She Came Back to Newport to Rescue Her First Husband's Grave
When Mrs. C. E. Anderson learned that an old Newport burying ground would be platted for building lots, she traveled from New York to move her first husband's remains to the Odd Fellows' cemetery.
Mrs. C. E. Anderson, of Croton, N. Y., was in Newport during last week, superintending the removal of her first husband's remains from the old burying ground on the Blackwell tract in the northeast part of the city to the Odd Fellows' cemetery. Mrs. Anderson's first husband's name was Curtis and he died in Newport in 1895. After his death she removed to the east and subsequently remarried. Learning that the old cemetery would be platted and used for building purposes, she journeyed to the west again to have the body removed to a permanent resting place. Mr. Curtis and wife came to Newport in 1894 and purchased a small tract of land on the south side of the Great Northern tracks and resided here until Mr. Curtis died. They are remembered by some of the older residents. While in Newport Mrs. Anderson was the guest of Postmaster Towle's family.
“Learning that the old cemetery would be platted and used for building purposes, she journeyed to the west again to have the body removed to a permanent resting place.”
Newport's early cemeteries were sometimes treated as temporary land uses, vulnerable to the same development pressure that pushed the town outward. The story rhymes with modern fights over unmarked graves, historic burial grounds, and what a growing city owes to its dead. Mrs. Anderson's journey reminds us that memory is not easily platted.
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