Sunday, November 15, 2015

Buttermilk Lane Cememtery, Middleton NH

UPDATE: Happy to report contact has been made with descendents and maintenance planned for this cemetery
 
Buttermilk Lane Cemetery in Middleton NH is in need of repair. I have known about this cemetery for several years and finally got to visit today. The fall leaves are covering many stones and grass is growing over some as well. many are hard to read due to age and some are even toppled over and covered.
I hope to find out who owns the land which it is on and try to get regular maintenance done next year. I will have to try and do it myself otherwise. There is one veteran. Ransom Tufts was a WW I veteran. Maybe the local American legion can help out.

There are 2 webpages to view the stones from a few years ago and less grown over. Thanks to Suzanne Shay, a Tufts descendant who visited and posted the pictures to findagrave. Her picasa page has the best viewing. There is also a transcription of the burials there at USgenweb archives site
Buttermilk Lane Cemetery internments at findagrave
Buttermilk Lane Cemetery Picasa album
US genweb Buttermilk Lane Cemetery burials

These families are descendents of Joseph Davis Tufts who descended from Thomas Tufts and his father Henry Tufts, the tailor, who lived in Newmarket and Lee, NH. Henry the tailor moved there from Medford MA where he descended from Rev. Thomas Tufts, the son of Peter Tufts and his father Peter Tufts the immigrant.  There are more details in the story of Henry's son Henry Tufts the criminal

 
 There are 3 or 4 stones buried here.

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four years old

It's entirely possible this Lessard is a relative of my wife's Toland family

4 comments:

  1. Roger Lessard is my uncle. My name is Roza Benoit and I am the secretary of the Stevens-Tufts Family Reunion Association which meets annually in Middleton. We are the descendants of Albert M. & Bernice M. (Tufts) Stevens of Middleton. The responsiblility for custody and maintainance of this Tufts cemetery on Buttermilk Lane and that of a well-maintained Stevens cemetery on the mountain off New Portsmouth Road have been the subject of the my research and a major topic of our business meetings for the last 2 years. We know the cemetery is not currently maintained and we do not want it declared abandoned. My Aunt Charlotte wishes to be buried there. Roger "Beanie" Lessard is the son of Edith Lessard and Ransom "Bun" Tufts. As such he is my very distant (5th or 6th) cousin. His widow Charlotte (Stevens) Lessard is my mother's sister. So my distant cousin is my maternal Uncle by marriage. His second daughter, my first-cousin Peggy is our Reunion Association Vice President. Please contact us. Our website is www.stevens-tufts.org and we have a Facebook group. Stevens-Tufts Family of Middleton, NH.

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  2. Thank you so much Roza, for your comment and information. I can't wait to add the families to this story. It's also great to know the families are maintaining the cemetery and hope to help out, if I can. Readers, please check out their website and check back for updates to this story.

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  3. Replies
    1. Thank you but I need to update this post. The Tufts/Stevens Middleton, NH group is alive and thriving with a labor day reunion every year and maintenance of this cemetery included. I'll try to stop and get the updated pictures too.

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