Travel to the Past at Fountain Hill Cemetery
Deep River Historical Society Curator Rhonda Forristall will lead guests on a guided stroll through history during the Myths and Legends tour of Fountain Hill Cemetery on Friday, July 26. The walk will begin at the Wooster Chapel, near the entrance to the cemetery at 57 High Street, Deep River, and last approximately 1 to 1 ½ hours.
During this tour, Forristall will touch upon a few of the many stories that the various gravestones tell. She will reveal what connection Deep River and Chester have to Babe Ruth and tell the story of the murder of Captain William Palmer aboard his ship Eudora in 1852. She will also give some background about the famed tale of the XYZ bank robbery, which is featured in full length at the Connecticut River Museum’s current Myths and Legends exhibit.
Forristall will talk about Harry Tyler, the bank guard who saved the day during the XYZ bank robbery, and the death threats he received for years after the event took place. She will wrap up the walk with the story of Billy Winters, who was born into slavery and escaped through the Underground Railroad to Deep River, where people were so inspired by his story they named a street after him.
Other snippets of information Forristall will share will include discussion about Mary McCullum Wooster, who set aside $10,000 in her will to build a non-denominational chapel at Fountain Hill Cemetery in 1911. Designed in the Gothic style, which was extremely popular at the time, the chapel, which was recently restored by the Deep River Historical Society, is now available for services once again.
Forristall will also touch upon the legend of Paul Hopkins, who was born in Chester in 1904 and became a star baseball player throughout his high school years. He played on the Middlesex County League, which was a semi pro league, then at Colgate. He signed a deal for $4,000 with George Weiss’s New Haven Professionals after his senior year of college and at age 23 was called up from the New Haven Eastern League to the major leagues as a relief pitcher for the Washington Senators in a $10,000 deal. In 1929, a tendon injury caused him to retire from the game. He lived most of his adult life in Deep River and at the age of 99 he was the oldest major league baseball player in the U.S. He made the rounds of late-night talk shows in New York and passed away in January 2004.
Other stories will be told of the of the only man in Deep River who is known to be killed by an elephant and the life of the first lower Connecticut River Valley artist to support his family as a portrait painter.
All this will take place in the cemetery created by 26 “movers and shakers” of Deep River, Forristall said.
“Times were changing in this little village,” said Forristall. “The Industrial Revolution was gathering steam. The burial practices of the past, with their simple burial grounds were outdated. The new ideals were elevating the dead on a hill to be closer to God, to create a tranquil space for both the living and the dead. The first grave was placed in the cemetery in December of 1851 and in 1869 landscape architect B.F. Hathaway was hired to map out the 40-plus acres and create the winding paths, carefully thought-out alignment of plots, fountains, and natural features. The sections were given names such as Twilight Ridge, Fairview Vista, Mount Hope, and Oak Dell.
“With over 7,000 souls buried at the cemetery, we have a lot of stories to tell,” Forristall said.
Pre-registration is required for the event, which is free to members of the Connecticut River Museum or the Deep River Historical Society. The fee for all others is $5. For tickets, visit www.ctrivermuseum.org.