Address: 636 [Gilead Cemetery] Gilead Street
Inventory Num: 155
Location: East side 0.2 Mi north of Porter Road
Year Built: 1750
Builder: "Gilead Parish"
Style:
Current Use: Cemetery
Notable Architectural Features:
- Approx 800 Markers
- Most are granite and marble, some brownstone
- 10-15 obelisks and other assorted shafts
- Fence on the front and sides supported by granite posts. The sides have wooden horizontal slats while the front has wooden pickets. The rear has no fence
- The yard is maintained very well and there is little deterioration
Importance:On the 13th of June in 1750, the Gilead Society -- in a legal meeting -- appointed a committee of three to agree with and take a deed of land from Mr. Ephraim Youngs as a Burying Place for the Society. Some information from the deed follows: Ephraim Youngs July 6, 1750 to Ichabod Phelps, Jordan Post and Benjamin Trumbull and the "rest of the inhabitants of sd parish" "taking into consideration the necessity of a burying place where the Parish of Gilead on all occasions may bury their dead out of their sight" "full and free of liberty of the use of half an acre of my land for the use of a decent burying place in the southwest corner of my home lot."
Several pieces of land have been added to the cemetery down through the years, and the Gilead Society transferred the Cemetery to the Gilead Cemetery Association in 1926.
Two massive stones of interest are those of Rev. Elijah Lothrop and his wife, Silence Lothrop. The Rev. Mr. Lothrop graduated from Yale, ministered to the Gilead Society starting in 1751, was ordained there in 1752 and continued as Pastor until his death in 1797.
According to records on file at the Connecticut State Library, buried in the Gilead Cemetery are the following Veterans: 31 served in the Revolutionary War, 10 from the Civil War, 5 fought in the French & Indian War, 3 from the War of 1812, as well as veterans of more recent wars.
