Walker Cemetery

Site: V10-28
Municipality: Hartland, VT
Location: Walker Cemetery Trail Class IV road, off County Road
Site Type: Cemetery

Off the County Road is the Walker Cemetery. This is a small cemetery used in the 1800s. Burial dates range from 1797 to 1895. Some of the early settlers buried here are people who lived in Hartland Four Corners.

Carleton Eastman's first wife was Cyrena Walker. Carleton Eastman's second wife was Ann Henderson, who came from New York State and was supposed to be of Dutch descent. Carleton Eastman died in 1859 and Mrs. Ann Eastman later married Elihu H. Pitkin. Their daughter, Lucy M. Eastman, who married Charles Carter was Nellie Murphy's mother and great grandmother of Priscilla Atwood. Lucy Eastman Carter is buried beside her mother. The Pitkins had two younger daughters, Mrs. Lottie Dunbar and Mrs. Hattie Cavanaugh and a son Sid Pitkin. The Pitkins lived in the house later owned successively by Mary Perkins, Raymond and Alice Burke and Arthur James (now Molly Delaney and Dexter Cooper).

James Hyland, whose two young children are buried here, lived in Hartland Four Corners (see Hartland Four Corners)

Isaac Sargent came to Hartland from Ware, N. H. in 1792, locating upon the farm now owned by his grandson, Isaac N. The house they later occupied was built during that year. The house was taken down in the 1940s and a house built from the materials in the Bates District by Mr. Winans. It was beyond Craig's.

James Walker came to this town from Massachusetts, in 1781, locating upon the farm now owned by his great-grandsons, J. and S. S. Walker. James Walker built the old frame house in Foundryville in 1800.. The Walker farm was owned in the 1930s. by Eldridge Davis and now owned by Audrey Collins.

Elnathan Walker used to manufacture spinning wheels.

John Field is said to have lived in the Frank French house and his son, Wardner L. Field, lived across the road in the Gardner Marcy house. His wife was Lydia Jennie Weston, a direct descendant of Myles Standish and had an ancient pitcher brought over in the Mayflower. It had been handed down from generation to generation to a daughter named Lydia. But Mrs. Field didn't like the name Lydia and didn't give the name to either of her two daughters. So after her lifetime the pitcher reverted to another line of Standish descendants who did have a daughter named Lydia. Mrs. Field always went by the name Jennie Field or L. Jennie Field and the latter form appears on her gravestone. The Standish pitcher was in Pilgrim Hall in Plymouth, Massachusetts for a number of years. One year, about 1930 and near Thanksgiving time, Della Field brought over to the Four Corners school, then next door to the Field's home, newspaper clippings and a picture of the pitcher to show to the school children. Mrs. Field's sister, Mary Weston, who lived in Massachusetts, withdrew the pitcher from Pilgrim Hall many years ago. Its present whereabouts is unknown.

The Fields had three children, a son, Warren, who never married, Estella who married Elish, Flower, and Adella, who in later life became the second wife of Leon Ayers. In the 1920s. Mrs. Field, Warren and Della moved to the house at the Four Corners, presently owned by the McLeans.

Curiously Mr. John Harding is not mentioned in either the Windsor County Gazetteer or the Windsor County History which supplied some of the above information about the Walkers and Sargents. Dr. John Harding, Sr. lived in Chadotte Gilbert's house. A government marker for l Ichabod Hatch was placed perhaps after Mr. Byron Ruggles compiled his record of the gravestones, which he did about 1907. Ichabod Hatch, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, was the ancestor of Arthur Hatch and Lillian Marcotte.

Frank Sargent was the last of the Sargent family to live on the Sargent farm before it was acquired by Allen Brinon.

At present, no information is known about the other persons buried in this small cemetery, other than what is recorded on their gravestones. There are graves marked only by rough field stones and probably some of the graves were not marked at all. Probably most of the people lived in nearby houses. The Hartland land records may reveal some information, but some may not have owned land. Therefore any type of record at all is very important and should never be destroyed‹school district records, merchant's account books, family papers, newspapers, old letters, etc., for such may contain the only record of some former resident, even though but mere mention of a name.
(Source 131:223)