Teen researches burial plots in Wrentham cemetery

WRENTHAM — Patience Mann had one lingering request when she died: That the living world take the time now and again to stop and "listen" to the stories of those who have gone before.
 

"Listen close to this solemn ground," the 18th century lady calls out through the epitaph on her gravestone, "my story you shall hear of wars and youth and journey’s end."

Nearly three centuries later, the plea — carved on Mann’s stone when she died in May of 1724 —has been heard, and taken to heart, by 18-year-old Brianna Chamberlain.

The recent King Philip High School graduate is about to complete an ambitious booklet highlighting a number of individuals buried in the historic section of the Wrentham Centre Cemetery in the town center — part of a project that included inventorying 800 historic grave sites and creating a scale map of their locations within the graveyard.

 In a way, the stones spoke out to Chamberlain, who conceived the community service project in her quest for the highest award in Girl Scouting — the Gold Award.

 "We were walking through here one day and one of the odd gravestones caught my eye and I said ‘Oh, I didn’t know that was here!’" said Chamberlain, standing last week beside a grouping of 19th century burials and letting her gaze sweep out over the rows of aged gravestones arranged under the trees.

 "Nobody really knows anything about the cemetery except certain people," she said.
 Among those people is local historian and state Rep. Richard Ross, R-Wrentham, who Chamberlain said has a wealth of knowledge about the town’s history and the cemetery. But, she said, "that’s all kind of up in his head. So I thought it would be good to get it down on paper so people can learn about it."

 Her booklet, called "Softly Speak the Stones," is a resource that anyone with an interest can use to take a self-guided tour of the cemetery’s historic section. It includes a chronology of Wrentham history, a fold-out map, and a "kids page" with activities such as a Wrentham word search and "Who Am I?" based on the cemetery.

The bulk of the 40-page booklet highlights 28 people whose gravestones caught Chamberlain’s interest — mostly every day individuals rather than the high profile personages featured in most other written histories.

 The booklet is expected to be completed by mid August, and will be available for borrowing from the Fiske Public Library, as well as the town hall, Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain recently unveiled her work by leading a tour for scout leaders, local historians and others, who were duly impressed.

"She did a tremendous amount of work. It’s amazing," said Ross, who joined the tour. "She took the time to take some fairly obscure people from Wrentham’s past who were not documented in other ways and find some interesting stories about them. I’m very, very proud of her."

Wrentham Historical Commission Chairman Greg Stahl also has high praise for the work, a copy of which he plans to send to the Massachusetts Historical Commission.
"She did a fantastic job," he said. "And the most interesting part of that was that she did it from a woman’s point of view. She really asked questions about why is this inscription on this headstone and why was this put down in this way. Her frame of reference was really quite unique. I was just blown away by it."

Chamberlain’s research even appears to have turned up a bit of information that previously escaped the town’s historians — she discovered through cross-referencing with records that the date carved on the stone of Joseph Robichaux, 1757-1786, is incorrect and, because of that, anyone could have missed "a wildly exciting" story.

It turns out Robichaux froze to death after being shipwrecked on Lovell’s Island in Boston Harbor during a severe blizzard. He is listed among the casualties, which included some other Wrentham residents, in a history of famous New England shipwrecks, as well as in an historic diary.

Ross calls the revelation "exciting stuff."

"I knew of the Robichaux family. But that (Robichaux death) is a story I didn’t know," he admitted.

Stahl said he also didn’t know about the Robichaux tragedy. "I know that there was a shipwreck on Lovell’s Island and that there were some Wrentham people there," he said, but he didn’t know Robichaux was one of the Wrentham losses.

Chamberlain began work last year by enlisting the help of family, friends and fellow scouts in troop 348 to record information from the historic stones.

"I had teams go in and write down everything that was written on the stones," said Chamberlain, who had about 14 people helping her.

The recording also included taking note of the size and shape of each stone, as well as any ornamentation. The data filled a 30-page document.

"She really exhausted herself with (the project) and she’s created a beautiful document," said her mom, Meg.

Chamberlain said she selected individuals to highlight whose gravestones grabbed her interest.

The grave of Polly Messinger, 1774-1799, is one that especially resonated with Chamberlain. Messinger gave birth to a girl on Christmas Eve, 1798. A week later, on New Year’s Eve, Polly died — Chamberlain guesses probably because of complications from giving birth.

"She’s my absolute favorite because she has a really nice epitaph," Chamberlain said, reciting from memory: "Rest lovely shade and wait thy makers will, Then rise unchanged and be an angel still."

Chamberlain likes the sweet, loving simplicity of the sentiment. "You see so many (epitaphs) where they’re struggling to say what they mean. But this they were able to say it just in those two lines," she said.

There is no record of Polly’s husband, Eli, ever remarrying, as was common, and having other children, Chamberlain said.

As part of her work, Chamberlain spent a lot of time going through vital records in the genealogy room at the Fiske Public Library, and researching on the Internet. Surprisingly, she never before considered herself a history buff.

"I always hated history, actually," Chamberlain admitted.

That dislike, however, was confined to learning about history from textbooks and history that she could not relate to, she explained.

"But this is right here, in my town. It makes it more interesting," she said, noting she became so fascinated she had trouble narrowing her more detailed research down to just 28 people. "You might be related to them, or know someone who is. There’s that kind of interconnectedness between you and the cemetery."