Cemetery Hunters: East Church Cemetery, East Plymouth, Plymouth

Location: At the intersection of Rt 72 and Rt 6, go north on Rt 72/ N Riverside Ave. Rt 72 and N Riverside Ave. splits. Bear right on N Riverside Ave. Stay right. N Riverside Ave turns into E Plymouth Rd. This splits into E Plymouth Rd and Matthews St. Bear left on E Plymouth Rd. The East Church Cemetery is on the right, just before Marsh Rd. on the right.

Google Maps Visuals: roadside view satellite view

Type of Site: East Church cemetery, no longer in use

Condition: When I was there during the summer, it was very overgrown but in January 2012 when the pictures were taken, the landscape looked clean enough and the stones are well kept.

History and Notable Features: The first time I was taken here, it was with Judy Guiguere, the Plymouth historian. She told me a number of stories about the cemetery. This was primarily a Tory area during the revolution and according to her, even to this day, if you tell a born-bred-and-raised Plymouth resident that you're going there, they look at you like you're crazy. There's a captain's wife buried here, a Tory, who used to alert the Tories that the revolutionairies were coming by blowing into a conch shell. There's also the paupers' section in the back where all the identities are known but one and this one is speculated to be Moses Dunbar, the first civilian excuted for treason in CT.

As a side note, I was also told about the old East Church which is the white building features in the page image and in several of the images below. Many years ago, it was renovated and converted into a house. In 2010, the couple who lived there was going through a divorce and the man set the place on fire and killed himself. Although the fire damage is not visible in the pictures (you can see it from the north side of the building), it looks pretty devastating.
Article on the East Church fire (link).