Facilities

Cranberry Meadow Cemetery aka The Cranberry Meadow Yard

The earliest burial here dates back to 1813. This burial yard was established by the nearby residents of Charlton and Spencer. Here are buried, among others, Esther Humphreys, a Pegan Indian and Nancy Ransom, a free black murdered by her husband in 1850. The town acquired this private cemetery in 1926. An addition was added in 2001.

This yard was originally the burial place of four or five families in its neighborhood. It is situated in the west road to Spencer from Charlton Depot., and is a little over a mile from the depot. The north boundary of the yard is the town line between Spencer and Charlton. The land when it began as a burial place belonged to one David Hammond. It afterwards passed into the hands of his son-in-law, Simon Ward. The families for most part buried here are those of Charles Lab. Simon Ward, Ebenezer White, and Reuben Newhall. We understand that Mr. Hammond gave the right of burial after it had been used for a long number of years as a cemetery, if these neighbors would put a wall around it. There never was much done to the lots until about 1830, when the wall was erected and a number of stones placed at the heads of the graves. Previous to this time there were no headstones, except the common flat field stones. The earliest marked grave denotes 1803, but we think that prior to that time there were burials. At present there are some 22 headstones, and are visible something like a dozen unmarked graves. Among the number of unmarked graves are those of the original donor of the land, and his wife. The yard is surrounded with pine wood and is enclosed with a stone wall. There are pine trees not a few within the enclosure. In this yard are buried Ebenezer White, who died in 1813; he was one of the early Baptists in town, and had an active influence in sustaining his church at the North Side; Charles Lamb, died in 1843 at the age of 74; Reuben Newhall, died in 1858 at the age of 88.

Source: This text is an excerpt from a compilation of Charlton Cemeteries by Reverend Anson Titus.