Old Center Cemetery
16) LIEUTENANT JOSEPH GILLITT (1746): Gillitt was one of the 29 original members that formed the West Division's Congregational Church on February 24, 1713. He owned and operated a tanning yard. The house he built is still standing on South Main Street near the Noah Webster House. The motif on his gravestone resembles a skull or death's head, a common theme on early stones which served as a vivid reminder of death and resurrection. Despite the resemblance, however, the motif on his stone probably represents a transition to a winged cherub and not a skull, as it has a human face and lacks death's head teeth.
17) RACHEL MARSHFIELD (1754): One of the oldest people buried here is Rachel Marshfield, who died at age 86. There is no other gravestone like hers in the burying yard. The hourglass with its time run out, and one live and one dead flower severed by a scythe, are all death images that were meant to symbolize the frailty of life. Even the illiterate could understand the message.
18) AMOS BIDWELL (1808): A potter and brickmaker in the West Division, Amos Bidwell operated a tanning yard later in life. He owned 200 acres of land in the Susquehannah Purchase and in 1796 was 50 pounds in debt to Hartford's Grammar School. He was married to Phebe Williams and died from palsy, a type of paralysis.
19) MARY MERRELL (1792): The wife of Jacob Merrell, Mary Merrell, is one of the few women with probate documents. Such documents contain the will, inventories, and codicils of an individual. Merrell's probate records identify a payment of four pounds for her gravestone and name Stephen Brace as her gravedigger. He was paid seven shillings to do so.
20) JACOB MERRELL (1771): Merrell was a cousin to Noah Webster, Jr. and was a farmer and weaver. He died several days after falling on a pitchfork in a farming accident, leaving his widow Mary with the care of eight small children. The epitaph on his gravestone which reads, "the finest flesh is but dust, prepare for death and follow me you must," was meant to warn others of the inevitability of death.
