395 Pages, 12 Cemeteries, 33,500 Names, Maps, Indexed

Now available from Sleeper Books at www.sleeperco.com

The charter for Rutland was granted on September 7, 1761, by Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire, to Colonel Josiah Willard of Winchester, New Hampshire.  The same area was granted in 1761 by Colonel John Henry Lydius of Albany under the name of Fairfield and by Governor Dunmore of New York for Socialborough.  It was a number of years before all the claims were settled in favor of the New Hampshire grant.  The old military road from Charlestown, New Hampshire to Crown Point, crossed Otter Creek at Center Rutland.

On September 30, 1769, Captain James Mead bought 7,000 acres of land, or about 1/4 of Rutland and sold half to Charles Button of Clarendon.  In the spring of 1770, Mead brought his family to Rutland.  Simeon Powers, William Dwinell, and Asa Johnson came in the summer of 1770 with their wives.  Along with the Meads, they were the only white settlers that fall.  By 1774, there were 35 families in Rutland and by 1791 there were 243 families.  The building of the railroad in Rutland in the 1840s and the start of the marble industry brought Irish workers, soon followed by French Canadians, experienced Italian marble cutters, Polish, Swedish, Hungarian, Greek, and many others.

There have been at least fourteen cemeteries in the original Rutland.  The first, on West Street in Center Rutland, was set aside before 1773.  After the town was split into two parishes, new burial grounds were opened on Pleasant and North Main Streets.  These were filled up and a new West Street cemetery was purchased.  In 1854, the Rutland Cemetery Association was formed.

In 1860, forty-five acres of land was bought on Pine Hill for the Evergreen Cemetery.  The small Cheney Hill Cemetery and the old Whipple Hollow Cemetery are in the north part of Rutland, there are three Catholic cemeteries, and the Rutland Jewish Cemetery is in Clarendon.

The book includes two maps, one for Rutland County and one for Rutland Township, showing the location of each cemetery.  The larger cemeteries were recorded in sections to facilitate locating a stone.

Included are all extant stones in the following Rutland cemeteries:

EVERGREEN CEMETERY                                                 OLD CENTER RUTLAND CEMETERY

NORTH MAIN STREET CEMETERY                                  PLEASANT STREET CEMETERY

RUTLAND CITY HALL DEATH RECORDS