Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Expanding our Educational Outreach | Page 6

never tracked racial, religious or demographic information:
“We know a person buried here is African American, for
instance, only if they led some sort of public life.”
Mount Auburn’s commitment to education is reflected
in Bree’s new title as Director of Education & Visitor
Services and expanded duties and in the building of the
new Visitors Center. As Bill Clendaniel says: “We want to
make a visit to Mount Auburn as enriching as possible for
all visitors, whatever their age or background and whether
they come here as a leisure visitor or a client. Mount Au-
burn is an incredible community and national treasure, and
it is our obligation and wish to share all of what we have
learned about this place with all who come to find solace
or recreation.”
tors may be that Mount Auburn is still an active cemetery:
selling new interment space and cremating and interring
people after 175 years.
Bree believes that visitors may also be surprised by the
fact that Mount Auburn is not exclusively used by any
one group or religion—nor is it just for the elite. In his
lectures Bill Clendaniel is fond of saying: “Longfellow
is buried at Mount Auburn and so is the blacksmith he
wrote his famous poem about.” Many people of modest
means are buried at Mount Auburn. Being largely located
in Watertown, many Armenians are buried here and many
Jews, Hindus and Buddhists, and we are beginning to have
Muslims. The Cemetery is the burial place of many African
Americans, including prominent figures from the 19th,
20th, and 21st-century. Bree notes that the Cemetery has
Stories behind the Stones:
A Mount Auburn
Cemetery Love Story
Brian A. Sullivan, Archivist
years... I could not tear myself away from the spot, but
Every monument at Mount Auburn commemorates
lingered and lingered…”
a life—whether short or long—and evidence of these
lives sometimes survives in archives in the Boston area.
By the autumn of 1874, Katharine was succumbing to
At Harvard University, a leather-bound ledger includes
tuberculosis. In a December 13, 1874, letter to his wife, Dr.
the student memoir 1 of Vincent Yardley Bowditch (1852-
Bowditch described his final meeting with Katharine: “She
1929), Harvard College Class of 1875. In it, he recalled two
was very sweet and her eyes lighted up with the peculiarly
people that he had loved and lost, and who had loved each
beautiful luster it always has on meeting anyone she loves.”
other: his brother, Nathaniel, a 2nd lieutenant in the 1st
“Doctor dear, I am slipping gradually away,” she told him,
Massachusetts Calvary, who died in the Civil
and—pointing to her ring finger—said, “I
War, and Nathaniel’s fiancée, Katharine Day
want you to put that ring... along side of that
Putnam. Nathaniel “took part in our impor-
which you have [Nathaniel’s ring]—this Nat
tant battles,” Vincent wrote, “until Kelley’s
put on my finger when I gave him that which
Ford, Virginia—while leading a cavalry charge
you now have. You will take it when the time
he was surprised and surrounded by the en-
comes—will you not?”
emy, his horse was shot from under him and
On February 2, 1875, Katharine Day Put-
he finally fell, mortally wounded… He died
nam died. “She was about seventeen when my
the following day, November 18, 1863, in the
brother died,” Vincent Bowditch recalled. “She
24th year of his age.”
lived for twelve years after him, true to her
Katharine Day Putnam, “Nat’s Kate” as she
first love… On the 5th of February she was
was called, was beloved by the Bowditch fam-
buried from Emmanuel Church on Newbury
ily. After Nathaniel’s death, his father, Dr. Hen-
Street where twelve years before the body of
ry Ingersoll Bowditch (1808-1892), wrote that
my brother was also taken. They were both
he looked upon her “as an adopted child.” 2
(Above, upper right) Monu-
laid in Mount Auburn Cemetery although not
On June 19, 1864, Dr. Bowditch confided
ment to Nathaniel Bowditch,
side by side.”
Tulip Path
to Katharine: “I must write to thank you for
Here, in Sweet Auburn, we are pleased to
the sweet note you wrote to me previously to (Above) Monument to Katha-
feature
their stones as they would have wished,
rine Day Putnam, Bellwort
my visit to place our dear boy-hero’s monu-
“side
by
side.”
Path
ment over his remains at Mount Auburn…
His presence was all around me—all nature
1
Harvard College Class of 1875 Class Book, Harvard University Archives
was most lovely and I watched the first shadows cast by the
2
Papers of Katharine Day Putnam, Massachusetts Historical Society,
sword that this is to mark the spot, I trust, for many long
Call # MS. N-76
4 | Sweet Auburn