About the Cemetery
The Milton Benevolent Cemetery was used for burials even before the town's designation as the seat of the newly formed county in 1843. The Courthouse burned in 1869 destroying all records, but the earliest recorded burials are an infant in 1834 and a young girl in 1837, followed by a couple more burials in the 1840's.
Interment followed the colonial practice of orienting the foot of the graves eastward to allow for arising on the day of final judgment.
The cemetery was privately owned until 1888, when the newly formed Milton Benevolent Cemetery Board purchased the sixteen acres for $100. This reflected the national "benevolent movement," which encouraged park like cemeteries. Volunteer trustees used money from plot sales to maintain the grounds. The Ladies Civic League paid for a sidewalk to the cemetery from downtown in 1913, and most likely added the brick entrance at that time.
The cemetery reflects the community it served, with mill owners and captains buried next to laborers and shipwrights.