West Rutland Cemetery Inscriptions

by Margaret R. Jenks ©1994

121 Pages, 7 Cemeteries, 5,800 Names, Maps, Indexed

Now available from Sleeper Books at www.sleeperco.com

SUMMARY

In October 1787, Rutland was divided into two parishes and in 1886, West Rutland and Proctor were set off as separate towns.  The Congregational Church was organized on October 20, 1773.  The old burial ground on Pleasant Street was given to the church by deed in 1787 by William Roberts.  The Whipple Hollow Cemetery in the north part of town is in very poor condition.  The oldest extant stone is dated 1789.

Marble was quarried before 1800 and by the late 1830s, Irish workers arrived to build the railroad and work the quarries.  At first the Catholics were buried in the Pleasant Street Cemetery, but after the construction of St. Bridget's Church, land was purchased in 1867 for a cemetery.  Many of these stones are dated before 1867.

The French Canadians had their own church, "The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus," built in 1870, that stood on what is now the northwest corner of the cemetery.  Their burials were in the west section of the cemetery near the church.  The Polish began to arrive in the 1890s and some early Slavic stones are in the Irish and French sections of the cemetery.  After the Polish church was erected, they obtained land south of St. Bridget's and Sacred Heart cemeteries.

The book includes two maps, one of Rutland County and one of West Rutland, showing the location of each cemetery.  The Catholic Cemetery was recorded in sections to facilitate locating a stone.

Included are all extant stones in the following Danby cemeteries:
PLEASANT STREET CEMETERY                    WHIPPLE HOLLOW CEMETERY

Catholic Cemeteries:
ST. BRIDGET'S CEMETERY                          SACRED HEART CEMETERY                    ST. STANISLAUS KOSTKA CEMETERY

Town Farm Cemeteries:
NORTH LANE                                            DURGY HILL ROAD

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