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West Hartford

Historic Cemeteries

If you are in town, we suggest you take this information along with you as you tour the Old Center Cemetery. It highlights the important, the unique, and the not so well-known residents of the town from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, offering a glimpse into lives long forgotten. Few women are included on the tour because, unlike men, little information is available about them. Essentially, women lost their identities upon marriage. Thus, those included on the tour are either unique or important to the town's history. As you look at their markers, observe how women are almost always noted in reference to their husbands. The cemetery houses a wide variety and style of stones on which misspellings were not uncommon: American English did not become standardized until the publication of Noah Webster's Dictionary in 1828. Those buried here range from a stillborn infant to a 100-year-old man. Generally, adults in colonial New England could expect to live as long as we do today once they survived the perils of childhood. Of close to 200 people buried here, 22 were aged 80 or older at death, while 23 were 16 or younger. As you tour, see what differences and/or similarities to modern cemeteries you can observe on your own. This text describes 19 individuals and one monument. To the right of each person's name is the date of death that appears on his or her stone.