A Step Back in Time at Old Burial Hill

Town historian led a guided tour Sunday that began at and provided a crowd of walkers with a glimpse into the past and present of the more than 300-year-old cemetery. 

From atop Old Burial Hill, Hunt pointed out some of Marblehead's oldest gravestones and explained how the language and symbols found on the markers reflect a very different attitudes toward death.

Modern headstones, she pointed out, typically hold only the names of the deceased and the date on which they died - plain and factual. Nineteenth century markers held symbols such as urns and willow trees, signifying the mourning of the dead.

Snakes, skeletons, bats, hour glasses were also familiar symbols found on some of the cemetery's 18th century markers.

“People lived with death, and it was a welcome visitor in many cases,” Hunt said.

She pointed to one marker, belonging to Susanna Jaynes, that held all of the aforementioned symbols. Jaynes died in at the age 45 in 1776.

The cemetery, she said, is also populated with many graves belonging to former slaves.

They were viewed as possessions and disposed of as such upon death, Hunt said. “They were like a broken chair,” she said. "It's a shame."

An exception was Black Joe, a man who earned his freedom by serving in the Revolutionary War and who later opened a tavern in town.

Hunt unraveled mysteries and pointed to interesting sights along the tour: water that occasionally rushes from a hedge by ; windows that do not line up on old houses; and the airplane and gas manufacturing plants that once stood at .

Tour takers Christine Nuccio and Debbie Fishkin said they found Hunt’s stories fascinating.

“You walk by some of these things and you would have never seen it,” Fishkin said.