Location: 43.88806, -70.93556, R09-021A-000
(While this cemetery can be reached from Brownfield by ATV, these driving directions start in Porter.) From its intersection with Sarah Bridge Road, drive northwest on Porterfield Road one mile. Continue on the discontinued portion of Porterfield Road 0.3 miles until a junction on the left. Follow this lane 0.2 miles. The cemetery is up the hill to the west, just below the small octagon shaped house that is now there. There is one carved gravestone and one other grave marked by a fieldstone. There is no enclosure. The area was recently logged but the cemetery was left alone.
Historical Information:
Samuel Johnson lived next to this cemetery on the 1850 census and the 1858 map. He died January 6th, 1859. On April 9, 1864 Samuel’s son Joshua R. Johnson bought the home farm from David Colcord (Book 48, Page 60) with the requirement that he provide his mother, Lovina Johnson, with everything she needed in old age. (It is unclear how David Colcord got the farm in the first place. There is no deed showing Samuel buying the land, so perhaps he never actually owned it.)
The grave marked with a fieldstone could be for Samuel’s wife, Lovina, though it is unclear when she died.
With Joshua R. Johnson there is a mystery. Just one month after buying the land, Joshua died in the Civil War (May 19, 1864). A family researcher claims that Joshua is buried near where he died of rubella in New Orleans. In 1902 a government headstone was carved for Joshua and shipped from Vermont to Brownfield. The cemetery was listed as “local.” However, this headstone has not been found in any cemetery in Brownfield. There is, however, a military headstone for Joshua R. Johnson in Biddeford, Maine. This is where Joshua’s wife, Abigail (McDonald), is buried with her second husband Albert Gowen.
This cemetery is noted on a deed sketch done in 1993 by Metcalf Land Surveying.
Condition (8/25/22):
Small trees in the cemetery were cut by Landon Felix. The gravestone for Samuel Johnson was broken and was repaired using aluminum channel braces by Jess Davis. The slotted base was leveled and the stone was set in sand mortar.