This is the official web-site for the Old Hemlock Cemetery
Privately owned and operated by The Old Hemlock Cemetery Association
and located in the town of Colebrook CT
Please Contribute to this Historic Cemetery
The Old Hemlock Cemetery was founded in the late 1700's; the earliest headstone indicates a burial in 1785, and originally serving as a Baptist burial ground. In 1805 the "Baptist Church of Winchester", an anomalous designation as it was located not in Winchester but neighboring Colebrook, and known as the "Hemlock Meeting House" was erected at the northeast corner of the cemetery, a two story structure 40 ft by 60 ft in size. It was a local landmark in its day "at the crossroads at the crest of the hill", diagonally across was a large tavern with two wings and a ballroom on the second floor. Located at the foot of the hill just before the church was a toll house, many parishioners left their horse and ox carts before it on their way to services to avoid paying the toll, eventually causing the toll house to relocate further away. The Hemlock Meeting House was in use until being shuttered in 1847 when the new South Colebrook Baptist Church was built. The old Hemlock Cemetery is now a non-denominational burial ground and covers the location where the old meeting house once sat.
In 1853 Lucius Clark, builder of the old Clark house, predecessor of the Hotel Winchester, bought the Hemlock Meeting House and pulled it down, and from the hallowed timbers was erected the building across from the Opera House block now occupied by the G. H. Alford estate and some of the pine lumber salvaged by the wrecker was used in construction of the "white house on the brook" and red house opposite, as described in The Golden Era of Sandy Brook."
When the cemetery became orphaned from the Baptist church is not known, however the great grandparents of our current head sexton were known to be among those caring for the cemetery since early last century, our (incomplete) chronological list of burials by the association occurred in 1906.
Information found here comes from Sexton records and third party sources. The Sexton records reflect the official record of burials by the association. Earlier burial information is gleaned from surviving headstones and from the Charles R. Hale Collection of Connecticut Cemetery Inscriptions which contains vital information from headstone inscriptions in over 2,000 Connecticut cemeteries that were recorded in a W.P.A. project directed by Charles R. Hale ca. 1932-5.
We invite all those with ancestors interred here, and others interested in maintaining and preserving the cemetery, to become involved with the organization by physically assisting with spring and fall cleanup and or by supporting our annual appeal for contributions to help with routine maintenance, headstone repair and preservation costs.