| Cemetery Number | SK189 |
| Town | SOUTH KINGSTOWN |
| Cemetery Name | POLODOR GARDNER LOT |
| Find A Grave (Opens in New Tab) |
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| Graves List | Display Graves List |
| Location | MINISTERIAL ROAD |
| State | RI |
| Direction | E |
| Pole Number | 170 |
| Distance | 1600 |
| Map Number | |
| Page Number | 74 |
| Plat Number | 31 |
| Deed Book | |
| Deed Page | |
| Size in Feet | 40 |
| Size in Feet | 40 |
| Inscriptions | 0 |
| Fieldstones | 20 |
| Tombs | |
| Exist? | YES |
| Last seen date? | 2003 |
| Newest | |
| Oldest | |
| Vandalism | Y |
| Veteran | |
| Pole | G |
| Comment | This cemetery is located 1600 feet of Ministerial Road at telephone pole #170 on the west side of Long Pond. This is plat 74, lot 31 at 527 Ministerial Road. It is east of Ministerial Road on a private road 0.8 miles north of Post Road. Turn east through two stone columns at 527 Ministerial Road at telephone pole #170 onto a private paved road. Proceed thirteen hundred feet to a metal farm gate on the right. Turn right onto a gravel road that leads to a cabin on the shore of Long Pond. Go eight hundred feet to the cabin and the cemetery is on the edge of the pond. It is enclosed by a stone wall that is falling down. The size of this cemetery is difficult to determine: the cabin is probably built on part of it, and an addition to the cabin in 1998 uncovered skeletal remains. The cemetery is possibly forty feet sqaure, in poor condition, with no enclosure. The historical cemetery sign says “South Kingstown Historical Cemetery #150,” which is incorrect; it should read #189. The Pettaquamscutt Historical Society assigned #150 to the Northup-Burgess Lot in their 1979 book. It is difficult to determine the number of burials as this cemetery has been disturbed but there could be twenty fieldstone marked burials.
James N. Arnold recorded this lot Oct. 6, 1880, his #137, “south of Mr. Franklin’s house a burial yard containing one grave no marker being that of Thankful Gardiner (colored) lot fenced and partly walled. About here we find several graves buried without much order being those of colored people.”
In October of 1998 this cemetery in rural Matunuck was accidentally unearthed during construction of an addition to a one-room cabin on Long Pond east of Ministerial Road. A coffin plate yielded the information for Cornelia Franklin. The cemetery is near Long Pond on the property of Hugh Weidinger. For more details on the discovery of this African-American cemetery, see the Providence Journal article Nov. 22, 1998, sect C4. For more information on this area and its people, see The Hills of Matunuck a history by Carder H. Whaley published in 1941.
Found, registered, and recorded by John Sterling & James Wheaton for a 2004 book on South Kingstown cemeteries. |
| Condition | poor |
| Enclosure | stone wall |
| Gate | no gate |
| Growth | cleared |
| Terrain | level |
| Cemetery Location |
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| Cemetery Burial Map |
N/A
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