Town Gets Grant To Clean, Repair Ancient Smallpox Burial Ground

GUILFORD, CT — The quarter-acre parcel of land enclosed by stone walls in a deeply wooded area on the west bank of the East River in Guilford known as the Smallpox Cemetery is part of the nine-acre tract known as the "Pock Lot," so named as it was used by the town from 1760 to 1814 to quarantine people exposed to the highly contagious smallpox virus, historians note.

Thursday the town announced it has been awarded a $3,300 a Neglected Cemetery Account Grant from the state Office of Policy and Management to clean up and repair the cemetery.

Long maintained by the Madison Historic Society, it's also more colloquially known as the Smallpox Burial Ground.

"Colonial medicine was in its infancy at the time, but many of the scenes of quarantine resembled what we are now experiencing in the 21st century with the COVID virus," a press release from the town reads.

Maintenance of the burial ground has largely been limited to brush clearing as, the press release reads, the Madison Historical Society is a non-profit group primarily committed to the maintenance of the historic house museum and historic school building and, "As a result the cemetery enclosure has been neglected."

The grant money will be used to remove a downed tree on a section of the stonewall, repair several sections of the wall that have come down and if resources permit, reset the bronze plaque that has been loosened, the town said.

Read more about the fascinating history of the smallpox burial ground on the Madison Historical Society website here.