SHREWSBURY – From the time of the first death in Shrewsbury in 1716, which was 11 years before the town was even incorporated, until 1898, the town had grown substantially in population. We should note that the first person to die was a one-year-old baby, Daniel Ward, who died from typhoid fever. He was the son of Artemas and Lucy Ward and was buried in a simple plot in what would eventually become what we know as Mountain View Cemetery.
The photograph shows a receipt from May 12, 1898, when Mrs. William Pierce purchased two cemetery lots, numbers 321 and 322 in Section 11 of what was then known as the “Shrewsbury Cemetery.” The price back then was quite a bit cheaper than what you would pay today―$10 per plot! To illustrate this point, the same two plots (in the first row of graves) would now cost $4,665!
The receipt was signed by the Trustees of the Cemetery, Edward Howe, Herbert A. Maynard, and Henry L. Ball. A note of caution was included on the receipt―it stated: “Proprietors shall keep their Lots, Trees, Fences, Shrubbery and Monuments in a condition satisfactory to the Trustees; and if the Proprietors fail to place them in such condition, on being requested so to do by the Trustees, they, the Trustees, are authorized, and it shall be their duty, to enter all such Lots and properly care for them and charge the expense of doing the same to the several Proprietors thereof.”
The cemetery today is rapidly becoming full, with plans to expand the property to allow for future burials.
