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Oct 18, 2024

A Window on the Past: Old Settlers Cemetery history, and lecture Tuesday about gravestone symbolism

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The gravestone of Mrs. Ann Simonton, who died in 1744, is the oldest legible gravestone at Old Settlers Cemetery. There are many other field stones and markers that are either broken off or illegible that would pre-date this marker. Historians have recorded that 25 early European settlers, killed in a raid in 1703, are buried in the cemetery. Contributed / South Portland Historical Society

South Portland Historical Society will be featuring cemetery expert Ron Romano for its next lecture, “Understanding Symbolism on Maine’s Early Gravestones,” to be held at the Community Center on Tuesday, Oct. 22. More details on the lecture are at the end of this column. With a nod to Romano’s lecture, we take a look this week at the early history of Old Settlers Cemetery.

The cemetery on the campus of SMCC is sometimes referred to by an alternate name: the Thrasher cemetery. That name is due to the gravestones that are still in existence and legible, many of which are stones for Thrasher family members. When we did some deeper research into the people buried in the cemetery, however, we had questions about some of the other stones. Why is there a stone for Ann Simonton? Ann Douglas Simonton was born circa 1675 and was the wife of Andrew Simonton. The Simonton family was among the group of Scots-Irish settlers who arrived here in 1718 (when our community was known as “Purpooduck” and was still part of the First Parish of Falmouth). The cove at Willard Beach is named Simonton Cove for that family, and Fisherman’s Point was the site of the Simonton family’s wharf.

One of the first European settlers on Spring Point was Nicholas White. The first known recording of White in this area was when he was documented as being at Richmond’s Island (off current-day Cape Elizabeth) in 1639 and 1640. In addition to having land at Maiden Cove, White later settled on Spring Point and, in fact, there was a landing at the foot of Beach Street that was known as “White’s Landing.”

White’s sons, Nathaniel and Josiah (or Joseph) were also believed to have lived at Spring Point. Nathaniel was reportedly killed in a raid by Native Americans, circa 1690, although we have found little documenting his death so far. We have found no burial records for the cemetery from the 1600s, although it is possible burials took place there that early.

The gravestone of James Maxwell at Old Settlers Cemetery. Contributed / South Portland Historical Society

The first European settlers in this area, known as the “Old Proprietors,” had obtained land grants and titles to the land here – land that had previously been home to Indigenous peoples. Through a number of wars and conflicts, loosely referred to as the French and Indian Wars, the settlement at Purpooduck was made and abandoned a few times. After a peace treaty with France was signed in 1697, peace returned to this area for a few years. By 1703, some families had returned to Purpooduck, including the White family at Spring Point, and had built new homes. A devastating raid that summer resulted in the killing of 25 people, mostly women and children, and eight were captured and taken to Canada. The 25 settlers who died were reportedly buried at Spring Point, thus the name “Old Settlers Cemetery.”

No settlers were living in this area from that point until after another peace treaty was signed in 1713. It wasn’t until around 1716 that any settlers returned to Purpooduck. In 1718 there were reportedly only 13 families living in Purpooduck when the ship carrying the Scots-Irish settlers (including the Simontons) arrived that winter. These new settlers were also granted land and were thus called the “New Proprietors.” In some cases, if an Old Proprietor came back to reclaim his land, the court would have to figure out a solution between the two claims on a single tract of land.

According to the journal of the Rev. Thomas Smith of the First Parish, the Rev. John White (Nicholas White’s grandson) preached in the meeting house at Purpooduck on July 24, 1726. The Rev. White had arrived here from Gloucester that year with his sons, John and William. While the reverend lived here for a time, he returned to Gloucester, but his sons stayed. There is a notation in Smith’s journal of the land ownership by the White family; the note says that it was brothers Josiah and Nathaniel White (Nicholas White’s sons) who were the original landowners, and that the Rev. White “claimed his ancestor’s title in 1749.”

These early records are scanty, but we did find a deed from 1808 that recorded the sale of part of the “John White estate” at Spring Point, and it is referring to the Rev. John White’s son John. It was two of John White’s descendants who sold the Spring Point property to Ebenezer Thrasher in 1808. It turns out that, after John White’s death, his widow remarried to Benjamin Thrasher, and Ebenezer Thrasher was their son. So even though the land went from the White family to the Thrasher family, technically the families were related.

Also, going back to Ann Simonton, who is buried in that cemetery – her daughter Christian (sometimes called Christina) married William White, John’s brother. So although the Old Settlers Cemetery appears to have been used by the Whites as their family burial ground, it is easy to see why Christian White had her mother buried there. Some of the questions that we are still working on are these: Where are the burial locations of early Simonton family members, including Ann Simonton’s husband Andrew? And where are the early White family members buried? Because the early burials at Old Settlers Cemetery had either wooden crosses or field stones, nothing remains to identify just who else is buried there. We hope that there are some family documents that still exist that will one day help us to identify additional burials in the cemetery.

On Tuesday, Oct. 22, Ron Romano will give a lecture on the meaning of symbolism on early gravestones. Contributed / South Portland Historical Society

Lecture on Tuesday

On Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 6:30 p.m. Ron Romano will present “Understanding Symbolism on Maine’s Early Gravestones.” Cemeteries are rich with folk art. Beautifully hand-carved gravestones created by local stonecutters are readily found as you stroll through the burial places in use since the colonial period. But what do the gravestone symbols – rising suns, skulls and crossed bones, and pointing fingers – really mean? In this heavily illustrated presentation, cemetery historian and author Ron Romano will describe the “anatomy” of a gravestone, discuss the types of materials found in our burying grounds and explain the meanings of dozens of gravestone images.

The lecture will be held in the Casco Bay room of the South Portland Community Center. Admission to the lecture is free for current members of South Portland Historical Society, or $20 for non-members. For more information, call 767-7299 or email [email protected].

Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo is executive director of the South Portland Historical Society.

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