A few weeks back we visited the Ancient Cemetery, Wiscasset’s earliest and best-known burial ground at the corner of Federal and Lincoln streets. Just a short walk from here is Evergreen Cemetery located off Hodge Street. To get there from the Ancient Cemetery go down Warren Street past Maine Art Gallery (the former Wiscasset Academy building) turning right at the corner. Down the hill on the left is Sand Hill Road, the entrance to the town garage. Evergreen Cemetery is on the left.

Not nearly as visible or as well-known as the Ancient Cemetery, this burial ground is nonetheless better preserved, and more interesting to explore. Before we get too far along there are a number of memorial stones for individuals who were initially buried in family plots elsewhere that were later moved here when Evergreen Cemetery opened in 1845. Gravestones inscribed with a date of death before this year are ones that were moved here. The burial ground was originally called, “Hall Cemetery” for an early owner of the property.

Steve Christiansen again served as my tour guide. A native Wiscasseter, Steve can trace his family’s roots back six generations. A member of the town’s highway department, he’s helped maintain Wiscasset’s cemeteries for many years. Steve led me first to a modest stone obelisk marking the final resting place of Samuel Emerson Smith, Wiscasset’s most famous citizen who served as Maine’s 10th governor from 1831 to 1834. You’ll find the Smith family plot in front of the Hodge mausoleum, a small stone building with the family name over its door.

“What’s kind of strange about Samuel Emerson Smith’s grave is nowhere on the memorial stone does it mention he served as Maine’s governor,” said Steve. “There’s really nothing to distinguish it from the other graves. It’s not the tallest, or most ornately carved. It’s really a rather unassuming marker.” Maybe that was the way Gov. Smith wanted it.

After graduating from Harvard College in 1808 Samuel Emerson Smith moved to Wiscasset, then the busiest seaport north of Boston. He established a law practice here and became a justice of the peace and circuit judge. In 1819 he entered politics and was elected a representative to the Massachusetts Legislature. He continued his political career serving in the state legislature after Maine gained statehood in March 1820. Ten years later, State Rep. Smith ran and was elected governor. During his tenure Maine’s state capital was moved from Portland to Augusta where it remains today. Gov. Smith’s home can be seen on High Street across the street from Wiscasset Public Library. He and his wife Louisa Sophie Fuller raised nine children. Gov. Smith died March 4, 1860.

Resting alongside Gov. Smith is his son, Captain Edwin M. Smith killed during the Civil War at the Battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia. Edwin Smith was just 22 during the Confederate bombardment on Fort Sumpter. When President Lincoln called for volunteers in response, Edwin Smith was among the first Wiscasseters to step forward at a special town meeting pledging to fight to preserve the Union. When the Union forces retreated at the first battle of Bull Run in June 1861, Capt. Smith bravely stood his ground firing his pistol at the charging Rebels. Eleven months later, while serving with the Army of the Potomac he was killed after being struck by a Rebel bullet. Hundreds of people gathered to meet Capt. Edwin Smith’s casket when it arrived in Wiscasset draped with the stars and stripes. He was laid to rest with full military and Masonic honors on June 19, 1862. According to a “History of Lincoln Lodge” nearly 200 Masons took part in the ceremony, marching with the casket from the Episcopal-Methodist Church on Fort Hill Street to Evergreen Cemetery.

There are 18 other veterans buried at Evergreen Cemetery; among them the Rev. Hezekiah Packard. Before becoming a man of the cloth Hezekiah Packard served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Many colorful details about Rev. Packard’s life can be found in a memoir published by his children posthumously. From this slim volume (68 pages) we learn “Hez," as he preferred to be called, was just 14 years old when the famed Battle of Bunker Hill took place in Boston. “On that memorable day I was in a neighbor’s field hoeing corn, and I heard the roaring of the cannon,” he recalled later in life. The battle motivated Young Hezekiah to volunteer for the militia the Captain of which was a neighbor to the Packard family. Because of his age and skill with a flute Hez was appointed the company’s “fifer" to play “Yankee Doodle” and other Patriot tunes as the new recruits drilled and later marched off to war. 

Packard’s company went first to Boston, then on to New London, Connecticut where they boarded a ship and sailed south to New York City. On Sept. 16, 1776 they engaged the British regulars in what came to be called the “Battle of Harlem Heights” where his older brother was wounded in the fighting. Hezekiah’s military service ended after just a year, ill health forcing him to return home to the family farm. After recovering he attended Harvard then taught grammar school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1793, Hezekiah answered a different calling and became a minister. He came to Wiscasset in 1802 and was appointed Pastor of the First Congregational Church where he served faithfully for 28 years. Rev. Packard noted in his memoir he was hired by the parish at an "annual fixed salary of $700 per year."

Pastor Packard is remembered too for helping establish Wiscasset Academy erected in 1807 and where he served as an early trustee and headmaster. He later returned to Massachusetts and died in Salem in 1849; age 87 years, 4 months. His final request was to have his body returned to Wiscasset where he could be laid to rest next to his wife, Mary.

Another notable grave is that of attorney Erastus Foote who served as Maine’s first attorney general from 1820 to 1831. During the War of 1812 Erastus Foote rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Militia's 5th Regiment. After the British captured Castine and Belfast, Colonel Foote led his troop of volunteers to the defense of Camden Harbor. Following the war Colonel Foote became active in state politics. In 1819 he and his close friend Samuel Emerson Smith were elected representatives to the General Court at Boston. Colonel Foote’s early home greatly altered still stands on the corner of Main and Middle streets. Today it’s known as the Marston House, home to an antique business and bed and breakfast.

There are a number of other graves of interest at Evergreen Cemetery, among them the resting place of a U.S. Army veteran who served at Pearl Harbor during WWII, and his son who won a Silver Star for his Army service during the Vietnam War. For now, this is where we’ll close.  

Phil Di Vece earned a B.A. in journalism studies from Colorado State University and an M.A. in journalism at the University of South Florida. He is the author of three Wiscasset books and is a frequent news contributor to the Boothbay Register/Wiscasset Newspaper. He resides in Wiscasset. Contact him at pdivece@roadrunner.com