South Parish Burial Grounds

Updated June 25, 2024

• Total gravestones: 1959 stones, representing 3686 people, of which 970 are known to be buried here, but are not listed individually or do not have a headstone.
• Veteran stats: Total veterans, patriots, and Pre-Revolution officers: 335
• 2 women – 1 was an army nurse WW1
• 4 chaplains, 1 was also a doctor – Rev. Jonathan French, second South Parish pastor
• 1 British soldier – “member of the British Army Killed in East India, 1880, aged 21 years”
• Oldest vet: Pomp Lovejoy 102 – fought in the Rev. War at age 51 as a freed slave.
• Youngest vets: 2 boys, both 16, died of disease during the Civil War at Ft. Albany, VA, 1862
• British POWs from the Rev. War who stayed are probably buried here, still in research
• 8 French & Indian War officers – including Rev. French, a Sergeant in the King’s army
• 106 American Revolution vets, 2 killed in action, 5 died of disease, 1 died of wounds, 3 accidental
• 4 Patriots who carted Harvard’s library books to Andover for safe keeping during the Battle of Bunker Hill (stored at John Abbot’s and Samuel Osgood’s homes)
• 3 Patriots killed in Powder House explosion
• 2 slaves (Pomp Lovejoy, Titus Coburn) who fought at Lexington and Concord, April 19th, 1775
• 1 Lt. Governor of Mass., Samuel Phillips, III (1802)
• 11 War of 1812 soldiers, 1 Navy
• 100 Civil War soldiers, 4 Killed in Action, 6 Died of Wounds, 16 Died of Disease (1 chaplain)
• 1 Black Civil War soldier of the Mass. 54th Regiment, Robert Rollins (1879)
• 1 White officer of ‘Colored’ regiments
• 7 Civil War POWs (4 died in captivity in Anderson, GA prison)
• 16 WW1 vets, 1 woman
• 14 WW2 vets, 1 killed in action, 1 woman, 1 chaplain at Normandy
• 2 Korean War vet
• 3 Vietnam War vet
• Between 1710-1808, the first two ministers of South Parish buried 1703 people. Samuel Phillips 892 in 61 years, and Jonathan French 811 in 37 years. Only 203 are remembered of the 1703. Both the Phillips and French families are buried here, as well as 3 children of the 4th pastor, Milton Badger.
• Of the original 35 members, only 3 remain on original stones, and 3 are on family monuments.
• Oldest extant stone: Anne Blanchard, Feb’ry 29, 1723
• Oldest people: Kate Plummer Jenkins, 102 years, 5 months, 7 days (1858-1960); Pomp Lovejoy, 102 (1724-1826); Francis Kidder, 101 (1751-1852); Leon Field, 100 (1890-1990)
• Earliest epitaphs 1768 and 1769, in the same family
• Most lines on a stone for one person: 16, including a 10 line epitaph.
• Most people on one monument: 21, of which 9 are John Abbot.
• Most popular surname: Abbot(285)/Abbott(199), 484 total; Holt 213
• Most popular given name: Mary: 268, Sarah: 197, John: 156, Elizabeth: 130, Hannah: 124, George: 87
• Most popular name female: Mary Abbot/Abbott, 34, Sarah Abbot/Abbott, 22
• Most popular name male: John Abbot/Abbott, 25
• Only 113 original stones remain before 180032 Abbots before 1800 out of 113 stones
• No Abbotts with 2 t’s before 1823
• 18 ministers
• Longest name: Rachael Eunice Timandra Bartlett Holt (and not even married!)
• 1 stone with a skull and crossbones

Search Hints

You may enter either a part of a name or a whole name. For example, entering “Bal” will yield all Baldwins and Ballards. You can enter either a first name, or a last name, or both. Since Abbots are spelled Abbott and Abbot, only enter “Abbot” to include both spellings. If you know a maiden name, enter it in the “First Name” field, preceded by %. For example, if the maiden name is Ballard, enter %Ballard in the “First Name” field. If the record refers to a monument, then the first name will be “monument”. The results will be limited to those names you entered. You can look up database records for people or monuments in the South Church Burial grounds.

Historical or Hysterical?:

Plots of the Stars:

• James T. Kirk (Star Trek), not here, previously owned a lot, moved to Iowa
• Henry Higgins (My Fair Lady), Civil War Vet
• George Bailey (It’s a Wonderful Life), Civil War Vet
• Peter Parker (died of a spider bite)
• Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels)
• James Woods
• Sarah Jessica Parker
• James Taylor
• George Jones (his music lives!)
• George Foster
• George Sanford (no son)
• Martha Micthell

Great Names:

• Costello Abbot (personal favorite)
• Abithiar Abbott
• Parmenas Partridge
• Peletian Pray
• Parthenia Pelham
• Persis Parker
• Phoebe Foxcroft Phillips
• Gamaliel Gleason, Icilius Gleason, Justus Gleason; brothers
• Ottilie Borris
• Meuzies Andrews
• Addie Abbott married Albert Abbott, and named their daughter Abbie Abbott Abbott
• Thankful Hunter
• Happy, a former slave
• Zelma Clonk
• Jennie Smart Dame
• Fidelia Adelaide (her family nicknamed her Fiddly Addly)
• Dr. Leitch (leech? Dr.?)
• Earle Gray (tea, anyone?), Civil War Vet
• The Virtues: Truth, Patience, Silence, Healthy, Wealthy, Grace, Experience, Thankful, Joy, Happy (a slave), Mercy, Justus, Fidelia, Desire, Remembrance, Easter, Hope
• Out-of-date-Biblical: Hephzibah, Mehitable, Dorcas, Zebediah, Enoch, Theophilus, Obadiah, Abijah, Asa, Hezekiah, Jedidiah, Jemima, Jerusha, Nahum, Naamah, Typhena, Uriah, Zaccheus, Zachariah, Zeruiah, Zenas, Juduthua
• Stone Carvers: A. Stone (Groton, MA), Joseph Marble (Harvard, MA)

Often the only word readable on an eroded stone: DIED, or the carver’s name (!)

An article in an 1898 Essex Antiquarian magazine lists all South Church stones (113) before 1800 depicts a broken stone which is in the exact same condition now, as it was over 100 years ago, and mentions which stones were sunken then, making the epitaphs unreadable (we have dug them out!)

(from Charlotte Lyons’ history explorations at the South Church Cemetery.)

• Horace P. Holt, a Colonel from Andover during the Civil War, was a pall bearer at Pres. Lincoln’s memorial service in Washington. The Holt family is buried at South Church.
• Holt and his Andover company, the Mass. Co. H, 1st Heavy Artillery were at Appomatix for the surrender of Lee’s Confederate troops.
• Over 700 men from Andover enlisted in the Union Army.
• Andover suffered the most casualties at Spottsylvania, VA on May 19, 1864. A large monument has been erected on the field there for the men of the Mass. Co. H.
• Douglas Road in Andover is named after Frederick Douglas, who frequented the home. It was a safe house in Andover, along with the Newman and Poor homes.
• Andover mourned the death of Abraham Lincoln at a town-wide service held at South Church in which the Co. H. attended as a unit and as ushers.
• Lincoln referred to Andover resident Harriet Beecher Stowe as “the little women who started this whole thing (referring to the Civil War),” after her successful book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
• In the 1850’s, Mrs. Stowe refused to invite President Franklin Pierce for tea during his many trips here to visit his family on Central St., due to his miserable record with the Southern states.
• Robert Rollins, an Andover black man, fought with the courageous MA 54th Regt. He and his wife who were married ‘under slave law’ in Maryland, were married again under MA law the day after he enlisted by the Rev. Charles Stowe, husband of Harriet, and Andover Theological Seminary Prof. Rollins is buried at South Cemetery.
• Prof. Stowe was said to be the first and last person on the railroad platform when soldiers left or came home. The Stowe’s named a son Frederick after Frederick Douglas.
• After his store burned down, abolitionist Herman Abbot gave the land to the Town for Andover’s Memorial Hall Library to honor the Civil War dead and Veteran’s. Recognizing a town’s Civil War dead via a public building was fashionable and coincided with the emergence of local free-lending libraries and public education.
• Andover’s youngest soldiers: James Russell and George Smart, both 16, and both died of disease at Ft. Albany, VA, 1862.
• William Pasho met the Confederate man who shot him at a reunion at Gettysburg when the opposing Companies figured out their positions during the battle.
• Edward Abbott returned to Andover after being wounded and discharged, and named his first son Edward Lincoln Abbott.
• Lawrence, Kansas was named after Lawrence, MA by families from Lawrence, Andover, and Methuen who moved there to promote Kansas as an abolitionist state.
• A missionary from Andover to the Arkansas Cherokee nation was kidnapped by both the Confederate and Union armies, surviving by not taking sides. In 1864, he hid his family in a cave to escape the ravages of war, only to emerge to find the mission destroyed. He returned to the Andover Theological Seminary to teach.
• After 13 months a POW, Elgin Woodlin escaped from the Andersonville, GA prison by taking the identity of a dead man’s parole.
• The South Church Women’s Sewing Society, established in 1818 to help the indigent, was in place to open its doors to all women to ensure Andover troops had proper clothes and bandages.
• The Free Christian Women’s Society made care packages of food, blankets, and clothes for runaway slaves coming through town on their way to the forests of New Hampshire. (This was very dangerous regarding the anti-fugitive law.)
• The Poor family in Shawsheen Village ran a wagon business and made wagons with false bottoms to transport runaway slaves from station to station.
• The Smart family buried soldiers (and several ex-slaves) in their family plots at South Church when the families could not afford to. Unfortunately, no stones were ever erected, and the information was lost in a fire in 1901. In 2008, eight Civil War soldiers whose bodies were never recovered were identified as being remembered at South Church by the local GAR chapter and the American Veterans Administration and memorial plaques were installed.
• Charles Clement was the first Andover man to die of wounds from battle in 1863, suffered at Gettysburg, and he then lingered for a few more months. Andover saw little action prior to Gettysburg as they were used to build forts, bridges, and housing. Prior to Clement’s death, all deaths were either due to disease or accidental.
• Charles Clement’s older brother, Moses, was a sergeant with a colored company.

Civil War artifacts from Charlotte Lyons:

• Confederate money. Note the different banks and some are only printed on one side, some are personally signed by the bank officer.
• Bulletin from a Lincoln funeral service held in Louisville, KY. My great-great-grandfather, John Corlett, was working in Louisville at the time as a mason.
• Draft notice of John Corlett by the state of Ohio.
• In an 1861 letter from Charlotte Barker to Zoe Lyons’ great-great-great-grandmother Kate Radcliffe Corlett, her best friend, she writes about the Civil War. Charlotte saw Kate’s husband John and his brother at the enlistment camp referenced in John’s draft notice. (BTW, Kate named her first daughter Charlotte, for whom I am named.)
• The letter regales a Civil War sentiment from Charlotte’s minister, Mr. Richardson. “Mr. Richardson preached last Sabbath on the lights and shadows of the present time. He is all for fight and thinks that the many prayers that have been offered for the poor slave are now being answered in this great struggle for the Union and that peace will never be restored till slavery is blotted out of existence in this Nation. May he be a true prophet and his prophecy come true and that speedily, is my earnest wish and prayer.”

Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775:

• 350 Andover men (aged 12-64) answered the Alarm at 7:00am, gathering at South Parish, forming 4 units.
• 3 of the 4 unit Captains are buried in the South Cemetery (Abbot, Ames, Furbush)
• The Andover units chased the British Regulars back to Boston and camped in what is now Arlington. The next day the units regrouped, sending home the youngest and oldest militiamen, who all qualified to receive a pension for their 1½ days of service.
• Samuel Phillips, founder of Phillips Academy, was Andover’s State Representative. In 1775, Gen. George Washington related that gun powder was low, and Rep. Phillips volunteered to build a powder mill here, on the site of the Andover Post Office. It was operating in two months. The gun powder formula was unstable, resulting in two explosions. An explosion in 1777, left three men dead. Rev. Jonathan French buried them together here the next day, a most gruesome deed. In 1796, another explosion took 2 more lives, and the powder mill was converted into a paper mill. Soon after, an ink factory opened, and later the Andover Press was started by Deacon Mark Newman and opened the Andover Bookstore (1808) to meet the needs of books and languages from the professors at Phillips and the Andover Theological Seminary (1808). Tracts and texts from our ministers and professors were printed here and contributed to Andover becoming the epicenter of the theological world in the 1800’s. Some might say the schools started off “with a bang.”
• South Church probably has British Prisoners of the Revolutionary War buried in our cemetery. The 2nd pastor, the Rev. Jonathan French, a compassionate patriot, allowed a gun powder mill to operate with labor supplied by British POWs, and the prisoners lived in our neighbors’ homes. (It was also one of the first manufacturing plants in America.) The families feared sabotage, but much to their surprise, these men enjoyed three squares, sleeping indoors, a good job, and joined their ‘host’ family at church on Sunday. Rev. French won them over with his passion for fairness, faith in God and care for one another. He gave a sermon against the exploitation by the King, which was published. Our Moderator, Col. George Abbot, stated that our quarrel was with the government, and forbade poor treatment of any Loyalists in town. These soldiers blended into the community, married and had children. When a POW swap was proposed, they refused to leave and Rev. French and Samuel Phillips, Jr. defended them. Our forefathers and mothers ‘diffused a powder keg’ with grace and faith.

Bunker Hill:

• On June 17, 1775, 4 Andover men were killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill, 12 were wounded (one died 5 days later), and 1 was taken prisoner. More Andover black men fought (8) than any other town. Philip Abbot, a Negro servant of Nathan Abbot, was killed in action. He and all Andover men who died in the Revolutionary War are memorialized on a monument rock on the island at Central and School Streets.
• Cato, a slave of Samuel Cogswell, fought will such merit that his owner freed him. Cato’s emancipation papers are at the Andover Historical Society. Cato served much of the Revolutionary War as a soldier and free man.
• The Provincial Congress ordered the Harvard College library books moved to safety in Andover. 5 Andover men could hear the battle as they feverishly carted the books away safe keeping. It was feared the British soldiers would burn everything they could if they won the battle. The books were stored at Deacon Abbot’s home on Central St., and at Samuel Osgood’s home.
• In 1774, patriot James Otis was struck dead by lightning at the Osgood home. He actually predicted that he would be killed by thunder only a few months earlier! Otis coined the phrase, “No taxation without representation!” He got into a fight with a British officer in Boston and sustained a severe head injury. He went to live with his friend and doctor Samuel Osgood in Andover (think Osgood Road). During a thunderstorm he stood in the doorway, and was killed by a strike of lightning which shook the house. No one else was injured, and were astonished to find Otis dead. Three months earlier, he wrote to his sister that he felt he would be killed by thunder, attributed to his diminished mental state. Otiis is buried in Boston and is on the Freedom Trial. The tour guides will tell you he had a lead plate put in his head for his injury, which made him go daffy, and that is why he was struck. (I think it was the shoe buckles)!
• The South Parish pastor, Rev. Jonathan French, was also a physician. When word came on a Sunday that several Andover men had been killed and wounded, “He took up his physician’s bag and left his Sabbath duties” to minister both physically and spiritually to the men.
• When Capt. Charles Furbush was wounded, Lt. Samuel Bailey picked up the charge and was killed by a cannon ball. Both were reported as killed in action. Furbush’s family went to retrieve his body to find him only wounded. They retreated to safety for the night and he walked back into battle the next day. Capt. Furbush fought the rest of the War, never recovering from the pain of the wound for the rest of his life. When Gen. Washington arrived at the Cambridge camp in July, he invited the Captain to dinner to thank and commend him for his service. The family still has the invitation.
• That when the British officer who shot Furbush raised his fist in triumph and shouted, “The day is ours!”, a negro servant of John Poor, Salem Poor, was so insulted by this action, he put himself in harm’s way and shot the officer right off his horse. In 1976, the United States Post Office issued a commemorative stamp.
• Charles Furbush, Jr., and brothers Simeon and James were at Bunker hill also. James was a drummer boy, age 16, and saw his father shot. Charles, Jr., was at the laying of the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument on June 17th, 1825
• Capt. Furbush met an awful death on February 11, 1795, at the age of 59. His servant, Pomp, murdered him with the blow of an ax to the head in the middle of the night in a fit of dementia, later saying he figured the farm (and Mrs. Furbush) would be his with the mister gone. Pomp was executed for the savage murder in Ipswich, August 6, 1795. Furbush’s epithet reads:

The rising morning cant assure
That we shall end the day
For death stands ready at the door
To seize our lives away.

• William Haggett, son of Thomas and Susannah, was killed at Bunker Hill. William had worked for Isaac Osgood who received William’s military pay (instead of his wife, Mary) claiming lost proceeds. The Haggett men all answered the alarm of April 19th , Thomas (father), and sons Thomas, Jonathan, and William, who all stayed in the militia in Charleston. All 3 sons were killed in the service of the Continental Army, William first at Bunker Hill, Thomas at Ticonderoga in 1777 , and Jonathan died of disease in New Jersey in 1778. This is the same family of Haggetts Pond.
• People gathered on top of Holt Hill to hear the distant cannons and see the smoke from the battle.

Notable South Cemetery American Revolution stats:

• 106 American Revolution vets,
• 2 killed in action, 5 died of disease, 1 died of wounds, 3 accidental
• 4 Patriots who carted Harvard’s library books to Andover
• 3 Patriots killed in the Powder House explosion
• 2 former slaves (Pomp Lovejoy, Titus Coburn) who fought at Lexington and Concord
• 1 Lt. Governor of Mass., Samuel Phillips, III (1802)