Kendall/Wilson Cemetery

Photos by Corelyn Senn

Kendall (Wilson) Cemetery is a small burying ground located at the RT 52 end of North Cobbtown Rd. across from the Pitcher Pond Dam and along Kendall Brook. In the late 1790’s this land belonged to George Ulmer as a grant from Henry Knox. In 1802, Ulmer sold 424 acres to his daughters, Polly and Sally and in 1806, they sold it back to him.. This land included what would be the future burying ground. In 1812, Ulmer sold 315 acres with a sawmill, grist mill, three dwelling houses and three barns to his son-in-law, John Russ, married to Sally. In the same month, Russ sold 146 acres, with one dwelling house and barn, gristmill and new saw mill, to his brother-in-law, John Wilson, who was married to Polly. In 1817, John had to sell the land but by 1820, his nephew, George Ulmer Russ was able to buy it back and in 1823, his cousin, John’s son, George Ulmer Wilson bought it from him.

By this time, George Ulmer had lost all his property and had moved out of his big house at the other end of Cobbtown Rd. His grandsons granted to him and his wife, Polly, the right to live in a house on the land, as much land as they wanted to improve, and the use of the saw mill and grist mill for income. John Wilson and his wife Polly moved into the gray house which still stands across from the dam and is known as The Kendall House.

In 1825, George Ulmer died and the cemetery came into being. It was long believed that the Ulmers were buried in the cemetery on Howe Point but probably due to convenience and financial hardship they were buried closer by. We learn of the burial place from an article in the Republican Journal in 1900 stating, “On a sunny slope in a green field near his old homestead (now the Kendall House) the general lies buried…” This was written by the Masons of Amity Lodge in Camden of which George Ulmer was a founding member, in preparation for gaining permission to move his body to Camden. In 1901, his remains were moved to Mountain View where his gravestone now stands upright instead of flat on the ground as it was originally placed. His wife, Mary (Polly) Ulmer died in 1834, and was buried beside him. There is no permit for her removal but on a slope at one end of the old cemetery there are two depressions in the earth side by side so it is very likely that they were buried together and moved together. No stone has been found for Polly.

In 1830, tragedy stuck the Wilson family. Six months after George Ulmer Wilson sold the land to his brother, John Sheen Wilson, and moved to Belfast with his wife, Harriet Huse and their two young daughters, influenza and consumption hit the family taking little Harriet H., age 5 months, on August 25 and Sarah Jane, aged 2 years, 7 months on September 4th. Harriet, their mother, age 22 died on September 17. She was pregnant and delivered a premature baby, named Emily, who lived just 6 days.

They are all buried together under a single flat stone which is hard to read as it has worn with time and may also have been washed with bleach. The epitaph , taken from an elegy, expresses the pain of the husband and father beginning with the words. O’er this dank grave.…”

John Sheen Wilson sold off much of the land as mill rights and after several owners the land with the house, burying ground and mills was sold to Thomas Kendall in 1836. He was a miller who, followed by his son, Charles, owned the land until 1894. Thomas and Mary’s son, Miles, died at age 20 on April 27, 1849 and is buried in the cemetery. He has a upright and very readable headstone. This brings us to a sort of mystery. All the Kendall stones are in a row in one part of the cemetery but only Miles’s looks like a headstone. The others look more like footstones. They are of varying sizes and have initials on them: MK, probably Mary Kendall, wife of Thomas, JK, a stone that is a mystery as there were four daughters who were buried elsewhere and a son, Gilbraith, who was dying of consumption in 1860, when he was about 29 and should be buried there but no JK, and then there is a stone that is down which probably has TK on it for Thomas Kendall. If these are footstones where are the headstones? And then, behind this row of stones there is a circular depression covered with small rocks. What is under them?

This is an exceptionally interesting cemetery about which there is still much to learn. Happily, we know descendants of the Kendalls in California and the Wilson/Ulmers in Arizona so we will be able to get many answers.

Written by Corelyn Senn