You can visit the graves of these 5 famous Mainers | Column
The military marker for Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in Pine Grove Cemetery in Brunswick. (Courtesy of Pejepscot History Center)
If you’re anything like me, you’re always looking for reasons to visit different parts of the state — a hike, new restaurant, festival or art exhibit. Why not the gravestone of a famous Mainer?
Cemeteries are often pleasant places to take a stroll and are particularly interesting this time of year, when they tend to ramp up their programming. At Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, you can still catch the last of its October walking tours at 10:30 a.m. Saturday ($5, no registration required). It’s focused on 19th century residents who were part of the spiritualist movement, which sounds like a great way to spend Halloween.
For those who prefer to take things at their own pace, there are several prominent Mainers buried throughout the state in places that are open to the public. Whether you’re looking for a destination or inspiration, here are five to consider.
The reddish granite stone on the left is the headstone of Civil War hero Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. (Courtesy of Pejepscot History Center)
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Pine Grove Cemetery, Brunswick
The Civil War hero, later Maine governor and Bowdoin College president, has two gravestones in this cemetery on Pine Street — a reddish granite one with his name above his birth and death years and a white marker on the ground that recognizes the Medal of Honor he received for his leadership in the Battle of Gettysburg. Enter the cemetery from the first gate on Bath Road and find them four gravesites up on the right.
Andrew Wyeth, Hathorn Cemetery, Cushing
Visitors to the Olson House are usually there to see the real-life setting for Wyeth’s 1948 masterpiece, “Christina’s World,” but it’s also where the famous painter is buried, along with his influential wife, Betsy, and the subject of that painting, Christina Olson. You can park at the Olson House, cross the road and take a grassy path down to the cemetery, where you’ll find the Wyeths’ headstones close to the entrance. The surrounding property is also home to a three-quarter-mile trail for walking or, in winter, cross-country skiing, as well as an island you can visit when the tide is low.
E.B. White, Brooklin Cemetery, Brooklin
Although the author of beloved children’s books “Charlotte’s Web” and “Stuart Little” grew up outside of New York City and wrote for The New Yorker for many years, he was buried in the Maine town where he lived on a saltwater farm for the latter part of his life, until his death in 1985. The cemetery is a couple miles down the road from the farmhouse, by the town office. His and his wife’s graves are among the last ones on the left side of the cemetery.
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Leon Leonwood Bean, Webster Cemetery, Freeport
Most people making their way to Freeport these days are headed for the L.L.Bean’s new flagship store, but while you’re in town, why not pay your respects to the man who started it all in 1912? A 4-mile drive from downtown on Webster Road is the cemetery that’s home to the Bean family monument with a marker for “Leon L,” midway down the fourth avenue on the right.
Sarah Orne Jewett is buried alongside family members in South Berwick. (Courtesy of Sarah Orne Jewett House)
Sarah Orne Jewett, Portland Street Cemetery, South Berwick
About a half-mile from the house-turned-museum where “The Country of the Pointed Firs” writer lived most of her life is the cemetery where the she’s buried alongside family members in a plot on the right side, about halfway up the slope, surrounded by an iron rail fence. The lilac bushes by her grave reflect a quote from a 1895 interview she did with The Philadelphia Press, saying she’d like to die in her grandfather’s home “with the lilacs still green and the chairs in their places.”
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Tagged: bowdoin college, civil war, history, l.l. bean, maine artists, Maine authors
Leslie Bridgers is a columnist for the Portland Press Herald, writing about Maine culture, customs and the things we notice and wonder about in our everyday lives. Originally from Connecticut, Leslie came. More by Leslie Bridgers
