Cross Mills Common Burying Ground

The Cross’ Mills Common Burying Ground / 4403 Old Post Rd.  (Next door to the Cross’ Mills Baptist Church)

This is Charlestown’s only public burying ground.  Ongoing restoration and care has been in progress on this historic ground since 2011.  It is believed that the site has been in use since the late 1600s, before Charlestown was incorporated 1738.  Many of the grave are no longer visible, as time has deteriorated or hidden the earliest markers and some of the headstones have been removed.  Some were marked only by plain fieldstone.

Various artistic carving styles, shapes and materials, common at different historic eras, are represented here.  The exact number of grave sites is unknown at present.  In the 1970s, the Rhode Island Historic Cemetery Commission located approximately 300 headstones, today there are about 150 visible.

Veterans of the French and Indian War (1754-1763), the American Revolution (1775-1783), the War of 1812, and memorial markers for those lost in the Civil War (1861-1865) can be found in this burying ground.  Many of Charlestown’s founding family names are evident on the stones.