The Beaman and Mt. Vernon Cemeteries

Mount Vernon Cemetery, named in honor of George Washington contains graves from 1757 to the present. Established in 1852, it incorporates the Beaman Cemetery (1757) and Old Burying Ground (ca. 1790). The Old Buying Ground lies closest to Bigelow Tavern.

The Beaman Cemetery, the town’s oldest cemetery, was relocated to Mount Vernon Cemetery in 1904 before its original site was flooded for the Wachusett Reservoir. All of the graves from Beaman's family cemetery were transported by town hearse to the newly prepared ground. The 77 slate and marble gravestones are arranged in a horseshoe pattern in the section at the rear beyond the stone wall.

The Beaman monument, a marble obelisk standing on a tall, square marble base, commemorates the early Beaman family settlers of West Boylston. Mr. Jabez Beaman, the keeper of the well-known Beaman Tavern, died of smallpox in 1757 and was the first family member buried in Beaman Cemetery. Major Ezra Beaman, Esq., the great force behind in the incorporation of the town, was buried here after his death in 1811.

Land was acquired over the years to allow for expansion, and in 1931, all three cemeteries became the responsibility of the Town of West Boylston and were merged into Mount Vernon Cemetery.

The old Beaman Cemetery with the Beaman home visible behind the gravestones.

In May 1904, this section looked much like it does today.

In 2008, the West Boylston Historic Commission, with the help of the West Boylston Historical Society applied for and received recognition of Holbrook Chapel and Mount Vernon Cemetery and the Bicentennial Bell Garden listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Historical Society's pamphlet available for download.