circular corner cupboard with fluted pilasters and colonial moldings. Three large fireplaces and a brick oven still remain in excellent condition. John Jacobs brought his bride (Mabel Litchfield) to this new house after their marriage in Scituate, December 15, 1783, and here they remained nearly sixty years, during which time Mr. Jacobs served the town as clerk for six years and selectman for seven years. He became a deacon of the Congregational Church and the custody of the church property was handed over to him in 1827. Ten children were born in this home and the son, John Jr., remained here after the death of his father (June 27, 1841). He also served the town as clerk six years, and was representative in 1851 and member of the constitutional convention in 1853. He was a mason by trade and the wall front of Green Cemetery is a monument to his skill. He died October 11, 1876. After his death, Abel G. Hodgman, a farmer, became the owner of this property. While he and his wife occupied the house, the older portion of it was remodelled by removing two of the original five fireplaces, substituting a smaller chimney for the use of stoves. New four-pane windows replaced the windows containing fifteen small panes in a few of the rooms. Mr. Hodgman did some farming, and also did blacksmithing and carriage repairing in a building now entirely gone, which stood west of the house, and very near. It was used as a cider mill by Mr. Jacobs. After Mr. and Mrs. Hodgman both died, Capt. H. W. Wilson bought the place in order to secure the wood lots. Wood choppers occupied the house at intervals, but gradually the old house took on a forlorn and neglected appearance. The farm degenerated to a pasture over which the cattle roamed. Eventually the house, barn and part of the land was acquired by a Danish couple, Mr. and Mrs. Viggs I. Lassen of Cambridge, Mass., who were in search of a suitable place for a small chicken farm as well as a healthful spot in which to live. They remained here four years, making very few improve ments. In the spring of 1916 the place was sold to Rev. and Mrs. Benson Perley Wilkins, of Keene Valley, N. Y. Extensive improvements were made both outside and inside the house and barn and once more "the home lot" became something better than a pasture. None of the Revolutionary architectural lines were removed from the buildings, but arbors and trellises were added, serving to beautify them and also provide a support for an abundance of vines and flowers. The interior of the house was entirely renovated, preserving, however, the weathered wood, the boxed beams, wide-boarded floors, colonial cupboards and brick fireplaces. Rev. Mr. Wilkins, whose health improved after coming to Carlisle, became the minister of the Carlisle Congregational Church in March, 1919, and after fourteen months' service was obliged to resign because of continued ill health. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins and their daughter Doris still reside in this fine old house on the hill, whose colonial windows have looked out upon a worthy community for one hundred and thirty-seven years. CHAPTER IX BURYING GROUNDS THERE appears to have been no provision made for a public burying ground previous to the year 1784, when at a meeting of the inhabitants of the district, held April 5, it was "voted that there be one-half acre of Land Provided for the use of a burying place including the spot of ground that hath been made use of for that purpose already." At the same meeting a committee of three persons were chosen to confer and settle with Mr. Wilkins for said land. A little more than three years later two sums of money were paid out of the treasury for land purchased for a burying place, viz.: to Timothy Wilkins, 3d, the sum of ten shillings, and to Timothy Wilkins, Jr., the sum of sixteen shillings, which was the proportional part due each of the above-named parties who, it would appear, were joint owners of the land now known as the Central Burying Ground, located in the center of the town, and at present seldom used for burial purposes. The markers all stand facing the east, and indicate the period of slate with the exception of two or three marble slabs and one monument. Here rests the body of the first minister who was settled in the district, the Rev. Paul Litchfield; also the remains of many of the first settlers. The inscriptions on many of the stones which commemorate their names bear numerous military and ecclesiastical titles. That interments were made here previous to its being purchased by the district for burial purposes would |