Valley-Cemetery.com
Title
Friends of the Valley Cemetery - Manchester, New Hampshire
Description
the Amoskeag manufacturing Company donated 20 acres of land to the city of Manchester for use as a burial ground. The Valley Cemetery was created as a "garden" cemetery, a popular design during that time. Not only did the site act as a final resting place for the city's deceased, but the walkways, carriage paths and bridges over the stream invited residents to stroll the grounds. Picnics under the trees were popular as were horse-drawn carriage rides.
The original thorn hedge which enclosed the cemetery was replaced with iron fencing made at Amoskeag's Machine Shop. Elaborate iron work bordered on Pine and Auburn Streets. Plain iron bars surrounded the remainder of the land, where paupers and the less fortunate were buried. The original gate facing Chestnut Street, designed by Moses W. Oliver, Esq. was replaced in 1907 by Hannah Currier, third wife of Gov. Moody Currier. The Pine Street gate was dedicated for builder Stephen D. Green in 1916.
During the city's cholera disease epidemics in the 1850's, trustees found it necessary to designate the northeast corner of the cemetery for victims of the decease. Burials were performed at night in a mass grave. There are a few headstones in the area. A paupers' site is located at the northwest corner of the cemetery.
