Excerpt from History of Ashburnham, Massachusetts, From the Grant of Dorchester Canada to the Present Time, 1734-1886: With a Genealogical Register of Ashburnham Families A few of the Germans who died in the early history of the town were buried near the school-house in the second district and there are two family burial-grounds, but the vast congregation of the dead are sleeping in the old church yard or in the new cemetery. From the first the original burying-ground has remained under the control of the town and frequent votes for the repair of the fences and the removal of stone and brush attest a reasonable stewardship of a sacred trust. As in other ancient cemeteries, which were not allotted at the beginning, the ties of kindred and family associations are the only suggestion of an orderly arrangement, while the varied sculpture and inscription assert the age of the several memorials. The crowded condition and irregular arrange ment of the graves admit of little future adornment, but the yard will not be neglected. Here repose the remains of the early settlers and of many of the fathers and mothers who have succeeded them. The ground is hallowed. Pious care will renew the fading inscriptions and repair the waste of time as long as good works and well-ordered lives command the dutiful reverence of mankind. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.