Reddit reviews Early Gravestones in Southern Maine: The Genius of Bartlett Adams

Thanks for sharing!

One of my personal faves is my 6th and 7th g-grandfathers' longtime business partner, Enoch Freeman; a land surveyor and attorney in what is now Portland, Maine. Freeman outlived his wife and some of his children. By the time he died, the burial ground lacked space for Freeman to be interred with his own family. His solution, which clearly had posterity in mind, as did the stone you shared, was to therefore list a directional azimuth to his family's gravesite, from his own. His stone reads:

This Stone is erected to the memory of the late Honorable Enoch Freeman, Esq'r, who died Sept. 2d, 1788, aged 82 years. His wife lies near and four children, S. I7" W. 4 or 5 Rods from this Grave

If I remember right, only one stone among his wife and children had survived the years -- therefore making Freeman's directional message, carved by Bartlett Adams, a terrific source of information!