River (or Colby) Cemetery

Site: N09-20
Municipality: Plainfield, NH
Location: River Road
Site Type: Cemetery.

The River Cemetery (also known as Colby Cemetery) is located on the River Road, near the McNamara and Sprague land and the old Fuller place. The oldest stone is dated 1788. It is near the grave of Francis Smith, who was one of the first grantees. There are about seventy-five graves and several unmarked mounds. There is a tall tree in the rear of the cemetery, and John Alden Gilbert is buried under it. Gilbert was a servant who lived with the Smith family. He asked Lewis Jordan to put a pine tree on his grave as a monument.(9) He feared no one would provide a stone for him because he was a town pauper. Town records show that in 1868 the selectmen paid Lewis Jordan two dollars "for digging grave for Gilbert" and that Judith Davis received thirty-three cents for "making robe for Gilbert." (10)
(Source 165:274)