There are people in this world that are born with kindness within their hearts. Gentle souls that avoid controversy and simply embrace all that is good. David George was one of these people, born in 1767 he lived his entire life here in Concord, N.H., closely to the Old North Cemetery.
As a child David enjoyed his daily trips to the nearby Old North Cemetery to frolic around the open grounds with his young friends. The Old North Cemetery was the first cemetery to be established within the city limits back in the year 1730 and it was only 37 years old when David George was born. David would spend his days playing in the open cemetery where there were only six gravestones found in his early youth. He would venture and read the six epitaphs carved into the stones when time allowed after his chores were completed. All six of these stones were certainly placed well prior to the year 1790 when our town was still a British Province. The six stones that David George visited each day of his boyhood were primitive, thick and somewhat clumsy and created by unskilled stonemasons during a time of sadness. The letters were not carved deep and the shapes were not regimented. The talented masons that created the ornate gravestones we find in the Old North Cemetery today did not showcase their art until after the year 1790.
As the days passed and David grew into a fine young man, he married and had children of his own. He established himself here in Concord as a tailor and advertised his wares in the local newspaper. In 1791, David George advertised that he would make a genteel suit of superfine broadcloth for three dollars. For the price of $2, he would make you an ordinary suit from course cloth. With his loving family and successful career as a tailor here in Concord he still held tightly to his kind heart, visiting the Old North Cemetery in his role as unofficial caretaker. He would trim, water and weed as he walked about the growing number of gravestones. Contemplate and pray for those that were now finding eternal rest in this hallowed ground. Regardless of the weather David George made his daily treks to the cemetery each and every day.
Some of the original first stones located in the Old North Cemetery included James Osgood, who died on April 6, 1757 at the age of 50 years. There was Jeremiah, son of Thomas and Anna Stickney, who died in December, 1763 at the sad age of just three days old. Thomas and Anna Stickney also buried their 8-year-old daughter, Mary died on Dec. 5, 1763 just days after her younger brother. A large granite monument was erected for the Stickney family many years after their deaths. Doctor Ezra Carter perished in 1757 and Jeremiah Hall passed away on Oct. 8, 1770. These were some of the first inhabitants of the Old North Cemetery and each and every small stone was known to David George.
As the years passed there was much sadness in Concord as the Old North Cemetery was starting to reach capacity. Some of the wealthy expanded the cemetery with the Minot Enclosure to ensure their final rest. Politicians introduces discussion at the annual town meetings centered upon the need for more burial space, immigrants were arriving and the mortality rate was certainly growing each and every year. David experienced his very own sadness too; he and his wife Elizabeth lost their son Matthew in 1817 and buried him at the Old North Cemetery. Elizabeth herself passed away young 10 years later in 1827. David still visited this hallowed ground each day and spent time with his wife and young son as well as the growing number of new gravestones, watering, weeding and contemplating with each visit. This kind gentleman, a tailor by trade and inconspicuous cemetery caretaker by late afternoon. David remained close with his three surviving children, sadly they also died at a young age in 1830, 1835 and 1837 leaving David George as he originally started as a young man without a family once again. With a forlorn feeling he still ventured to the Old North Cemetery each day to visit his family as well as the many other known gravestones he was so familiar with.
It was just one year after his last child, Sarah George, passed away in 1837 that David fell ill himself. He succumbed to his illness and passed away on April 23, 1838 at the age of 71 years. This kind soul that spent his days caring for those that had passed before him now buried with his family in hallowed ground.
Seldom do we see people like David George, caring and kind with only good intentions. He spent most of his 71 year’s mourning and caring for those deceased at the Old North Cemetery.
It is this brisk late September day that I visit with George and his family at the Old North Cemetery. The sky is blue and the sun is bright as I reflect on this gentle soul. I stoop to pick a weed from the front of his gravestone and say a prayer for this person that cared so very much.