Who is LG? A Cemetery Mystery

 Easton has so many cemeteries we occasionally lose one or two. One of the saddest moments in my career as a local historian is the loss of the grave of Doctor Seth Babbitt, the town's first doctor. Dr. Babbitt served in the French and Indian War, developed smallpox and died at his home in a far corner of South Easton. Since he died of a contagious disease, he was buried on his own land. Ultimately, his gravestone ended up in a stonewall where it still presumably rests. The last person to know the location was Ross Staples who invited me to visit the site with him. Of course, I didn't go immediately and by the time Ross' grandchild appeared in my local history class to jog my memory, he was in a nursing home.

Then there's the Elisha Harvey Cemetery whose marker was moved from the center of the YMCA parking lot to a site on the northeastern edge of the property. Rumors with some macabre details continue to circulate about what actually happened to the fifteen people buried here, there, or somewhere.

In 1986 I was in an expedition to find a cemetery that even Chaffin listed as abandoned a century before. This cemetery, located in Unionville, was thought to be threatened by a subdivision. The expedition never found the graves, but yesterday the intrepid Chairperson of the Cemetery Commission, Melanie Deware, called to say that she followed a tip and found a gravestone with the initials LG and a not so old flag with an American Revolution flag holder. A quick perusal of Chaffin shows that Lewis and Lemuel Gilbert both served in the Revolution; Lewis was in the East Militia which is an indication he lived in the general area of the cemetery. Neither seem to have left much trace in town, and, of course, in the first day of research it's quite possible that I missed another alternative LG.

If you know anything about these three cemeteries, shoot me an e-mail!