The Old Dunstable Cemetery is also known as Old South Cemetery, and sometimes even known as Little's Station Cemetery. This last name was popular when there was a train station nearby, because there was a tavern next door to the cemetery, owned by a John Little. It’s the oldest cemetery in
Nashua, dating from when this land was once part of Massachusetts. You can find it on Daniel Webster Highway,
near the entrance to Royal Ridge Mall, at the traffic lights. The earliest
burial dates from 1687, and the most recent is 1966. There are about 250 graves here with lots of
early Dunstable and Nashua names such as Abbot, Bancroft, Blanchard, Colburn,
Lovewell, Roby/Robie, and Smith.
Inscription reads:
NEAR THIS SPOT IN 1684
THE SETTLERS OF DUNSTABLE
BUILT THEIR
SECOND MEETING HOUSE
REV. THOMAS WELD, MINISTER
THIS MEMORIAL ERECTED BY
MATTHEW THORNTON CHAPTER, D.A.R.
NASHUA, NH AD 1900
NEAR THIS SPOT IN 1684
THE SETTLERS OF DUNSTABLE
BUILT THEIR
SECOND MEETING HOUSE
REV. THOMAS WELD, MINISTER
THIS MEMORIAL ERECTED BY
MATTHEW THORNTON CHAPTER, D.A.R.
NASHUA, NH AD 1900
Also located inside the cemetery walls is the
Suburban School No. 1. It was built in
1841 and restored in 1976. This
historic brick schoolhouse is a popular field trip with fourth grade students
in Nashua. In New Hampshire the fourth
grade curriculum is the year that students study local and state history. The Kings Daughters Benevolent Association
hosts the visits to the school, and recreates the 19th century
experience for the children. The schoolmarm teaches penmanship (with dip ink
pens), arithmetic on slates, writing and recitation during a two hour session straight
out of 1842. Students are encouraged to
dress in long skirts and overalls, and to bring a cold lunch in a pail.
Why is the schoolhouse next to the cemetery? According to the website for the school, the
land was cheap! The town paid only $75
for the lot where it still stands now, surrounded by malls, parking lots and
chain stores.
An interesting slideshow of all the “winged skulls”
and portraits on the top of the headstones in the Old Dunstable Cemetery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markturek/sets/72157625300823148/
Genealogical information on the families interred at
the Old Dunstable Cemetery can be found in the book Early Generations of the Founders
of Old Dunstable: Thirty Families, by Ezra S. Stearns, Boston: George
Littlefield Publishers, 1911
Also see the book History of the Old Township of
Dunstable: Including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield and
Merrimac, NH, by Charles James Fox,
1846.
Website for District #1 Schoolhouse in Nashua http://nashuaschoolhouse.com/
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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
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