Almshouse Burial Ground

A plot of land filled with loose stone, scattered grave markers and second growth trees provided good ghost stories for children growing up in the Ironstone section of Uxbridge. Abandoned and overgrown, neighbors referred to the site as the “old Quaker cemetery”, and it’s proximity to a Nipmuc Praying Village led locals to believe that Native Americans could also be buried there. The graveyard, situated by the Oyster Cabin Restaurant, lay quiet and ignored, waiting for the day when someone would push away the piles of sand and leaves and find out who its inhabitants really were.

In 1981, the cemetery was in the right of way for the new Route 146 passing through this part of Uxbridge. Thanks to the efforts of local activist Cynthia Walenty, construction on a 3.5-mile stretch of the road was halted and state archeologists were called in to examine the field. Preliminary examination found crude granite markers, three possible Indian burial mounds and an elaborate headstone with the inscription, “Nancy Adams a respectable colored woman, ex-slave died 1859”. These discoveries placed the site under the protection of the Massachusetts Unmarked Burial Law, since it had graves at least 100 years old and possible Native American remains, “which were accidentally discovered or threatened”. Thirty-two individuals were unearthed, aging in range from 6 months to 100 years old, one of which was Native American. Historical investigation and document searches determined that this was the “potters field” for the old town almshouse. The excavated remains were taken to Office of Public Archeology at Boston University for osteological study and analysis of the burial artifacts. Long forgotten, the people buried there would become celebrities as the experts in Boston studied them and brought forth a model of a nineteenth century pauper.

The town almshouse, or poor farm, was in operation in Ironstone from 1830 until the town abandoned it in 1872. The birth of the Industrial Revolution, coupled with a switch to a cash economy, gave rise to a new problem for local governments, a burgeoning indigent population. The work farm, or poor farm, was a way to provide short-term assistance for the town’s paupers while saving the town money. A fire in 1846 and the splitting of the farm by the Boston, Hartford and Erie Rail Road initiated the town’s relocation of the farm. The poor farm was moved to the Rice City section of Uxbridge on East Hartford Avenue and part of it still stands today. After 1872, the ownership of the burial ground changed hands several times and its existence was left to local legend and the memories of old timers.

When the bodies and artifacts were removed to Boston for study, it was always the intention to re-inter them in Uxbridge when the analysis was completed. However, the Unmarked Burial Law had no provisions for the re-interment of non-Indians, so special legislation was signed to allow burial of the almshouse remains. (The one Native American found at the site was returned to his people for a proper burial). In 1989 the state DPW donated one acre of land off of Buxton Street for a new graveyard and with funds from a town cemetery trust fund, the Almshouse Burial Project was completed by the fall of 1995. Destitute, neglected and unwanted in their lives, these almshouse residents brought together legislators, scientific experts and a community with one goal, to bury these people with all the dignity and honor their lives deserved.