Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Community, Conservation & Citizen Science | Page 14

Stories Behind the Stones:
American Veterans Interred at Mount Auburn
Jenny Gilbert, Director of Institutional Advancement
The Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery has
been awarded a Massachusetts SHRAB Preservation Grant
of $7,500 for a $20,000 project to conserve eight of our
most significant veterans’ monuments. The monuments
were selected by the Cemetery’s Preservation and Historical
Collections staff, in collaboration with docents and
volunteers, because of their meaning and significance to
Massachusetts and American veterans’ history, their urgent
need for preservation, and their importance as teaching
and educational tools. Without prompt treatment, the
memorials are at high risk of deterioration, leading to the
loss of their stories and symbolism. Conservation treatment
will stabilize the stones, preserve the sculptural elements
and inscriptions, and ensure the long-term survival of these
threatened cultural artifacts. With their well-documented
histories, the monuments in this initiative feature
prominently in Mount Auburn’s interpretive tours and
programs, and help educate the public about our country’s
history and the service of men and women in times of war.
To complete the project, the Friends of Mount Auburn
must raise an additional $12,500 in donations. To learn
more about the project or donate to the Friends of Mount
Auburn, please visit our website at mountauburn.org/
give/ and toggle Veterans Preservation, or call the Office of
Advancement at 617-607-1946.
12 | Sweet Auburn
George Washington Collamore
(1818–1863)
J. Hoffman Collamore (1846–1865)
Lot 1400, Heliotrope Path
George Washington Collamore was a Boston abolitionist
who moved to Kansas in 1856, becoming head of the
New England Kansas Relief Committee. In the Civil
War, he served in the Union Army as a General. He was
killed in 1863 by Quantrill’s Raiders in Lawrence, KS. His
son, J. Hoffman Collamore, was wounded in that attack
and later enlisted in the Union Army, reaching the rank
of Lieutenant. He served first in Company A of the 17th
Kansas Infantry, and was then commissioned a Second
Lieutenant in Company M of the 3rd Massachusetts Heavy
Artillery. He contracted typhoid fever and died in Boston
on September 17, 1865, at age 19. Father and son are
buried together at Mount Auburn.