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Our History: Rededication of Gravesite of Lt. George Eaton Priest

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Lt. George Eaton Priest

This article is part of a series on local history provided by the Historical Society of Watertown. It was written by Joyce Kelly, Board member of the Historical Society of Watertown. Joyce writes articles for the newsletter and is the newsletter editor. This was published in our October 2010 newsletter, “The Town Crier.”

The Historical Society of Watertown, the Civil War Round Table of Greater Boston and the Mass. Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission commemorated the life and Civil War service of Watertown’s Lieutenant George Eaton Priest at a gravesite rededication on September 19, 2010 in Ridgelawn Cemetery.

Around Town

Final Part of Civil War Nurses of Mount Auburn Cemetery Features 3 Women

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Anne Kendall Freitag

By Bill McEvoy

In honor of National Nurses Week, local historian Bill McEvoy has compiled histories of some of the Civil War nurses who are buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. This is part seven of seven. Annie Frances Kendall Freitag:

Annie Frances Kendall Freitag was born in Boston on May 4, 1830. She was the daughter of Abel and Anne Mayo Richards Kendall. In 1856, Abel committed suicide, by hanging himself, in the attic of their Somerset Street home in Boston. His death notice stated that he was depressed and was losing his hearing.

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Civil War Nurses of Mount Auburn Cemetery: Harriet Ann Jacobs

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Harriet Ann Jacobs

By Bill McEvoy

In honor of National Nurses Week, local historian Bill McEvoy has compiled histories of some of the Civil War nurses who are buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. This is part six of seven. Harriet Ann Jacobs was born into slavery, on February 11, 1813, in Edenton, North Carolina. She died on March 7, 1897, in Washington, D.C. Raised in Edenton, Harriet, and her brother, John Jacobs were born to Delilah Horniblow and Elijah Knox, a carpenter. Harriet recalled a happy early childhood. 

In her book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, available as a free download on Google Books, she noted: We lived together in a comfortable home; and though we were all slaves, I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise.

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Civil War Nurses of Mount Auburn Cemetery: Anna Cabot Lowell Woodbury

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By Bill McEvoy

In honor of National Nurses Week, local historian Bill McEvoy has compiled histories of some of the Civil War nurses who are buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. This is part five of seven. Anna Cabot Lowell Woodbury was the niece of poet James Russell Lowell, and sister of Lt. James Jackson Lowell and Brig. General Charles Russell Lowell. 

In the early summer of 1862, having recently been trained as an Army nurse, Anna was assigned to the hospital ship Daniel Webster on the James River. When she arrived at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia in June 1862, she continued her work despite news that her brother James had been killed in the Seven Days Battles during the Peninsula Campaign.

Around Town

Civil War Nurses of Mount Auburn Cemetery: Mary Phinney von Olnhausen

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Mary Phinney von Olnhausen

By Bill McEvoy

In honor of National Nurses Week, local historian Bill McEvoy has compiled histories of some of the Civil War nurses who are buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. This is part four of seven. If you heard this name recently, it stemmed from PBS’s series, Mercy Street. I located and read her diary in 2012, long before PBS’s 2016 series. I gave several lectures that noted her diary.

Around Town

Civil War Nurses of Mount Auburn Cemetery: Mary Sullivan Felton

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The grave of Mary Sullivan Felton at Mount Auburn Cemetery. By Bill McEvoy

In honor of National Nurses Week, local historian Bill McEvoy has compiled histories of some of the Civil War nurses who are buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. This is part three of seven. Mary Sullivan Felton was born on April 30th, 1839, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She died April 29th, 1896, in Boston, from pneumonia and pericarditis. Her father, Cornelius Conway Felton, died in 1862 at age 57.

Around Town

Civil War Nurses of Mount Auburn Cemetery: Emily Elizabeth Parsons

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Emily Elizabeth Parsons

By Bill McEvoy

In honor of National Nurses Week, local historian Bill McEvoy has compiled histories of some of the Civil War nurses who are buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. This is part two of seven. Emily was the daughter of Professor Theophilus Parsons of the Harvard Law School. She was described as indomitable, heroic, and warm-hearted. 

At the beginning of the Civil War, she trained to be a Nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her intent was to go to the War and care for sick and wounded Union Soldiers.

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Civil War Veteran Gets Long Awaited Headstone in Time for Memorial Day

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Bill McEvoyThe new grave marker for James Fleming, a Lt. Colonel who served in the Civil War. Local historian Bill McEvoy applied for the long delayed grave marker this year. When the veterans buried in Watertown were honored during Memorial Day week 2022, one of the graves at the Catholic Mount Auburn Cemetery had a gleaming white headstone, but the veteran buried there died more than 150 years ago. The grave belongs to James Fleming, who served in the Civil War and died in 1869. He has been buried in the cemetery, which sits at the end of Cottage Street in East Watertown, but it did not have a marker.