History
“Let the spot be diversified with brook and pond and rushing stream, with plain and hillock, with sunshine and shade, with the natural forest and cultivated grove…” With these words prepared by Reverend J.M.B. Bailey and delivered by John Daggett, Mount Hope Cemetery was consecrated on July 2, 1850.
In the mid-1800s, the fashion was to design cemeteries in the image of beautifully landscaped English parks and estates. When you stroll or drive through Mount Hope Cemetery today it is easy to imagine you have stepped back in time and are enjoying the beauty and quiet of an earlier age. The leafy maples, towering oaks and beeches, the winding pathways and rolling terrain slows everyday life down from the world outside our gates.
Several years ago a retired English professor and Historic Cemetery Authority, walked the older portions of our cemetery and proclaimed Mount Hope to be “a lovely example” of the “19th Century Rural Cemetery Movement”. She was especially impressed with how the timeless quality of Mount Hope had been retained through 6 generations since it was consecrated in 1850. Of course much of the credit for this goes to the vision of the early trustees who created this natural beauty with a variety of trees and shrubs and to the dedicated trustees who followed giving unselfishly of their time to perpetuate that original vision. That vision was to create a place of consolation for mourners as well as a place to replenish the soul and commune with nature. One look at Mount Hope Cemetery today will tell you that each of those founders would be pleased to see how little the grounds have changed… especially in view of the monumental changes evident in the bustling town just outside our gates. All PASSIONS SPENT, THEY REST IN PEACE