Old Burying Ground, Watertown, MA

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This cemetery dates from 1642. One of the most notable is a monument to Joseph Coolidge. On April 19, 1775, the farmer and tax collector received word of the fighting in Lexington. He left his plough in the field opposite the cemetery, shouldered his musket and left, never to return. Of 134 minutemen and volunteers from Watertown that day he was the only man killed. His descendents owned much land in the east end until recent years. Of the Coolidge descendents, Calvin became a President of the United States (35th) and Rosamond was listed as a well known portrait painter in Who’s Who in American Art (1959).