Notice to Stone Layers / Proposals will be received on FRIDAY, the 17th instant, at the / North Sudbury Burying Ground, / for laying about 25 rods of wall around the addition to said ground.
Concord, Massachusetts: Benjamin Tolman, 1863. Printed broadside, 11 ¼ x 10 inches. Some tearing at folds, very good. Item #Cat320
A straightforward but telling piece documenting the expansion of a Massachusetts burying ground during the American Civil War, signed in type by three trustees of the North Sudbury Burying Ground. As casualties mounted and remains were returned to hometowns, existing cemeteries were frequently enlarged, with new land enclosed and improved by contract. The specification of “25 rods” (over 400 feet) of wall indicates a substantial addition, typical of mid-war efforts to increase capacity in established town burial grounds rather than create entirely new sites. Sudbury contributed roughly 150–170 men to Union service, of whom approximately eleven died, a scale of loss consistent with small Massachusetts towns and sufficient to register locally in burial and memorial practices. We find no other records of ephemera or broadsides relating to Civil War-era cemetery expansion. This notice is not at AAS.
Price: $650.00