SK198

POSSIBLY MOVED ELSEWHERE, SEE BELOW

This cemetery was known to be 290 feet north of Curtis Corner Rd. and north of Asa Pond. It contains twelve burials with ten inscribed stones. In order to locate this cemetery, Jim Wheaton checked deeds for references. He found it mentioned in a South Kingstown deed dated Jan. 4, 1872 for land being transferred from Job Briggs to Charles H. Shelton of Providence. Thee deed reads: "A tract of land situated in South Kingstown containing 26 acres be the same more or less bounded on the north by William Watson. On the east, the heirs of Stephen C. Fiske, deceased, and John H. Branton. On the south by the highway [Curtis Corner Rd.] and on the west by Josiah Watson, William Davis, George Sweet, and William Watson... together with the dwelling house and other buildings thereon - excepting the burying ground on said tract of land as long as the same may be occupied as and for a burying ground... I, the said Job Briggs, my heirs, executors and administrators to keep the fence in proper repair around said burying ground." The same reservation was repeated almost ten years later on Jan. 1, 1881 when Charles H. Shelton sold the land to Julia M. Peckham. James N. Arnold recorded this lot Nov. 6, 1880, his #221: "On land of [blank] north of his house, a burial yard of the Briggs family, lot fenced and in good order." Although Arnold did not know it, the lot was then of the land of Sweet Briggs' son Job. The remnants are now on the property of 109 Curtis Corner Rd. at the head of Asa Pond. The house on this property in 2002 was built on the old Briggs house foundation. The resident took James Wheaton to a site he had been told by his step-father was a cemetery. It is north of the house (per the Arnold description) against a stone wall that separates the property from the one to the east. The area is covered with vinca minor, a common graveyard planting. This cemetery has probably been removed to Riverside Cemetery (SK043), to adjacent lots #168 and #122. It is entirely possible that not all bodies were removed from the original cemetery. We know that Walter Scott Briggs (1867-1867), the son of Job and Mary F., was removed to Section A of Riverside. Job Briggs (1801-1877) [presumably the Job that Arnold found in an unmarked grave next to his first wife Mary] and his wife Mary F. (Holland) Briggs Holley (1838-1920) [presumably his second wife, who later married Elisha P. Holley] are also buried in this section, as are several of their children. The gravestones for Mary Briggs, her three children, and Sweet and Martha Briggs have not been located in other cemeteries. Unfortunately, a thorough probing of the ground on the site of SK198 found nothing. Identified, registered, and recorded by John Sterling & James Wheaton for a 2004 book on South Kingstown cemeteries.