Kinne Cemetery


Kinne Cemetery, also known as the Glasgo Cemetery and Old Kinne Burying Ground, is a historic cemetery in Jarvis Road in Griswold, Connecticut. The earliest marked stone is for Daniel Kinne who died in 1713. In the 1930s, the inscriptions of 79 stones in the Kinne Cemetery were recorded for the Hale Index. There are around 80 fieldstones with no carving or identification, but it is unknown if this stems from wearing of the gneiss stone or that there were no skilled carvers locally available. The seven carvers that have been identified are Lebbeus Kimball, Jotham Warren, Josiah Manning, Peter Barker, Mr. Huntington of Lebanon, E. Marston of Mystic Bridge and O. Doty of Stonington. The National Historic Register of Places nomination notes, "the cemetery is significant artistically because the carving on the stones gives many good examples of the funerary art that was characteristic of the 18th and 19th centuries in New England." The cemetery is notable because of the burial of Isaac C. Glasko, the namesake of the village of Glasgo, and a prominent African American land-holding man who ran a blacksmith shop that was important to the marine industry of the area. The cemetery was made apart of the Connecticut Freedom Trail in 1995 and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 12, 2001.

History

Established around 1713, the Kinne Cemetery is one of eighteen family cemeteries in Griswold. It rests upon the land of Joseph Kinne, who came to Griswold from Salem, Massachusetts in 1704 and includes the land of Thomas Kinne, also came from Salem in 1714. The exact date of its founding is unknown, but the earliest extant stone is for Daniel Kinne, died 1713. According to the National Register of Historic Places nomination, the cemetery was an active burial site for the Kinne family, including those of married Kinne daughters, until the interment of Clark Robbins Cook in 1912. However, the Hale Index lists the last marked interment as that of Herbert Kinney, died August 24, 1916.
In order to improve and enlarge the cemetery, the Kinne Historical and Genealogical Society was incorporated by special act of the Connecticut General Assembly in 1884. In 1887, the land adjacent to the Glasgo Pond was purchased by the society, though the boundary of by does not match the town's record. The land's grantor, Nathan B. Lewis, purchased the land thirty years prior in 1857 from a Kinne family connection, Alexander Steward. According to the Town of Griswold's records, the property is designated as "map 78, block 136, lot 3". In the 1930s, the inscriptions of 79 stones in the Kinne Cemetery were recorded for the Hale Index. According to another study, 71 of the 74 interments are related by blood or marriage to the Kinne family.
In the Summer of 1999, a group of volunteers worked to restore and clean up the cemetery that led to a ceremony in October 1999 with more than 60 people in attendance. The article in The Day highlighted the difficulty in finding the cemetery which is located on the banks of the Pachaug River, in the village of Glasgo, located in the town of Griswold. Iva Arpin said that the town would repair the stone walls and that the Children of the American Revolution would return in the spring to continue their work on the cemetery. In 2002, the cemetery had undergone a significant restoration which included the unearthing and accounting for all the burial markers that had been strewn about the grounds. Arpin noted that some of the stones showed signs of vandalism. The Day described how some of the marker stones and monuments were covered in nearly a foot of pine needles and that the roots had uprooted the anchor stones causing the headstones to fall and break.
By 2007, concerns about public use of the land for recreation and reflection had provoked concern from Kinne descendants, but there is little that descendants could do. The grounds were once under the control of the Kinne Family Historical Society, but it was disbanded "generations ago" and the town owns the cemetery by default. The cemetery had been disturbed by the gravestones being stacked to "help climbers reach their optimum height before swinging" from a rope on a tree into the pond. Pieces of the wall and a gravestone had been thrown towards the pond and came to rest on a ledge. Courtland Kinne, a descendant of Thomas Kinne, wants a jersey barrier erected to stop vehicles from parking next to the gravestones, the wrought iron fence around the burial ground and the trees within the grounds to be removed because their roots could disturb the plots.

Importance

The Kinne Cemetery shows the evolution of funerary art over the course of the centuries. The earliest marked stone is for Daniel Kinne who died in 1713. Daniel Kinne's stone has a simple rounded top with only his name carved into it.

Interments

This is an alphabetical list of interments recorded from the Hale Index survey with all data stemming from a copy of the Charles R. Hale Collection of Cemetery Inscriptions. Additional field stones are noted, but were not listed in the Hale Collection. According to the National Historic Register, names are missing from this list, including Isaac C. Glasko who was "of mixed Indian and
Negro blood." The listing here is not complete because the records of many field stones were incomplete and did not contain identification, including the earliest stone for Daniel Kinne who died in 1713. Kinne's stone only had the name carved.
First NameLast NameBornDiedAgeNotes
OlverBordmanOctober 3, 17779 monthsSon of Daved and Jemime
Clark R.CookDecember 6, 1835May 28, 183242
ElizabethCookMay 28, 183242
BetseyCraryJanuary 30, 185665Widow of George Crary
GeorgeCraryAugust 25, 183148
Charles E.FletcherJune 29, 187020Son of John W. and Sarah J. Fletcher
John W.FletcherMarch 1, 189567
SarahHustonFieldstone
HughKennedyOctober 31, 177886
JohnKennedyMay 12, 175250
Abby RobbinsKinneFebruary 8, 186882Wife of Sterry
AbigalKinneField stone
Capt. EzraKinneFebruary 8, 179566
Capt. JamesKinneNovember 4, 180772No marker
Capt. JosephKinneJuly 12, 174567
DanielKinne1713Field stone.
Edwin ByronKinneOctober 23, 184520 years, 7 monthsSon of Sterry and Abby Kinne
ElizabethKinneNovember 20, 1823762nd wife of Capt. James Kinne
EuniceKinneField Stone
GideonKinneFebruary 25, 180278
GideonKinneMay 3, 17532Gideon and Thankfull Kinne
HannahKinneAugust 7, 179140-49Wife of Capt. James, the second digit of age is unreadable
HannahKinneField stone
JonasKinneMay 6, 176613Son of Gideon and Thankfull
JosephKinneJuly 15, 17770-1Son of Samuel and Amy Kinne, died in first year
JosephKinne1777Field Stone
KeziahKinneWife of Capt. Joseph Kinne
LydiaKinneField Stone
LydiaKinne1751Field Stone
LymanKinneOctober 24, 17883Son of Samuel and Amy
SallyKinneFebruary 22, 179710–19 yearsSamuel and Amy, second digit of age is unreadable.
SallyKinneMay 20, 182544Wife of Sterry Kinne
SarahKinneField Stone
SarahKinneMarch 1, 179258Wife of Ezra Kinne
SolomonKinneJuly 4, 179922
SteryKinneNovember 29, 183050
ThankfullKinneDecember 29, 179872Wife of Gideon
AndrewKinneyDecember 1, 182635
ArchibaldKinneyApril 16, 1815Mar. 29, 190488Husband of Emily Boardman Kinney
BetsyKinneyFebruary 9, 184984Widow of Lot Kinney
ElishaKinneyApril 11, 184865
Emily BoardmanKinneyOct. 23, 1820Dec. 5, 187762Wife of Archibald Kinney
GideonKinneyAugust 9, 1790June 13, 187584
HannahKinneyMay 21, 181736Daughter of Jacob and Lydia
HerbertKinneyMarch 28, 1847Aug. 24, 191669
JacobKinneyMay 1, 181356
JamesKinneyOctober 11, 183425Son of Sterry and Sally Kinney
LotKinneyMay 30, 182560
LydiaKinneyAugust 29, 183273Widow of Jacob Kinney
Mary E.KinneyOctober. 29, 185018Daughter of Elisha and Rebecca Kinney
PierpontKinneyFebruary 1, 182931
CharlesRixNovember 12, 18371 month, 9 daysName illegible, but may be Charles H. - Son of Ephraim B. and Lucy
MarcyScrantonJune 14, 183758Wife of Thomas
AlexanderStewartNovember 16, 184964 years, 5 months, 11 days.
ThomasStewartSeptember 9, 183448 years, 4 months, 18 days
ThomasStuwartAugust 13, 17833Son of Alexander and Thankfull

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