Location: 43.893625, -70.959738
From its intersection with Old County Road, drive west on Phen Hill Road less than 0.1 miles. The cemetery, which consists of fieldstones only, is in the dooryard/garden of the first house on the left (south) side of the road, a green ranch.
Historical Information:
This cemetery was incorrectly referred to at some point as the Broad Farm Cemetery. While the Broad family did live here originally (Thaddeus Broad Sr bought land here in 1799, then passed it to his son Amos in 1809), they had moved to what was known as the “Broad Farm” on Merrill Corner Road by 1829. Most likely the deaths and burials of their children occurred there. (See Broad Farm Cemetery.)
Lists of burials in this cemetery often overlap with the Nathaniel/Phend Hill Cemetery just to the west. In 1905 Eli Bean wrote that “Several graves in the Charles Blake pasture on the south side of the road leading to Nathaniel Hill farm in West Brownfield. Jeremiah Binford and others.” Jeremiah Binford was a landowner near the cemetery and his wife appears to be the earliest burial in this cemetery, so this is now being referred to as the “Binford Cemetery.”
Probable burials in this cemetery include:
–Jeremiah Binford (Eli Bean’s Records: Son of William and Dorcas (Richardson) Binford; born in Standish January 18, 1782; died suddenly January 10, 1827 in Baldwin and was brought to Brownfield for internment near the N. Hill farm; married first Rebecca (Thompson) in 1807 in Buxton, ME; married second Shuah (Meserve) in Brownfield, September 14, 1823.)
–Rebecca (Thompson) Binford, 1st wife of Jeremiah (b.1785 in Buxton, ME, daughter of Thomas Thompson; d. 2-5-1823 in Brownfield)
–Jedediah Blake (son of Benjamin and Phebe (Lombard) Blake, b. 3/14/1786 in Gorham, ME; d. after 4-1853 but before 1860)
–Hannah (Cook) Blake, 1st wife of Jedediah Blake, daughter of Isaac Cook (d. about 1849)
–Eliza (Gibson or Glidden) Blake of Parsonsfield, 2nd wife of Jedediah Blake (d. 1850 or 1851)
–John Libby b. 1/30/1792 in Porter, d. 10/20/1839 on the Charles Blake farm in Brownfield (Eli Bean notes)
–Child of James Day, who lived at some point on the southwest corner of Phen Hill Road and Old County Road
–Colby Rogers (or Bridges or Brass, according to different sources) who died at the Augustus Hill house near the Cole Brook
It is also possible that three of Amos and Abigail Broad’s children are buried here:
–Amos Jr. 7/2/1811 – 2/28/1814
–Abigail 9/9/1813 – 3/9/1829
–Hannah 12/23/1826 or 1827 – 1/13/1827 or 1828
Ruth Peckham’s notes on the Eli Bean diaries state that there were four graves marked by rough headstones, no names. Legend says that the largest head/foot pairing is for a Revolutionary War soldier. Joanne (Blake) Thurston notes that as a child living nearby she and her siblings would play with the flag holder at the base and that there used to be a sign with a name on it, but she couldn’t remember now what it was. Research of possible soldiers has not yielded any possibilities. Most likely this legend is false and the graves are simply early (pre-1850) and for common people who could not afford carved gravestones.
Condition (4/22/18):
It appears that there are four marked graves: 1) Large fieldstone head and footstone (adult-spaced), 2) Small fieldstone head and footstone (child-spaced), 3) Small fieldstone footstone with a missing headstone (child-spaced), 4) Small fieldstone head and footstone off by itself to the southwest of the other three (child-spaced). Some of these stones have been reset in the past, so their exact locations cannot be guaranteed. There are probably other graves that are unmarked.