Samuel Morrill Cemetery in Tuftonboro New Hampshire

Samuel Morrill (1779-1849) was born in Eliot Maine to Joel Morrill and Hannah Wilson of Eliot.

At around age 30, in 1810, he met Mary "Polly" Hodgdon of Strafford County New Hampshire, and married her in Tuftonboro, and they remained there for the rest of their lives.  In 1840, the portion of Strafford containing Tuftonboro and surrounding towns was incorporated into new Carroll County.

HOME OF SAMUEL MORRILL
1810-1849 (OR LATER)
FEDERAL CORNER ROAD
TUFTONBORO, NH

This family directly descends from John Morrell of Kittery (one of the two English founders of Morrill families in New England), and is one of many Morrill families to have moved to Strafford County, New Hampshire.

In fact, other families made the move from York County Maine to Strafford County as well, and they are discussed in more detail here.

The old red house sits on a 23 acre lot, but just south of the house, on a separate 2 acre lot (containing no house) sits a modest little graveyard surrounded by a stone wall and many maple trees, and contains 11 gravesites with very well kept head and footstones.  As is often the case with old New England towns, there were no public cemeteries until mid 19th century in Tuftonboro, and no churches, so people resorted to backyard burials.  There are 47 such family graveyards in the Town, according to Tuftonboro New Hampshire:  Cemeteries, Graveyard and Burial Sites 1800-1995, copyright 1997 by The Tuftonboro Association.

I've profiled everyone resting in Samuel's backyard on Find A Grave, but here is a summary of its inhabitants:

GRAVE OF SAMUEL MORRILL
(POLLY IS BURIED HERE TOO, I BELIEVE, BUT UNMARKED)

Samuel died in 1849 at home, and Polly died in 1876 in neighboring Rochester (perhaps the house was already sold by then?).

As for their eight children, one (or possibly two) died as babies, and the other six lived to adulthood:

-Sally Morrill-Foss (1810-1854) was Samuel's eldest.  She married John Foss (1797-1859) and they ran a small farm in neighboring Moultonboro with their five children, most of whom appear to be buried at Lee Cemetery in Moultonboro.

-Hannah W. Morrill (1812-1873) married William Copp Jr., had five sons and moved to Hennepin County, Minnesota.  When William passed away in 1857, she married a D.Y. Jones.  She passed away in Minneapolis.
-Joel Morrill (1815-1867) was clearly named after Samuel's father.  He married Almira Piper and ran a large farm in Newport, Maine with their three children.  None of this family is buried here.
-Almira Morrill appears in no records after her birth, so it's possible she may have been stillborn or might be buried in an unmarked grave here in the backyard.

GRAVE OF WILLIAM MORRILL
AGE SIX MONTHS

-William Morrill (1819-1819) lived only six months, and he has his own gravesite next to his father.  This is what leads me to believe the two older girls were stillborn.

GRAVE OF CARRIE MALLARD
AGE 8

GRAVE OF MARY JANE MORRILL-MALLARD

-Mary Jane Morrill-Mallard (1822-1861) married an attorney named John D. Mallard and moved to Brookline, Massachusetts with their young daughter, Carrie (who died at age 8).  When Mary Jane's sister, Sally Foss, and her husband both died, their young daughter Sally moved in with them until she married and moved up to Epsom, NH.  John may have remarried after Mary Jane died, since I cannot seem to locate his burial place.

GRAVE OF ELIZABETH MORRILL-SMITH
THOUGHTFULLY REPAIRED AFTER SOME VANDALS GOT TO IT

-Elizabeth Morrill-Smith (1828-1866) married a John G. Smith, whom I cannot locate a single record for (perhaps the commonality of the name is to blame). 

-Julia Morrill-Leavitt (1830-1853) was the youngest of Samuel's children.  She married Woodbury Leavitt (1827-1863), son to Samuel Leavitt and Jemima Piper, and grandson to adjutant John Leavitt,  and they had one child, Samuel C. Leavitt (1849-1870) also buried here.  After Julia died, Woodbury worked as a farm laborer and then died during the Civil War from chronic diarrhea.

Also buried in the backyard is a Willie Hodgdon Smith (1861-1866), son to Elizabeth Morrill.

GRAVE OF WILLIE HODGDON SMITH

I believe that once Samuel died in 1849, his house and land must have been sold immediately, since everyone scattered to other places afterwards.  At least the new owner was kind enough to allow the subsequent burials to take place here.  I'd like to find out when the land was sold.  I believe the house is kept up nicely and is used as some kind of museum or meeting house, judging from my visit there in November 2011 (when I took these photographs).  It would be nice if a member of this family living today would stumble upon this post, and maybe have more info to share to help fill in the blanks.