Littlefield-Soper Family Cemetery

Comments

The 1887 deed from James and Annie Soper and Frances and Martin Littlefield to Joseph Burr reads in part, “containing clear of the family burying ground ninety one and one fourth acres of land, reserving the said burying ground described as follows. Beginning at a stone planted at the South west corner thereof thence N 17 1/2 degrees E 3 1/20 perches, S 72 1/2 degrees E 2 1/2 perches, S 17 1/2 degrees W 3 1/20 perches, N 72 1/2 degrees W to the beginning Containing 7 6/10 square perches of land. The reservation is repeated in JA 55 Folio 464, 1897, with the addition of “the right of ingress and egress.”
The last time the reservation is included in a deed dates to 1952. The deed at Liber 1681 Folio 397 reads in part:: “The grantors herein covenant and agree that the family burying ground mentioned in Deed from James B. Soper et. ux. to Frances A..Littlefield et. vir., dated November 24, 1886 recorded among said Land Records in Liber JA 4 at Folio 286 is not on the ground hereby conveyed.”
The location is based on the topography within a few hundred feed of the probable Littlefield house as shown on USGS maps (Rockville Quadrangle 1908, 1923 and 1944), and in a location within the bounds of the 1952 deed where the cemetery boundaries would parallel the road shown on USGS maps. A field visit discovered a likely flat terrace within 200 feet of the location of a house in historic USGS maps containing large quartzite fieldstones. Whether the latter are markers, or stones marking former garden features is unknown.
Alternatively, if the language in the 1952 deed is meant to show that the cemetery is in another parcel, the next most likely location is in another portion of the Parks property, conveyed in 1953, though without mention of a cemetery reservation.