Find-A-Grave Listing (Click to see individual stone before and after pictures!)
Location: 43.88256 -71.01592
From its intersection with Stewart Road, drive south and east on Foss Mountain Road 1.4 miles. Continue straight (northeast) onto Willis Bean Road and follow it 0.45 miles, stopping before the second bridge. The cemetery is 100 feet steeply up on the hill on the left (north) side. Note: Much of this route is not maintained for winter travel.
Historical Information: Simon and Olive Fernald lived just north of the cemetery starting at least by 1829. It appears that Simon was the last burial in the cemetery in 1857. The rest of the burials were for four of Simon and Olive’s children (Charles, Olive Jane, George C. and Ira) and their grandson (George I. Philbrick). After Simon’s death his eldest son Edmund took over the homestead. Sometime between 1863 and 1865 Edmund sold the property to Charles Nason and moved the family to Ellison, IL. Olive also moved with them and is buried there.
Just south of Simon’s grave are two adult-sized fieldstone-marked graves. Most likely these are for Simon’s father Joshua Fernald and Joshua’s second wife, Hannah (King) Snow. Joshua was a Revolutionary War Soldier and according to those records was living in Eaton in 1820 as a blacksmith and died there on 1/11/1830.
Condition (7/31/2020): This cemetery has recently been cleared of growth by neighbors Nancy and Mark Watson. They also removed all of the dangerous trees in the cemetery. The gravestones had fallen in the past and been piled in the middle of the cemetery. With the help of bases and footstones, Jess Davis was able to find the original locations for all of the headstones.
On July 31, 2020, the fallen headstones and footstones were reset. Two required new slotted bases to be cast ahead of time. This is now a beautiful example of a restored pioneer cemetery!