Mount Auburn Comes“ Aboard” as an Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Site
Map Quest: Alexander Wadsworth 1806 – 1898
Mount Auburn Comes“ Aboard” as an Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Site
By Bree D. Harvey, Director of Public Programs
In September 2006 Mount Auburn Cemetery was designated a site in the National Park Service’ s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program. The Cemetery is the resting-place of a number of prominent abolitionists and other figures associated with the Underground Railroad, the clandestine movement that helped African-Americans escape from slavery in the antebellum and Civil War South.
Among those buried at Mount Auburn who contributed to the emancipation of slaves are Harriet Jacobs and her brother John Jacobs, each of whom published a narrative about their escape from slavery to gain support for the abolitionist movement. Peter Byus was another former slave who made it to freedom; his evocative marble monument shows a slave shedding his chains. Charles Torrey was responsible for helping hundreds of fugitive slaves escape to freedom through Baltimore. Convicted for his activities, Torrey was known as the“ martyr of liberty” because he died in prison in Maryland. His beautiful monument at Mount Auburn was financed by an abolitionist society, the Friends of the American Slave.
The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom was established to help scholars and others researching topics related to Underground Railroad activities. Mount Auburn’ s neighbor, the Longfellow National Historic Site, was designated a research facility on the Network to Freedom, and to celebrate the designations of both institutions, Mount Auburn’ s annual birthday celebration for Henry Wadsworth
New millenium fans of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow celebrate the poet’ s 200th birthday in February in Story Chapel. the poet’ s connections to
Longfellow focused on
( Photo by Jennifer Johnston) the Underground Railroad. This year’ s celebration also commemorated Longfellow’ s 200th birthday and was held on Saturday, February 24, 2007, in Story Chapel.
Map Quest: Alexander Wadsworth 1806 – 1898
By Bree D. Harvey, Director of Public Programs
Alexander Wadsworth— surveyor, civil engineer and mapmaker— got the unique job of creating the first map of Mount Auburn before the Cemetery was even consecrated. The Cemetery’ s founders, Dr. Jacob Bigelow and Henry A. S. Dearborn, gave him the assignment in the summer of 1831. Simultaneously Wadsworth worked under the direction of Dearborn— who is often credited with laying out Mount Auburn’ s early roads and paths— to lay out Mount Auburn’ s first 100 lots, located throughout the Cemetery. In November 1831 Wadsworth completed that first map. Although Dearborn’ s association with Mount Auburn ended in 1834, Wadsworth continued to lay out roads, paths and burial lots at Mount Auburn through the 1850s.
Wadsworth was one of eleven children born to Charles and Ruth Wadsworth in Hiram, Maine. His cousin, the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow( Lot # 508 on Indian Ridge Path), was a childhood playmate. After studying civil engineering at the Gardiner Lyceum in Maine, Wadsworth moved to Boston in 1825 and found work as a surveyor.
Wadsworth applied his experience at Mount Auburn when designing two other cemeteries: Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem( 1839) and Woodlawn Cemetery in Chelsea( 1850). In addition to his work on cemeteries, Wadsworth was commissioned to survey sections of Boston, including Dawes Wharf( 1833) along the waterfront, and Pemberton Square on Beacon Hill( 1835). He later designed several new, suburban residential communities along the commuter rail lines just beyond Boston, including Strawberry Hill in Cambridge; Spring Hill in Somerville( 1843); Walnut, Kendrick, and Auburn Parks in Newton( 1844-47); and Green Street( 1837) and Sumner Hill in Jamaica Plain( early 1850s).
Wadsworth served on the Boston City Council and the Cochituate Water Board. He was a member of the Boston Athenaeum and a deacon at West Church in Boston. He died in Boston in 1898 at age 92 and was buried in his family lot( Lot # 1664 on Spruce Avenue).
Source: Biographical information about Alexander Wadsworth is largely from: Krim, Arthur,“ Alexander Wadsworth” in Pioneers of American Landscape Design, Charles A. Birnbaum and Robin Karson, eds., New York: McGraw- Hill, 2000.
Oakes Ames, the Cemetery’ s new president, establishes a strong commitment to horticulture and education. 10 | Sweet Auburn
1934
1938-1939
A hurricane on September 21 destroys hundreds of mature trees. In 1939, more than 500 new trees are planted to replace those that perished in the hurricane.
1941-1945
The Cemetery joins in patriotic efforts, including donating 20 tons of scrap metal salvaged by removing half of Mount Auburn’ s remaining iron fencing.