admin The Pickett Burying Ground was the first to be dedicated as a
resting-place for the dead in the town of Charlotte. In the year 1812,
about one-fourth of an acre, on Lot 60, was set apart from the farm of
John Pickett for that purpose. It is situated at the southeast corner
of the four corners in School District No. 1, and opposite the school
house, in the “Pickett Neighborhood.” It has now been in use for over
seventy-seven years. Samuel, the father of John Pickett, and the
ancestor of the Pickett and Cleland families of Charlotte, came to the
town in 1811. He died December 19, 1812, in the fifty-seventh year of
his age, and he is believed to have been the first person buried
there.(1)
The oldest head-stone erected in the town is here, at the grave
of Polly Anderson. She died December 23, 1813, in the forty-seventh
year of her age. The grave-stone is the work of no mean artist, though
made of rough material, quarried from the natural ledges of the county.
The following lines are inscribed upon it:
“Withdraw my friends,
Dry up your tears,
For here I lie,
Till Christ appears.”
Here lies buried Clarinda Atkins, who died December 20, 1815.
She was the wife of Amos Atkins. He and Stephen Jones were the first
settlers in the town of Gerry. Two soldiers of the Revolution are
interred in this ground – John Cleland, Sr., who died February 16,
1827, and Caleb Clark, who died May 17, 1837. They were the ancestors
of the Cleland and Clark families of Charlotte. John Pickett and John
Cleland, Jr., well-known pioneers of the town, are also buried here. In
all, about fifty-five persons are interred in this burial place.
February 26, 1867, John Pickett, nearly fifty-five years after he
dedicated it to the public, first executed a deed to “The community of
School District Number One, in the Town of Charlotte, and all others
living in the surrounding towns wishing to use the same for burying
purposes.” It is designated in this deed as the “Pickett Burying
Ground.” Before the execution of the deed, at a town meeting held March
7, 1848, Eliakim Barnum, John Pickett, and Robert P. Robertson had been
elected trustees by the inhabitants of the town, to have charge of the
ground.
(1)So says Darius Cleland, the oldest resident of that part of the town of Charlotte.
Source: Page(s) 8-9, History of Evergreen Cemetery. by Obed
Edson. Sinclairville, New York, Press of the Commercial, 1890.