Engraved Marker

The cemetery is forgotten no more. A granite stone, engraved with the names of the six victims, has been placed at the site. The Jaffrey Boy Scout Troop has agreed to keep the plot clear of brush and to decorate the marker with flags and flowers each Memorial Day.

Deschenes and Bryant, who are next-door neighbors on Charlonne St., collected money to engrave the granite slab that St. Patrick Parish had donated. The farm where the cemetery is located is owned jointly by the Horace Deschenes heirs: Paul, Leo, Roland, Albert ("Pete"), and P. Edward who is a Jaffrey selectman.

Also engraved on the marker are the names of Jaffrey historians Albert Annett and Alice Lehtinen, who kept the memory of the burial ground alive by writing about it in their History of Jaffrey, Vol. 1.

Ray Parker, chairman of the Winchendon board of selectmen was master of ceremonies at Monday's dedication. Also speaking was Winchendon selectman Burton Gould.

Perhaps the most prominent person buried in the plot is a Winchendon man, Abel Wilder, who fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was a state senator and the town's first state representative. In a short speech, Winchendon historian Lois Greenwood gave a biographical sketch of the man.

Ironically, Capt. Wilder thought he was being prudent by traveling to Jaffrey to be inoculated against smallpox in 1792. He had been elected to a national convention to be held at Baltimore. Having learned of an epidemic of smallpox in the city, before heading south he rode his horse to Dr. Adonijah Howe's "pest house" for inoculation.

In those days medicine was primitive. People who got inoculated contracted a mild form of the disease, and generally stayed in the pest house until the symptoms passed. Afterward they were immune.

The procedure didn't always work. Wilder died in the Jaffrey pesthouse. In his memory, Winchendon selectmen recently donated $50 of town funds to help pay to get the marker engraved.

Also buried in the plot are Eliza Danforth of Amherst; Revolutionary War soldier Oliver Gould and 12-year-old Nancy Thorndike, both of Jaffrey; Enoch Thurber of Keene, and a Mr. Cambridge from Rindge, whose first name and background are unknown.

In remarks at Monday's ceremony, Selectman Deschenes said the group had gathered to perform "one of our spiritual and moral duties."

The names of the victims are listed on the stone in the order of their deaths.