Back to the cemetery on Saturday to scout up the oldest headstone in the place. Though a few of the stones date back even further than this one, it seems apparent that they are not the originals, and had been replaced at some point for some reason. As you can see, they didn't have much time for making fancy headstones back then. This one is a simple piece of fieldstone with an enscription carved into it. I saw one other similar one, even cruder, but it only had some initials scratched into it and not much of a date. My guess is that these two are the oldest original headstones in the place.

Did a little math, and it seems that Mr. Street was born
only 15 years after the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock,
in Dec. 1620. He might well have been one of the children
of those original settlers.

oh what a lucky person you are to have such a historical cemetary down the road from you... i love that you post the headstones... it's really interesting to see a piece of history... is the church still in existence? if so, the records should still be somewhat intact if they were stored properly. More,more!! lol

1717? Gee, nearly 300 years old, huh? Never did like history much at school, as to be honest it dealt too much with events like WWI and WWII which at the time had no interest for me whatsoever. (Let's face it, what relevance are the wars to any teenager discovering girls?!?) So I've never really sat down and thought about the U.S. other than it exists and is full of Americans and never really twigged that you guys had been over there less than 400 years. Gawd. Brings a new perspective, dunnit? If I get the chance I'll have a look at a coupla graveyards I know of, and see what the oldest is there for ya. (",)

Ha, ha. ASalina I'm even more amazed than you are. Since I am on the west cost of the US. In general this area has not been widely populated since 1840 roughly. So 300 year old head stones is ANCHIENT to my point of view. I won't consider the ages of stuff in Jordy's neck of the planet. Bsteph

The phrase "departed this life" is interesting... ...I mean, I've never herad it before, and it's nice.

Jordy, I'm sure you'll be able to find much older artifacts
around where you live. Stonehenge leaps to mind for example.
I do realize on the one hand how relatively young this
country is, with respect to Europeans living here. I often
wonder if present day people living in Europe and the UK
have an appreciation for how old their home towns are. On
the other hand, because life has changed so radically in
this country since the pilgrims settled here (social moors,
standards of living, environmental changes), that scant 300
years seems much longer and more distant.

If you do photograph ancient sites where you are, then
please post them. I'd be very interested to see what you
find. In fact, this might make a good Challenge some time.