Old Yard Cemetery, Stowe, Vermont Postcard

"Old Yard Cemetery, Stowe, Vermont " by Catherine Sherman Beautiful Autumn foliage encloses the Old Yard Cemetery in Stowe, Vermont. The cemetery, the oldest in town, is behind the Akeley Memorial Building on Main Street According to StoweToday.com, the origin of the cemetery's origin, also known as the Centre Cemetery, is rooted in an 18th-century tragedy. In 1798, Willie Utley, age 12, drowned while attempting to cross a brook near what is now Route 108. His father, William Utley, donated land for a local burying ground, and young Willie was its first occupant. Before then, Stowe’s dead were buried on farmsteads, and no official town death records were kept. Stowe founder Oliver Luce — 1765-1852 — is buried there. So are generations of Stowe’s well-known families, such as Akeleys, Gales, Kelloggs. Also, buried in the cemetery are 33 veterans of the American Revolutionary War, 17 veterans of the War of 1812, and 11 Civil War veterans. Many children are buried in the cemetery. It’s estimated that 1,150 people are buried at the Old Yard, including 100 in unidentified graves. The last grave was dug there in about 1915. The Old Yard was officially declared a Historic Stowe Cemetery in 1993 and closed to further burials. Today, Stowe has six other cemeteries: the Old Ivory Luce Cemetery, the Old Luce Hill Cemetery, the Thomas S. Luce Cemetery, the Riverbank Cemetery, the Sterling Cemetery, and the West Branch Cemetery.