Person:Joanna Unknown (21)

From Ostrander and Allied Families

...widow of Thomas William, of New London.

From the Montville Home page

One subject which always seems to surface whenever Montville history is discussed is that of the many small cemeteries scattered around town. What are they, and why? Well, what can you say about a cemetery. Its there, that's all!

People living in this area were really in the wilderness; it was the frontier of its day. A trip to New London, where the cemetery adjoined the church, was a long trip away even though it was all the same town. People walked, or more rarely rode horseback, for what at best was probably a two-day trip to go both ways. So, most families simply set aside a plot on the family farm and used it as a burial ground.

Because for its first 150 years or so, land transfers in Montville are recorded in New London, it has been difficult to trace the location of some of the earliest families. When there has been doubt about the location of a family's land, it has sometimes been settled by the fact that we can find the old family burial ground. We can also trace some of the movements of later generations of a family by the location of a ground containing their stones. Some of the plots, of course, were connected with the churches, and a burial in Raymond Hill Cemetery almost always indicates membership in that church. Likewise, the Street-Congdon ground, so-called, off the Old Colchester Road would indicate membership in the Palmer Baptist Church, even though its records have disappeared.

One item of special interest is the walls surrounding many of these old grounds. They are beautiful stone walls, most of them laid without mortar, and it is known that many were built by Mohegan Indians. The one around the old Johnson Cemetery on Route 32 near Stanley's Greenhouses, was built by Henry Matthews, a Mohegan who is buried at Fort Shantok. He was also the builder of the wall in front of the old Johnson house on Route 32, just south of the present McDonald's Restaurant. Joshua Raymond owned land on both sides of what is now Route 32 at the head of Haughton Cove, and extending up Raymond Hill Road beyond where the Connecticut Turnpike now crosses. Off Route 32 just north of Herb's Restaurant there is an old cemetery where members of the Raymond family are buried. The wall has no opening, never did have, and the wall must have been built after use of the cemetery ceased. Two other cemeteries with interesting walls are Chester on Forsyth Road and Manwaring on Raymond Hill Road. The latter was well maintained during the lifetime of Dr. ler Jay Manwaring, a physician when women physicians were few. She served in France in World War 1, later practised in Norwich where she made her home, but the cemetery was always well-cared for. In recent years it has become badly overgrown although Boy Scouts have cleared it several times. Both Boy and Girl Scout groups have tried to maintain some of these old historical burial places, but the job is beyond the resources available. Some located on private property have been allowed to deteriorate because present owners have refused access to those who would maintain them, even though some of the old deeds do provide for rights-of-way to enter.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Thomas Williams, in Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   4:571.