Town's Past Speaks from Tombstones (Lewis Family Cemetery, Greenwich, Connecticut USA)

This gate off Lafayette Place in Greenwich leads to the Lewis family burials

Town’s Past Speaks from Tombstones (Lewis Family Cemetery)

by Jeffrey Bingham Mead

Greenwich Time: October 17, 1990

Greenwich, Connecticut USA

In a secluded, quiet oasis of well manicured greenery, amidst modern buildings and the drone of automobile traffic in central Greenwich, a family burying ground sits frozen in time. This is Lewis family plot located off Lafayette Place. The historic graveyard features marble gravestones that were erected over the years to commemorate members of this family, who were prominent and well-to-do in 19th-century Greenwich, and well-known members of the Second Congregational Church.

After entering an iron gates and strolling down the walled-in access way, one finds the tall gravestones neatly situated, mostly facing south toward a view of Long Island Sound that is now obscured by modern development. 

We of the latter 20th century have only begun to recognize what our predecessors knew about old cemeteries like this one.

Gravestones such as those in the Lewis plot are full of history and artistic expression. Research at the site yielded a wealth of information about the people of this family. Through the inscriptions carved on the marble tombstones, the Lewis’ have left behind a venerable New England time capsule, giving those interred here something of an edge on immortality. 

Of course, having a street in central Greenwich named after them doesn't hurt when it comes to keeping the family name alive.

It is written in Daniel Merritt Mead’s History of Greenwich that the original members of the Lewis family arrived from England in 1675, settling in Cape Cod in Long Island. As time went on, the family spread out, and it was in Stratford the most famous member of this family, Dr. Isaac Lewis, was born on February 1, 1746.

As his gravestone states, he graduated from Yale College and was later ordained to work in the ministry. He was pastor of the Congregational Church in Wilton for 18 years, starting in 1768.

In December of that year, he married Miss Hannah Beale. She was the daughter of an Englishman, Matthew Beale, Esq., who lived in New Preston. The Rev. and Mrs. Lewis went on to have six sons and three daughters.

The Second Congregational Church, Greenwich, prior to the building of the 1856 stone edifice. 

Dr. Lewis was a respected gentleman and was known here and in the rest of New England as minister of the Second Congregational Church. He had been in the pulpit for several months when the Church Society, on Aug. 24, 1786, asked him to settle and preach to the congregation. His salary was one hundred pounds.

This is the steeple of the Second Congregational Church as seen from the Lewis plot. 

He acquired the land near the cemetery in Lafayette Place and built a fine colonial house for himself and family, because the church did not have a personage at that time. The house was said to be considerable in size. Sadly, it was demolished years ago.  Dr. Lewis and lived there for 33 years, and it became a center for family, social and religious activities. 

“In his social relations,” his gravestone epitaph states, “he was kind and affectionate; for piety and learning evidently distinguished” Dr. Lewis died at age 95 on August 27, 1840. 

Dr. Lewis is interred in his family plot with other Congregational ministers. 

Isaac Lewis, the son and successor of the Rev.Isaac Lewis, Second Congregational Church. 

His son, also named Isaac Lewis, followed in his father's footsteps by also attending Yale and attaining a license to preach the gospel in 1797. He succeeded his father in 1818 as pastor of the Second Congregational Church for 10 years. He died in New York City in 1854 at an age of 81 years, 7 months and 23 days.

The Rev. Platt Buffett, pastor of the Stanwich Congregational Church, is buried here as well. He came from Huntington Long Island where he was born in 1764 and later graduated from Yale and 1791. 

The epitaph on Rev. Platt Buffett's gravestone. 

As his gravestone states, he “studied divinity with Rev. Dr. Edwards, was licensed to preach the Gospel by the New Haven Association. He was ordained and constituted Pastor of the Congregational Church in Stanwich by the Consociation of Fairfield West on the 25th May 1796. He died peaceful and happy in the full assurance of the Faith in Christ which he had preached to others for more than half a century. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.” 

The Rev. Samuel Howe of Greenwich died 1874 and is buried here as well.  In 1835 he married Elouisa, the daughter of Rev. Buffet and granddaughter of the Rev. Isaac Lewis. His epitaph reads: “Jesus died and rose again even saw them also would sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. Because I live we shall live also.”

Epitaph poems are found throughout many old graveyards, and I found two of particular interest. 

The gravestone of Roswell W. Lewis, Esq. He was only 18 years old when he died on December 17, 1829. "Counsellor at Law, son of Reverend Isaac Lewis who died suddenly in the City of New York. Be ye also ready for the son of man cometh not an hour when ye think not."

One is on the stone of William Matthew Lewis, the son of Dr. Lewis and his wife Hannah. The stone description states that he had, "just entered into the Practice of Law in the City of New York, fell a lamented victim to Yellow Fever Sept. 9, 1798.” He was 23 when he died. 

Likewise of curiosity is the poem inscribed on the stone of Hannah Buffett, the “Relict” or widow of Rev. Buffett. “Her name is forever written in the Book of Life: 

All is tranquil and serene

calm and undisturbed repose 

There no cloud can intervene 

There are no angry tempest blows 

Every tear is wiped away 

Night is lost in endless day.” 

Miss Sarah Lewis is another prominent family member buried at this site. Her gravestone states: “for more than Fifty Seven Years she was united with the Congregational Church in this place and was actively engaged in the works of Faith and in the labours of love connection with its members. Blest is the memory of the just.”  

She was the organizer of the Sunday School and served as its first superintendent. She also served as treasurer of the Stillson Benevolent Society, named in honor of the late Elizabeth Stillson, who had previously taught at a private school in town and is also buried in the Lewis burying ground. 

Dr. Theodore Louis Mason, M.D., was the son of David and Mary Mason and grandson of  Rev. Isaac Lewis, Sr. According to Judge Hubbard’s book Other Days in Greenwich, Theodore spent the early years of his life in Greenwich and "under the direction of various teachers and notably in the private school of his uncle, the Rev. Platt Buffett of Stanwich, he received a thorough training in English and the classics. Later he became a medical student under the direction of Dr. Darius Mead ... subsequently young Dr. Mason was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York practiced a few months in Greenwich.” 

Dr. Mason moved to Wilton,  then New York City until his death in early 1882 His epitaph says:

“Prudent as a Physician and Philanthropist, 

loved as a friend and counsellor; ever zealous

in his Masters business; He loved a life of 

self-serving devotion to the welfare of others 

and died the death of the righteous. 

There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.”

I believe it was for Walter Scott who said the tombstones and cemeteries that for all time, “still from the grave their voice is heard.” This is certainly the case in the Lewis plot. The lengthy inscriptions on the tombstones at times seem to read like eternally preserve the resumes for following generations to ponder. They allow us to stand back and ponder get another dimension, era and family that contributed to the history of the Town of Greenwich and the Second Congregational Church.

Jeffrey B. Mead is a direct descendant of one of the founding families of the town. He is a teacher and free-lance writer.