Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn as a Muse | Page 14

Stories Behind the Stones:
The Stone Family
By Bree D. Harvey
A simple marble monument perches on Mountain
Avenue in the shadows of Washington Tower. The monument,
ornamented with the image of a butterfly emerging from its
chrysalis and a wreath of laurel, bears the following inscription:
CORNELIUS STONE.
Died Dec. 23, 1823.
Aged 41 years.
MELINDA STONE.
Died July 26, 1865.
Aged 77 years,
5 months.
Those familiar with the history of Mount Auburn may
recognize the name “Stone.” The majority of the Cemetery’s
land was once known as “Stone’s Woods” in honor of the
family that settled the land in the early 17th century. And,
it is nearly four centuries ago that the fascinating story of
Melinda and Cornelius Stone begins.
In 1635, Simon Stone arrived in Massachusetts, having made
the long journey from London with his wife and young
children aboard the ship Increase. Stone
settled in Watertown, where he was
granted eight lots along the banks
of the Charles River and later
became one of the town’s largest
land owners. Stone’s property, which
included farmland and orchards,
remained in the family long enough
for six generations of his descen-
dants to live on and work the land
that he settled.
By the early 19th century, Simon
Stone’s land had been divided into
smaller parcels, each owned by a
different branch of the family. One
of the larger tracts of land had been
inherited by Cornelius Stone, who in 1810 married Melinda
Stone, a distant cousin who also descended from Simon.
The couple had seven children in their thirteen years of
marriage, though only three of these children would live to
see adulthood. Following the death of Cornelius in 1823,
the children inherited the family’s estate, and with it, a size-
able debt. To settle accounts, the family was forced to sell
the majority of their land. Newspaper accounts announcing
the auction of the land described the 50 acres as “a valuable
forest of wood of almost all kinds, including the hill called
‘Sweet Auburn,’ commanding a delightful view of Boston
and the vicinity.” George Watson Brimmer purchased the
Stone’s land to create his own country estate, but instead
12 | Sweet Auburn
Above: The Stone family monument (foreground) looks out over the
land once owned by Cornelius Stone and generations of his ancestors.
Below, center: The 1830 Hale Map of Watertown designates the highest
hill within present-day Mount Auburn as “Stone’s Hill.”
(Map courtesy Watertown Free Public Library)
sold the land to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for
the creation of Mount Auburn Cemetery six years later.
In 1838, Melinda purchased a family lot at the new
Cemetery. The place she selected was situated on the
summit renamed by the Cemetery’s founders as “Mount
Auburn,” the same hill known previously as “Sweet Auburn,”
and even earlier in time known as
“Stone’s Hill” (see map). Melinda
had her husband reburied in this
lot and erected a monument to
commemorate their family. It
must have been bittersweet for
Melinda to purchase burial space
on the very land once owned by
her husband and several genera-
tions of his ancestors. Situated on
the southern slope of the hill, the
Stone lot also looked out over the
small piece of land Melinda and
her children continued to own
for a few remaining years. It is not
impossible that from her house,
Melinda could even see the spot where she would one day
lie next to her husband. Melinda was buried in the lot
following her death in 1865. Several of the Stone children
also join their parents in the family lot, helping to ensure
that the family’s link to their ancestral land lasts in perpetuity.
We must give credit to Dee Morris, social historian, and David Russo
from the Watertown Historical Commission for helping us to understand
the story of Cornelius and Melinda Stone. As part of the program series
“Watertown & Mount Auburn” presented this past spring and summer,
Dee and David contributed fascinating new details about the many families
important in the history of Watertown who now call Mount Auburn their
eternal home.