Fairview Cemetery in Chicopee Massachusetts was made in 1870 as a garden style cemetery to replace the older Protestant cemeteries in Chicopee that were filling up quickly. It first name was New Cemetery but in 1890 the name was changed to Fairview Cemetery. From the mid 1870s to 1890 the name Town Cemetery was used. It is not located in the Fairview neighborhood of Chicopee but rather its name came from its scenic design. The land was bought from the Van Horn family and that family had retained a section of the cemetery for their burial plots.
One of the first caretakers of the cemetery was Hiram Downing.
Stop A – Gates of the Cemetery
Melzar Mosman a world famous sculptor made these gates. Mosman was from Chicopee. The money for the gates were bequested from the will of George Stearns (FINDAGRAVE).
stop B – Tomb of the Cemetery
The land was purchased in 1869 and work started at once. The first burial was in 1870.
stop C – Chapel of the Cemetery
Honors Sarah Spaulding a benefactor of the city.
The Spaulding burials are NOT in the chapel but rather their gravestone is about 50 feet to the south. FINDAGRAVE
stop D – Robinson
stop E – Bellamy
stop F – zinc gravestone
Cenotaph to George Bonner who died in Georgia in a train crash.
stop G – Lyman Van Horn stone
The land for the cemetery was purchased from the Bemis, Van Horn, Paine, and Conway families.
stop H – Lydia Hyde the first burial
Lydia Hyde (FINDAGRAVE) was the first true burial in this cemetery. After she died March 13 1870 she was interred in this cemetery. There seem to be about 100 earlier burials but this is deceptive since many people were reburied here from other cemeteries in Chicopee after this new cemetery was made.
stop I – Holy Mother of the Rosary Cemetery
The Holy Mother of the Rosary Cemetery is in Chicopee Massachusetts. It was purchased from Chicopee on June 26 1897 from a portion of the land of Fairview Cemetery. It belongs to the Holy Mother of the Rosary Church which is a Polish National Church in Chicopee.
stop J – cemetery design
Fairview Cemetery is a rural cemetery design. A map of its interior streets is HERE.