Crockett Point Cemetery
The Crockett Point Cemetery is being cared for by Ned Lawson. Sr. His wife Elaine’s stepmother was a Cora Galley. This is a private cemetery which has had Richardson and Galley and their allied families buried there. It has been referred to as the Crockett’s Point Cemetery but it should be noted that two early settlers, the Richardson brothers and their wives were buried there. Then the Galley family is there as John Galley married Hannah Richardson. It would be referred to as the Richardson-Galley Cemetery I suppose. In the Tremont Records., Map 16, Lot 243 Act. 383 M16 L18, it shows a plot about 125 feet by 80 feet marked off for the cemetery. This cemetery should not be taxed to anyone. According to the Assessor 1” equals 100 feet and he estimated the plot to be at least 50 by 100 feet, or even 125 by 80 feet. He said it was about 25-30 feet off from the side road going to Ned and Elaine Lawson’s son’s home – David Lawson.
Sources tell us that Stephen Richardson with Revolutionary War Patriotic Service, his wife and his brother, Thomas Richardson, also with Revolutionary War Patriotic Service and his wife are buried there. I have never seen the stones of any of the four of them but others have. On May 7, 1982 the Mount Desert Isle Chapter of the DAR marked the grave of Stephen Richardson. A flag and flag marker were placed under the fruit tree during the marking, and I have seen them. The flag and marker have now disappeared (2003) . In June 2009 the DAR, Norma Spurling, of the local chapter tells me they have ordered a bar to hold the newly found marker. I asked her to order one for me – for Thomas’ grave. I will pay for it. In May, when I visited the cemetery I added two new flags for Stephen and Thomas – they had no flags. I replaced one for a newer stone and added another for that man’s father. I called Heidi at the Tremont Town Office and found she and Frank Gray were planning to do that same thing several days later.
At the Tremont Historical Society Meeting (June 2009) it was decided I could move ahead and find out prices of a plaque to be put on a field stone to mark the soldiers’ graves, adding two of my family names (and those two names I would pay for). I talked with Dunns in Ellsworth and they suggested and will make up a drawing for a soldier’s stone as well. They feel it would cost less. I think they are also connected to the Richardsons as indeed, many of us are, here on MDI..
The SAR (Sons of the American Revolution Society) had already marked Thomas’ grave. When I first found the cemetery there were bushes and alders to the left back, where today evergreen trees are growing. It was suggested to me that maybe the earliest graves were under those bushes.
This cemetery has lost its standing stones, possibly due to frost action over the years. The older section is on the left side of road, part way up in an open field, before the last house down near the shore. My Galley, etc. family is on the small knoll to the left and all the stones are down again. The next to last house sets way back behind the cemetery, near the shore and belongs to Ned and Elaine Lawson. The Richardson Family – an excerpt taken from Eben Hamor’s records, to be found in Bar Harbor Public Library tells where Thomas and Stephen Richardson are buried. I quote from the last page, third paragraph from the beginning text “… Stephen however appears never to have joined any religious body, and according to the statements of persons still living, finally died on Beech Hill, in 1812, at the resident of his eldest son, his remains being taken back to Bass Harbor for internment beside his wife. Near by, a depression in the sod marks the final resting place of Thomas, but the date of his death is not known……”
The remains of the Richardson home now provide a foundation for a newer home on Crockett’s Point. Newer graves have been added – I’m told Ashes only – at the top of the knoll. The stones are on a bed of crushed rock. I was also told by Elaine Lawson that there used to be a small white fence around a baby’s grave – this is Sadie. She also said a man surname of Romer, with no stone is buried there. Also a man who fell from a barn and died is also buried there. He had come in on a ship and no one knew his name. She felt there must have been other burials, especially of children.