Phipps Street Cemetery showing Harvard monument shaded by many young trees

Phipps Street Cemetery showing Harvard monument shaded by many young trees. Richard Frothingham's "History of Charlestown" on pages 74-77 tells of the contributions of John Harvard to our young colony from the time of his admission as an inhabitant, Aug. 6, 1637, until his death, Sept. 14, 1638 and the distribution of his estate of some 780, half of which went to the new college in Cambridge, and a library of 320 volumes, all of which were bequeathed to the college, . . . we quote: "If tradition may be credited, till the Revolutionary War, a gravestone was standing over the spot where his ashes repose. But this was destroyed at the period and, what is deeply to be regretted, no attempt was made to replace it. And thus it was that for more than half a century there was only tradition to point out the sacred place. On Sept. 6, 1827, a few graduates of Harvard College were assembled at the house of Dr. [George] Parkman of Boston, when one of the company, then an eminent citizen of this [Charles] Town, proposed to erect a monument on the Burial Hill to Harvard's memory, & to defray the expense by a subscription from the graduates of the College, limited to one dollar from each person." The proposer was the Hon. Everett, at that time a representative in Congress, and later to become Gov. of Mass., president of Harvard College, Ambass. to Eng., etc. The stone obelisk, 15 feet in height, was dedicated on Sept. 26, 1828. It is assumed, on the basis of an ancient record, that the remains of John Harvard, have known no resting place save the unknown spot on the east side of Town Hill.
Courtesy of Boston Public Library