A history of Palermo’s Smith Cemetery 1825-2025

An annual fundraising picnic.

by Andrew Pottle

2025 marks the bicentennial anniversary of Smith Cemetery on Level Hill Road in North Palermo.

Among the last of the major cemeteries in the area still operated by a cemetery association rather than the town itself, it has had an interesting history over its 200 years.

In 1807, the Town of Palermo, then just four years old, purchased its first two cemeteries: one at Greeley’s Corner for the lower half of town, and one on Dennis Hill for the upper half. By 1825, the population had grown from around 500 to almost 1,200, and the cemeteries were filling up. In 1825 the town purchased half an acre of land on what is now known as Level Hill Road for $5.50. The land was laid out in eight grave lots and sold to townspeople.

From the 1830s through the 1850s, Isaac Smith, pastor of the First Baptist Church at Carr’s Corner, lived adjacent to the cemetery. After his death in 1857, when he was buried there, it became known as Smith Cemetery.

THEN

At the end of the 1800s, the Ladies’ Improvement Society of North Palermo was formed. This group was active and successful in raising money and improving the community, with a particular focus on Smith Cemetery. In 1900, working closely with the Ladies’ Improvement Society, the Smith Cemetery Association was established. The Society sponsored many events to raise funds for the cemetery, including suppers at various homes, ice cream socials, and most notably, their highly successful annual Old Home picnic at Prescott’s Grove, located at Prescott Pond, behind the cemetery.

The Old Home Picnic was a great success, running for nearly 20 years. Hundreds of people attended each year, traveling not only from neighboring towns but also from out of state, some from as far away as New Jersey and Chicago. According to a 1910 newspaper clipping, “fully a thousand” people were in attendance that year.

A dinner was served at the picnic for those who didn’t bring their own baskets, along with a confectionery table run by Wilder Young and an ice cream table operated by Percy Turner. Anna Clark and Abbie Arnold presided over the “fancy article” table, raising funds by selling postcards of the Methodist Church, First Baptist Church, and other places of interest, as well as souvenir dishes featuring the First Baptist Church.

Manie Greeley, Mary Norton, and other women from town donated quilts and sofa pillows to be raffled off, sold, or awarded to those who correctly guessed the number of buttons in a jar.

There was music and country dancing, with some of the recorded groups including The Eureka Brass Band of Liberty, Tozier’s Orchestra of Albion, and the fiddler Charlie Overlock, of Washington.

NOW

After the first picnic in 1900, the Smith Cemetery Association was able to expand and buy land from Joel Bailey for $30. Between 1904 and 1907, $900 was raised at the picnic for the iron fence that still stands around the cemetery. Other improvements include maple trees planted in front of the fence in 1905 that lasted just over 100 years, and stone hitching posts that are still there today.

In the early years of the Association, Sanford and Manie Greeley were very active as officers of the Association, with Sanford being president for many years. They had no children of their own, but took in Kenneth Black, orphaned at eight years old, and raised him as their son until his death from tuberculosis at eighteen. When Manie died in 1940, she willed the remainder of their estate to the Cemetery Association, creating a fund of several thousand dollars for maintaining the cemetery.

In the 1940s the upkeep of the cemetery was primarily done by communal work days by lot owners. Some names of the people leading the work days include Norman Belden, Ray Nutter, Forest and Maurice Howard, and Thomas Bruso.

In 1950, M. Dewey Saban began taking on much of the responsibility for the cemetery’s care. Praised for his frugal management of the resources, including payment from families for annual care and reselling unused grave sites donated back to the Association. In 1984 a bronze plaque was placed on his cemetery lot to permanently recognize his contributions. Recently Norma Swift headed the association, until her passing in 2022, when Jamie Haskell-Spencer took over.

Most of this knowledge is owed to Palermo historian Millard Howard, who, along with nearly every name mentioned in this article, now rests at Smith Cemetery.

Sources:

Smith Cemetery Association, Milliard Howard 2013;
Newspaper archives;
Sixty-Six Years A Country Fiddler, E. Burnell Overlock 1984.