Location: Exact location not found.
Atop the south bluff overlooking Ten Mile Mill. All high areas on Ten Mile River and Pond were searched for grave depressions. The mill was near 43.91378, -70.85756 and its remains can be found by following Ten Mile River upstream (west) from where it crosses Old 113 (Portland Lane).
The current landowners indicate that they thought the graves were near a small cabin that stands at 43.91351, -70.85715. This area has been recently logged and no sign of a cemetery remains.
Local Masons, unable to find the correct location of the graves, have a memorial flag holder at 43.914030, -70.856968.
Historical Information:
From Teg’s History of Brownfield (1966): “There is a cemetery near Ten Mile Mill, but no traces of it now. The graves there now are covered with trees grown since anyone was laid there, some 15 people in all.” In 1877 William Henry Lane (then owner of the property) recorded the graves.
From the Ruth Peckham notebooks: “Ten Mile. Place of burial of the early settlers there. There is no record of any headstones set at the graves. The lot completely grown over with pine trees and bushes. There is one flag grave in memory of the wife of Samuel Howard, who is said to have been one of the party who threw the tea overboard in Boston Harbor in 1773. William Henry Lane has told the writer that when the little child of Jonathan Johnson was buried there, that was the 14th grave in the place.”
The children of Capt John Lane and his wife Hannah are buried here and it is speculated that they might also be.
There is no mention of this cemetery in the deeds.
The memorial flag holder is for Civil War Service, but a record by a Ms. Adjutant says that “on a list of Brownfield Soldiers which has been used in the past to help place flags on graves at Memorial time. I find that there are: 2 unknown soldiers of the American Revolution buried on the Benson Mill Rd with fieldstones–no markers.” Handwritten in are the names Sampson Johnson and Josiah S. Choat.
Records for Ten Mile Mill Cemetery make note that Ammi Choat, who is buried there, is the father of Joseph Choat who served in the War of 1812. No records were found to confirm a Joseph or Josiah Choat serving in a war.
There are two possibilities for Sampson Johnson. The elder was born about 1735 in Sanford, ME and died in 1823 or 1828 in Brownfield, according to family trees on Ancestry.com. His son, Jonathan 2nd, has an infant son buried in Ten Mile Mile Cemetery. Another of Sampson’s sons was Simon, who had a son named Sampson. This younger Sampson was born 3-8-1805 and died suddenly on 1-17-1828. No record was found of either Sampson serving in a war.