M. A. Pearce - President
John Voorhees, George Washburn, A. C. Lindsley - Vice-Presidents
S. H. Green - Corresponding Secretary
Henry Blodgett - Recording Secretary
E. B. Lindsley, W. H. Savage, E. G. Chapman - Marshals
Charles Beebe Frank Lapham Francis Lee Harry Ferguson Georgie Wright Ione King Maud Scott Frank Geswarx Mildred Heath Lansing Burnett |
51 24 24 7 3 4 9 1 1 1 |
Harry Wilcox Austin Wilcox Anna Poyzer Irene Briscoe Josie Masseth Mary McAdam Carrie Squires Jean Hoyt Clarence Brown |
32 27 4 10 2 2 1 2 3 |
Mamie Kennedy - 342 May Smith - 164 Addie Gerue - 72 Edith Smith - 60 Willie Eddy - 53 Sally Van Duyne - 36 Annie K. Hardison - 31 Jennie Shewman - 29 Nellie Johnson - 26 Bertha Robinson - 26 Charlie Folger - 25 |
Dora Atwood - 22 Fred Prince, Jr. - 21 F. Dean Atwood - 18 Baby - 17 Edith Steele - 17 Mabel Frantz - 15 Harry Slocum - 14 Gertrude Webster - 12 Ollie Wilson - 11 Lottie Rutherford - 7 Kattie Barber - 6 |
Willie Brush - 6 Alice Benedict - 5 Ida Taylor - 5 Lottie Gambee - 4 Emily Merriman - 4 J. Zobrist's baby - 4 Jenny Brown - 3 Catherine Eddy - 3 Truxton Morris - 3 Seth Lewis - 3 George Smith - 2 |
Nigh to a grave that was newly made, Leaned a sexton on his earth-worn spade,As the procession yesterday, which followed the remains of the late William Hildreth to their last resting place, entered the cemetery at Phelps, the above words came instinctively to the minds of many as they saw the venerable John Countee, the sexton, standing beside the open grave. Mr. Countee is a colored man of medium height, with short, crisp hair, white as the foamy sea and bearing other unmistakable evidences of great age. His exact age is not known, but probably approximates ninety years. He was born in Maryland, and in the early part of this century was brought as a slave to Ontario county by Archibald Bell, and he continued as a slave until slavery was abolished in this State in 1817. About that year he commenced to dig graves and has followed that as his principal occupation since. Unfortunately he has kept no record of the whole number of graves he has dug, but it is believed they number nearly if not quite three thousand, and have comprised graves for the old and the young, rich and poor, maid and matron, and the sweet-lipped babe, the forefathers of the hamlet and their descendants to the third and fourth generations. What griefs and anguish he has witnessed. What tears fall; what solemn scenes have passed under his eyes as he stood by the graves in the old and new burying grounds in that village. Rochester Union
His work was done, and he paused to wait, The funeral train through the open gate;
A relic of by-gone days was he, and his locks were white as the foamy sea.