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| Dodge's Row Burying Ground, off Dodge Street, Beverly, Massachusetts |
I dare you to find this little gem of a cemetery! Even with a map, a GPS and a written description
of how to find this cemetery we had a lot of trouble finding this
cemetery. “Dodge, shared right of way on
right and driveways on left, opposite and in between Norwood’s and Beaver Pond
Roads (North Beverly), park in cemetery.”
These were the only clues I could find online at the Beverly,
Massachusetts US GenWeb Project.
There are no signs off Dodge Street to tell you where to turn, and even once you pull into a private home driveway you are faced with several signs stating “PRIVATE DRIVE”, but you have to be brave enough to drive right through on the driveway, which is really a right-of-way through private property to the burying ground.
It was only later when we pulled up Google Earth’s satellite
images of Dodge Street in Beverly and carefully viewed the woods between and
behind the houses along the road- when we found it! It's well hidden, but worth the drive if you have North Beverly ancestors. The oldest stone I found was 1705. The newest one I saw read 1922. Many are broken or illegible.
Here is a screen shot of how this cemetery looks via satellite image on an
iPhone. You can see the cemetery in the woods to the left of the tree farm (which is a big clue to finding this burying ground). The private drive way is between two houses, with two more homes behind them on the way to the cemetery. Be brave and keep driving!
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| Some of the gravestones are illegible, sunken or facedown |
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| This part of the cemetery seems to be in the process of being swallowed by the forest |
Essex Antiquarian,
July 1899, volume 3, page 105 “Dodge’s Row Burying Ground Inscriptions”. [It’s a
good thing that these gravestones were transcribed over 116 years ago, because
they are very faded today. This article transcribed only pre-1800 stones. A digital version of this volume is available
online at the Internet Archive (free) https://archive.org/details/essexantiquarianv3v4sale ]
Inscriptions from the Old Burying Ground in Dodge's Row, North Beverly,
Massachusetts, 1888, [A small book of only 14 pages].
Some photos of Dodge’s Row tombstones [only those stones with the surname DODGE] from the Dodge Family
Association website
Dodge’s Row tombstones by plot number
Good Luck finding Dodge’s Row Burying ground! I’ll be featuring a few of these interesting tombstones
starting tomorrow for Tombstone Tuesday.
For the truly curious:
The deeds to all the land comprising Dodge's Row Burying Ground were transcribed and published in The Essex Institute Historical Collections, Volume XXIV, 1887, pages 116 - 122 https://archive.org/details/essexinstitutehi23a24esseuoft/page/322/mode/2up
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Cite/link to this post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Clues to finding Dodge’s Row Burying Ground, Beverly, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 23, 2015
( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/11/dodges-row-burying-ground.html: accessed [access date]).
Thanks for posting this. In the spring I'll go to Dodge's Row and follow your directions. I am a Dodge descendant via Asa T Dodge and Louisa Davidson of Edgecomb, Lincoln, Maine.
ReplyDeleteGreat job on right-of-way access to this place, and appropriate etiquette, Heather. Keeping myself concise here... Find-A-Grave.com has as good a summary of who is buried here (first-hand confirmed).
ReplyDeleteThis cemetery covers (a pun?) upper Dodge Street North Beverly and Dodges Row Wenham Dodge families. Lower Dodge Street North Beverly and downtown Beverly Dodge families (as many, contemporarily, in number, as here) were also buried in North Beverly, Old North Beverly Ancient, Central and Abbot Street Ancient cemeteries, et al. Great write-up! Cheers!
Barry Gates, USGenWeb coordinator for Beverly, and (lower Dodge Street family) Dodge descendant
Thanks Barry! I photographed some family members (BALCH, DODGE, WOODBURY, STONE, etc) at the Abbott Street the same day I was at Dodge. We saw the entrance to Old North Beverly Ancient and will come back in the spring. I have written up lots of stories about family members buried at Central and North Beverly, as well as many other Essex County towns.
Deletei am in Berverly now. I am a Dodge descendant. would love help to see the Cemetery. I will be trying to find it tomorrow. Roger cell 503-577-3544 thanks
ReplyDeletehttps://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/city-is-hoping-to-restore-secluded-dodge-burial-ground/image_55917df4-dfd7-513f-a82a-1b0e8f9cab10.html
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link, Ken!
DeleteWe are looking to completely restore the entire cemetery, wall and every headstone and locate the lost stones and bodies of people buried there as well as we have on good information that there were slaves buried just outside the wall. some of the links on here are no longer valid but i will post links in a follow up comment.
DeleteThe Essex Antiquarian
Deletehttps://archive.org/details/essexantiquarianv3v4sale
Thanks, Ken! I'll update the links on the blog post. Very helpful!
DeleteThe Essex Institute Volume 23-24
Deletehttps://archive.org/details/essexinstitutehi23a24esseuoft/page/322/mode/2up
https://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/city-is-hoping-to-restore-secluded-dodge-burial-ground/image_55917df4-dfd7-513f-a82a-1b0e8f9cab10.html
ReplyDeleteThe right of way to the cemetery is not actually down the driveway of 284 Dodge St as this is a private driveway. the actual driveway is somewhat obscure and slightly overgrown which will be taken care of soon by either myself or the DPW. We are also looking at adding signage to mark the actual right of way for the cemetery
ReplyDeleteGood to know! I was told that the driveway was the proper way to visit, and even used that way with a tour from Historic Beverly. I'm glad that the actual right of way will be cleared and a sign will be installed.
Delete