Rowe — Cemeteries
Extracted from "History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, Volume II," by Louis H. Everts, 1879.
In 1777 the Rev. Cornelius Jones set aside two acres for a burial-ground, and in 1785 a second place for interments was secured by the selectmen. A third lot was set aside at a later day in the northern part of town, and by the Methodist Church, in the eastern part of the town, is a cemetery which was formed in 1828.
It is said that Reuben Gleason was the first adult who died in the town, and that Deacon Archibald Thomas dug his grave. In the cemeteries are the graves of several centenarians: Mrs. Archibald Thomas (Elizabeth) died in 1815, aged one hundred and six years; a Mr. Dodge, at the age of one hundred and one; and the Widow Goodspeed, aged one hundred and two years. They contain also the graves of several persons who met with accidental deaths: Amos Gleason, a youth, was lost in the woods soon after the country was settled, and perished before he was found; a Mrs. Knowlton and a Miss Shurtleff were drowned while crossing the Deerfield, from Monroe, some time after 1820; and on the 8th of October, 1869, Rufus Hyde and his wife were swept away by the freshet which destroyed his saw-mill on Pelham Brook, and carried many rods down the turbulent stream. It appears that, fearing his mill might be lost, Mr. Hyde endeavored to save some of the movable machinery; while thus engaged, the furious waters washed out a new channel between him and his house, and his wife, seeing the impending danger, hastened to the edge of the stream to save him. She threw him a line, by means of which she hoped to pilot him to safety. The ill-fated man plunged into the current, only to be ruthlessly swept away, and with him his devoted wife, who had maintained her hold on the line.
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