Totten Cemetery
Totten Cemetery is located in Section 34 of Cass Township.
Interesting newspaper articles submitted by Cris Nagla. Thank you Cris!
(Unknown newspapers and dates)
Recently there appeared in the LEDGER, the following paragraph relating to Mr. Totten:
FIRST SETTLER IN CASS
"Mr. Totten was the first white man to settle in the Cass township, one daughter, Margaret Totten, born May 11 1825, was the first white child born in this township. His only living child. Aunt______Mallory as is known to all, is well past 95 years and is a resident of Smithfield. There are many descendants living in Cass township and other parts of Fulton County. While William Totten was the first pioneer of the township, there are a great many others who soon followed him and who _________ to make Cass Township what it is today.
BURIED IN LOVE
In the old Totten Cemetery in which Mr. and Mrs. Totten
are
buried are many other early settlers. A marble slab marks
the
last resting place of the original Tottens and on its face
is
chiseled his name, age, and the date of his death. On the
pages
of an open book, cut in the marble are the words: "My
husband
Our father, Blessed are the dead that in the Lord"
Could the old Totten Cemetery tell a take of Smithfield and Cass township, it
would be more wonderful than fiction. It would be a tale of hardships years ago
to comfort and neighborly love and success in 1923.
THE TOTTEN CEMETERY
The Totten Cemetery on the George I. Snively place in Cass Township is
being cleaned up. A new fence is to be erected with cement post at each corner,
which Wilson Rector at Smithfield has donated. The fence will be of woven wire.
This is the oldest cemetery in Cass Township and the first corpse to be
buried there was unknown.
Along in the early "20's" William Totten lived upon the place in a house
long since destroyed. One rainy, stormy night a stranger on horseback came to
his door asking shelter, because he was sick and unable to travel farther. In
the hospitable way of those days the stranger was taken in without question and
given the best accommodations and care possible, but he rapidly grew worse. A
messenger was sent to Cuba for a doctor and Dr. Cline, a young physician at the
time, responded to the call.
Medical aid was of no avail and the man died before morning without telling
his name or from whence he came. There were no letters or means of
identification upon his person, and as strangers from a long distance were
frequently passing through the country it was impossible to find out about him.
A rude coffin was built, and the body buried in one corner of the Totten land
there being no cemetery very near.
As time went on others found a resting place on that farm, so that at
present the Totten "city of the dead" had a great many graves the _____ of them
marked with headstones. In the last years not many graves have been____ there
excepting for one of a family_____ a burial plot.
The history of some of the other county cemeteries in our county would, no
doubt, prove to be interesting, although there are none near here older than the
"Totten,"
Any contributions,
corrections, or suggestions would be deeply appreciated!
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Updated May 18, 2006