Location:   West side of Center St. across from Mary Ln. and Heather Ln.

Contained about 2,500 stones in 1985, with burials from the late 1800s to the present.

For records contact:   Town Clerk;   Email: clerk@bridgewaterma.org;   Address: Bridgewater Town Hall, 64 Central Sq., Bridgewater, MA 02324;   Phone: 508-697-0921   Fax: 508-697-0941;   Hours: Mon. 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Tues. - Thurs. 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Fri. 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Location:   West side of South St. just south of Evergreen Dr., about 5 miles south of Central Square and about two miles north of the Sturtevant (Green St.) Bridge over the Taunton River.

Contains about 500 stones, with burials from the mis 1700s to the present, mostly from 1756 to 1850.

Location:   Southwest corner of the intersection of Summer St. and Plymouth St.

Contains burials from the 1720s to to the 1800s.   During the widening of Central St. in 1887 some burials were removed to Mt. Prospect Cemetery - see the Report of the Committee on the Old Graveyard.

For records contact:   Town Clerk;   Email: clerk@bridgewaterma.org;   Address: Bridgewater Town Hall, 64 Central Sq., Bridgewater, MA 02324;   Phone: 508-697-0921   Fax: 508-697-0941;   Hours: Mon. 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Tues. - Thurs. 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Fri. 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Location:   West side of Titicut St. south of Bridgewater State Hospital and just south of the water towers.

Directions:   From Rt. 25 (495) take exit for Rt. 44E / Rt. 28N and proceed to the rotary (roundabout).   Then take Rt. 28 north towards Bridgewater.   Travel approximately 2 miles to the first set of traffic lights and turn right.   Travel approx. ½ mile and take the first left.   ¾ mile ahead on the left will be the Alden or Great Woods Graveyard.

From Rt. 24 take Rt. 106 East.   At the 2nd set of lights, get into the right lane and bear right onto Rt. 28.   Follow Rt. 28 through Bridgewater Center (it joins with Rt. 18 at this point) and go half way around the Common staying on Rt. 28, and following it south until you come to the first set of traffic lights, turn left and proceed as above.

In 1882 contained about 60 graves and 55 stones, with burials from 1793 to 1878.

For records contact:   Trinity Episcopal Church, 91 Main St., P.O. Box 243, Bridgewater MA, 02324.

Location:   East side of Main St. between Oak St. and Hammond St.

Contains about 175 stones from the mid 1700s to the present.   Noted for its iron plot enclosures and gates, presumably the work of Lazell's Iron Foundry (1780-1836) and and the Bridgewater Iron Co. (1836-1893), and its hammered granite cornerposts.

For records contact:   Town Clerk;   Email: clerk@bridgewaterma.org;   Address: Bridgewater Town Hall, 64 Central Sq., Bridgewater, MA 02324;   Phone: 508-697-0921   Fax: 508-697-0941;   Hours: Mon. 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Tues. - Thurs. 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Fri. 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Location:   Northeast corner of the intersection of Vernon St. and Cross St.

Contains about 100 to 150 stones.   The most common surnames are Fobes, Hayward, Leach and Wilbur/Wilbar.

Williams Latham, Epitaphs in Old Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Illustrated with Plans and Views (Bridgewater: Henry T. Pratt, printer, 1882; repr. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1976; Middleborough, MA, 1986). This book has been transcribed by Arthur Richardson and Dale H. Cook.

      Bridgewater cemeteries included are:

• Old Grave-Yard, transcribed by Dale H. Cook.
• Alden or Vernon Street Grave-Yard, transcribed by Dale H. Cook.
• Scotland Grave-Yard, transcribed by Arthur Richardson.
• Keith (South St.) Grave-Yard, transcribed by Arthur Richardson.
• Trinity Church Grave-Yard, transcribed by Arthur Richardson.
• Japan (Jennings) Grave-Yard, transcribed by Arthur Richardson.
• Great Woods Grave-Yard, transcribed by Arthur Richardson.
• Small-Pox Grave-Yards, transcribed by Arthur Richardson.

Gravestone transcriptions by Wendy L. Hawksley, June, 2004.

• Conant St. Cemetery
• Harlow Cemetery
• Hillside Cemetery
• Orange St. Cemetery

Charles M. Thatcher, Old Cemeteries of Southeastern Massachusetts (Middleborough, MA: Middleborough Public Library, 1995). Thanks to the Library this book is downloadable or viewable as a large (> 24 meg) PDF file. It contains over 16,000 transcriptions of gravestones up to the mid-1800s, from 214 cemeteries located in 15 Plymouth and Bristol County towns.