The Upper Merryall Cemetery
Dotted with Colonial-era homes, open fields, stone walls, and hayfields, the northern section of New Milford is home to one of the Town’s oldest and most peaceful resting places: the Upper Merryall Cemetery.
Imagine New Milford when its roads were still dirt, and the sound of hooves and wagon wheels filled the countryside long before the arrival of engine-powered vehicles.
For the early settlers of the 6,300-acre “North Purchase,” much of daily life revolved around clearing land, tending livestock, building homes, and meeting the demands of survival one day at a time.
And, as with every community, life eventually brought death, creating a need for places to lay loved ones to rest.
In those early days, it was common for families to establish small, private burial grounds on their own property.
Around 1760, approximately 19 years after the North Purchase was officially incorporated into the Town of New Milford, a one-tenth-acre portion of Samuel Hill Sr.’s land was set aside for this purpose. It would become what we know today as the Upper Merryall Cemetery.
Over the following centuries, the cemetery expanded in stages as the community’s needs grew.
In 1794, Samuel Hill Jr., working alongside the New Preston Society and local government, helped expand the burial ground to approximately one-half acre.
In 1803, Hill Jr. transferred another .38 acres to the Selectmen of New Milford for further expansion.
The cemetery continued to grow.
In 1859, the Squires family sold an additional one-half acre, bringing the cemetery’s total footprint to approximately 1.32 acres.
More than a century later, another addition in 1985 brought the cemetery to its present size of 3.17 acres.
Today, despite paved roads, modern homes, and the changes that have transformed New Milford over the centuries, the Merryall section and its Upper Cemetery remain among the quieter corners of Town.
The Upper Merryall Cemetery Association (UMCA) maintains the cemetery today, along with three nearby “orphaned” burial grounds where no plots are currently sold and no new interments are taking place.
Even after generations of burials, the exact number of people resting within the cemetery is not known.
Adam Halasi-Kun, Sexton, UMCA reported in 2016 that headstones are occasionally uncovered during maintenance and improvement work, offering small reminders that the history beneath the ground can sometimes be deeper than what remains visible above it.
Sources:
Halasi-Kun, Adam. Upper Merryall Cemetery: A Brief History. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017.
Orcutt, Samuel. History of the Towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882. Press of the Case, Lockwood and Brainard Company, 1882.
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