Burial Hill and More

Jill's Journal: Our time in America’s Hometown is growing short, sadly, and I find myself trying to fit in many little things around our homeschooling, playtime, and everyday living like trips to the grocery store. I’ve never felt so acutely that there just aren’t enough hours in the day but am so grateful for the time we have gotten to spend in Plymouth. Few places have so much to see. Erika, in all her 6-year-old wisdom, said today, “There sure are a lot of things to honor here!” There are, indeed.


Today we visited the National Monument to the Forefathers, which honors the first settlers in Plymouth. The cornerstone was laid in 1859, but the Civil War got in the way of funding and it wasn’t completed until 1889. My snapshots can’t possibly show the magnitude of this granite structure at 81 feet tall, nor the elaborate detail.


Burial Hill was our second destination. One of the neatest things about Plymouth is the amount of information that has endured. At the top of this hill the Pilgrims originally built their meeting house/fort, which is recreated at Plimoth Plantation. It was an unusual combination – the church on the first floor and the protective fort with canons on the second. Plymouth’s very first street – Leyden Street -- slopes down gently from here to the harbor, which is again recreated at Plimoth. Standing in the spot of the original fort, one can clearly still see the original layout in modern-day Plymouth (and how well Plimoth Plantation was recreated). Fascinating.


The main entrance to Burial Hill is through the original and tiny town square, which was Plymouth’s focal point religiously, politically, and commercially from 1620 until after World War II. On one side is the 1749 Courthouse, the oldest wooden court house and longest-used municipal building in the U.S.


But the highlight of the town square is First Parish Church, at the foot of Burial Hill. This particular building wasn’t built until the late 1800s, but it is the fifth church building on the spot. The church was started in Scrooby, England, by the Pilgrims, brought with them to Holland for their years there, and then moved with them to the New World. Its unbroken records and continuous ministry have never faltered and date to 1606! Of course it is the oldest congregation in North America. Its bell was cast by Paul Revere (yes, that Paul Revere).


Back to Burial Hill -- the very first Pilgrims to have died during that first winter were not buried here, but many of the successive ones were. Back then, grave markers were made of wood and they have not lasted the nearly 400 years since. Some of the most prominent ones were later given stone markers, including Governor William Bradford and Patriarch Elder William Brewster. The oldest stone to have survived is from 1681. Many are in poor shape from time and weather and are now illegible.


A name in the cemetery our girls recognized and were excited to hear was that of Squanto, the Patuxet Indian who befriended the Pilgrims, lived with them, and was integral to their survival in the New World. He died in 1622. Although it is documented he too was buried here, history has not kept the precise location of his grave.