Bennett Cemetery is a small cemetery that in 1934 only had memorials for 9 persons. The 1934 description of the location is Near Old Bennett Bridge.

Note See update below: http://www.newtownhistory.org/RoostersCrow1.htm

FINDING THE BENNETT CEMETERY from the November-December 2005 issue

The location of a lost burying ground is always an occasion of excitement. So it was when Scott Sharlow, the GIS coordinator for Newtown, approached me with a 1923 map that clearly showed a burying ground located between three parcels of land in the Riverside area. In April, Scott along with myself, the State Archaeologist, Nick Belllantoni, and the Historical Commission archaeologist, David Poirier gathered to begin a tour of the cemetery area.

With Scott as our guide we found the parcel of ground in the side yard of a house located at the end of Riverside road, just above the abutment of the now-gone Bennett's bridge. The parcel of ground according to the map, was roughly square and about 40 feet on a side. There were no head or foot stones, but a long time neighbor said that he remembered when there were several. The neighbor to the south had actually found a foot stone on his property with the letters A B on it and had stood it up in the ground, but it was not in its original location.

During July, we had an opportunity to use a piece of high technology to get an idea of where the burials were located. The state archaeologist had made provision for the use of a Ground Penetrating Radar unit and a highly trained technician. GPR works on the same principle as regular radar except it shoots radar waves into the ground and measures the reflection from dense objects. It effectively tells us when there is a change in soil density. Graves, since they are less firmly packed than the surrounding soil will frequently show up as "anomalies" on the screen of the computer that is recording the mass of data that the radar receptor is receiving.

With fascination we watched as the technician and his assistant walked back and forth along regular grid lines pulling a small sled behind them . As they finished walking the gridded area, they stopped and, looking over the technician's shoulder, we could see a multi-colored pattern of inverted Vs. These were roots and stones which were up to six feet beneath our feet. He would later combine all of the patterns for each pass to create a three dimensional cross section of the parcel of ground over which the grid had been placed. His report containing this information was sent to us about a month ago and in the southeast corner of the land we tested there appeared a square discoloration which is probably the northwest corner of the burial ground with several fuzzy areas that appeared to be burials.

Meanwhile historic research continued on the burial ground. It had been known in the 1930s and the WPA workers who inventoried all of the headstone inscriptions in the state, had recorded the eight head stones that were then standing in our little burial area. They were all members of the Bennett family and they dated between 1815 and 1864. The little foot stone was for either Abel Bennett or his wife Ann Bennett.

Since an account of our GPR testing had been carried by The Newtown Bee , word of our research had spread widely and I was contact by Bud Bennett of Southbury who was a direct descendant of the Bennett's buried in what we were now calling the Bennett Cemetery. He identified the genealogical relationships that existed between the family members who were commemorated on the missing headstones. Of greatest interest was Abel Bennett, the patriarch of the Bennett family who led them to settle on this flood plain of the Housatonic. He with his son Isaac and brother Thomas had been the petitioners, who requested permission to replace the decrepit bridge that crossed the river from Newtown to Southbury, and to charge tolls to cover the expense. This bridge was to become known to Newtown residents as Bennett's Bridge throughout the 19th and 20th centuries until it had to be taken down before being submerged under the waters of lake Zoar. (Headstones for Thomas and Isaac do not appear on the inventor of headstones for our cemetery. They may have been buried elsewhere.)

The final chapter in the odyssey of the Bennett Cemetery came a couple of weeks ago when I was contacted by the southern neighbor, the same one who had discovered the footstone. He had dug up a hydrangea bush and had discovered several slabs of marble. These turned out to be the bases of several headstones. The stones had been broken and the upper portions were missing. The bases which lack inscriptions had then been pushed over and burred, probably to allow unobstructed mowing. Just under the prostrate bases was a distinct solid discoloration which is characteristic of the top of a grave shaft. It appears that the hydrengea bush stood at the southwest corner of the old cemetery. The state archaeologist and I will be visiting the site in mid-November to confirm the discovery and come up with recommendations for preserving this historic burying ground, and how to deal with the northern neighbor who has erected a tall fence that appears to run over the center of the burial area.

Stay tuned for further developments.