For the last 30 years I have taken a walk down my street and back again. I would walk as far as Jennings Hill Cemetery, turn around and walk home. Round trip was only a mile. Never paid much attention, never really strolled in to look around. Just dead people, no one I knew, no one I left flowers for on Memorial Day.
That all changed a wee bit when I started researching my family tree. I found my attitude changing from just dead people, to these people had a history, they at one time walked the earth. Then it changed dramatically when I discovered that the oldest section of this cemetery had not only my 3rd great grandparents, Erastus Hayward and Mary Perry Torry, but also my 4th great grandparents, Elijah Hayward and Mary Tompson. There were also many Hayward aunts and uncles and cousins, Polly, Edward, Hannah, Ziba and so many more.
This led to my finding my 5th great grandparents, Hezekiah Hayward born 1707 and Huldah Edson born in 1713, and my 6th great grandparents, Benjamin Hayward born 1677 and Sarah Aldrich born 1672 and Josiah Edson born 1682 and Sarah Packard born 1682. They are buried in the, simply called, Old Cemetery on Summer Street.
I never looked at another cemetery in the same way. Flowers now adorn their graves, most likely not seen there in over 250 years.
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| Elijah Hayward 1741 - 1815 |
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| Mary Tomson Hayward 1757 - 1846 |
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| Erastus 1790 - 1844 and Mary 1757 - 1879 |
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| Here lies Polly daughter of Elijah Hayward age 13 1781 - 1894 |
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| Old Cemetery, Bridgewater, MA |
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