Location:43.85929 -70.97533
From its intersection with Dana Weeks Road, drive north on Colcord Pond Road 0.9 miles to a gated meadow on the left (west) side. The cemetery is approximately 160 feet west from the gate, across the meadow and along the edge of the woods. A couple of rough fieldstones are inside of a small stone wall.
Historical Information: This cemetery is in what had been referred to as the Meshach field, named after Meshach Hill who lived in the field across from the Drown family houses. William Cook first lived on what became known as the Mark Drown Farm. After his death in 1847, his widow, Abigail (Bickford) Cook, is shown as living there. Mark Drown married their daughter, Nancy S. (Cook) and was given the property. Abigail continued to live with the couple into her old age. Mark and Nancy appear to have had two sons: Moses E., who was born in 1859 and died before the 1870 census; and Wesley (1871-1934). They also raised Mark’s nephew, Isaac M. Drown (1865-1914) and Mark’s youngest brother James Monroe Drown (1852-1937). Isaac, Wesley and James M. all died single. Isaac was the teacher for many years at the Rand School north of the Drown Farm.
The cemetery contains two rows of graves, four in the back and three in the front. Each grave is marked with a fieldstone footstone and headstone except one, which does not have a footstone. The spaces between the headstones and footstones are adult-sized. There may also be some unmarked graves.
According to Stanley Funeral Home records, the following two people were buried at the Drown Family Cemetery in Porter:
–Drowns, Wesley –son of Mark and Nancy (Cook) Drown, b.8/12/1871, d. 11/5/1934, aged 63y2m23d
–Drowns, James Monroe –son of James and Rachel (Hill) Drowns, b.6/6/1852, d. 2/6/1937, age 84y8m
Along with Wesley and James, it is probable that the following are also buried here:
–William Cook, b.1802, d.1847
–Abigail (Bickford) Cook, b.1800, died after 1870 but before 1880
–Moses E. Drown, son of Mark and Nancy, b. 1859, d. after 1860 but before 1870
–Nancy S. (Cook) Drown, b.1836, d. 6/10/1894
–Mark Drown, b. 2/1838, d. after 1920 but before 1930
–Isaac M. Drown, b.1865, d.9/9/1914
Condition (11/23/19): This cemetery is on the edge of a mowed pasture. The inside of the small cemetery is overgrown with saplings and should be trimmed. The fieldstone markers are mostly quite small and difficult to find without brushing the leaves away.