Seven Titanic Passengers are Buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Including the Newells

When the RMS Titanic set sail 100 years ago today, on April 10, 1912, none of its passengers knew they would become part of the most infamous marine disaster in history.

The sinking of the supposedly unsinkable Titanic, after colliding with an iceberg, claimed the lives of 1,517 passengers and crew, while 710 people survived. Seven people onboard the Titanic for its maiden voyage – five survivor and two victims – are buried at Watertown’s Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Only one of the headstones and memorials mentions the Titanic, and officials at the cemetery knew there were Titanic passengers at Mount Auburn but they were not sure how many make the cemetery their final resting place, said Stephanie Messina, External Affairs Department assistant at the cemetery.

Earlier this year cemetery staff began combing through newspaper clippings from the time, and through reading accounts and books to find out about the Titanic passengers at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Messina said.

On April 29, the Cemetery will host, "All Aboard the Titanic!" to mark the Titanic’s centennial. The event will begin at 1 p.m. at the Story Chapel and after the talk by Ted Zalewski attendees will visit the grave of one of the survivors.

This week, on the 100^th centennial of the Titanic’s voyage, Watertown Patch will run a series of stories on the ship’s passengers buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.

The Newells

Three members of the Newell family were aboard the great ship. Arthur Newell grew up in Chelsea and worked his way up from a bank clerk to chief cashier, allowing him to move his family to Lexington.

“The Newells were the toast of Lexington,” Messina said. “Their home was the epicenter in town for music.”

In 1912, Newell took Marjorie and Madeleine, two of his three daughters, on a trip to the Middle East to see the Holy Land. Afterward they toured Europe, and Newell surprised his daughters by telling them they would be sailing home on the Titanic. Madeleine enjoyed the fact that she could practice her violin for an hour before bed on the ship, Messina said.

On the night of the sinking, Newell made a foreboding remark. The girls enjoyed eating on the Titanic and had eaten a particularly large meal, Messina said.

“He asked them if they would last until morning,” Messina said.

After the ship hit the iceberg, Newell was able to get his daughters on a lifeboat, and told them he would wait for the men to be boarded on lifeboats.

“Their last memory of him was a stoic, strong father waving at them, saying he would see them later,” Messina said.

Searchers found Newell’s body, and they gave his belongings, including a gold watch, to his wife Mary.

“From the moment she got it, until she died, she slept with the watch under her pillow,” Messina said.

Madeleine and Marjorie were rescued, and for many years stayed silent about the disaster. Madeleine lived in Lexington for the rest of her life. She and her mother never spoke publically about it. After Mardeleine died in 1969 Marjorie broke her silence at age 97.

“Marjorie had a lot to say,” Messina said. “She spoke about the injustice of the lower-class passengers.”

Most of those rescued were first class passengers, while those below deck perished.

Marjorie married and had four children. She became a music instructor and was one of the founders of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

She was the last living first class survivor of the Titanic when she died in 1992, at age 103, in Fall River, Messina said. The Newell family is buried on the Orient Path in Mount Auburn Cemetery.