Plainfield Cemetery

Site: N09-18
Municipality: Plainfield, NH
Location: Route 12A
Site Type: Cemetery.

Plainfield Plain Cemetery started as a "Church Yard." The meeting house stood there until moved to its present location and remodeled as a town hall. The cemetery has been expanded five different times and is presently the largest cemetery in Plainfield. The first graves lie in the middle section and in back of the round drive. Experience Stevens is the oldest dated stone, February 20, 1767. The town records show that she was the first person to die in Plainfield. Experience passed away on February 20, 1767, aged forty-one years, the wife of John Stevens, the town moderator. She was buried near their cabin on Maude (Earle) Stanley's land (1991) on the River Road. About 1900, the Stevens residence was sold to William Orlo Kenyon, and the cemetery plot and stone were moved to Plainfield Plain Cemetery.(6) A trust fund of $500 was started in 1889 for Plainfield Plain Cemetery by Mrs. Lucy (Parker) Chamberlin and others for the upkeep of the cemetery. The town contributed $100. At the cemetery's entrance, there is a cobblestone wall with wrought iron gates from Italy. Hitching rails were put up in 1902. There are two plaques on either side of the gates, one for Mrs. Chamberlin's parents and the other for the meeting house.(7)
(Source 165:273)