A Petite Plot

This is the tiniest cemetery ever.*

I drive past this surprising sight every day. I love its intricate fence, guarding its claimed ground against the incursion of Route 30 and the gas station. This strange little piece of land goes easily unnoticed while rushing to and from the ski slopes, but now I always pass by and wonder why and how it exists. The headstone reads:

Bailey Rawson

1760 - 1848

Pioneer settler of Rawsonville

1812

So the puzzle of the petite plot is solved, though after a little expert Googling, the man behind the fence really began to come to life (sorry, bad joke). Rawson was a rambling man and occasional scoundrel who traveled the Jamaica hills on horseback, worked as a farrier, and cleared Rawsonville’s first trees in 1812. There, he built a cabin and a sawmill and called it “home”. And the rest, I suppose, is history, a little piece of which is kept safe and sound behind the funny green fence across from Tony’s Pizza.

*Know of an even smaller one? Share it!