The flowering crabapple trees guarding the entrance to historic Naskeag Cemetery are now blooming, as if presenting arms in full dress uniforms.
Ironically, the cemetery’s name, “Naskeag,” means “the end” in the language of the Abenaki Native Americans who lived here before European settlers arrived. The area is a peninsular, the end of land and the beginning of fishing waters.
The cemetery was located there hundreds of years ago and includes the remains of some very early settlers, including William Reed, an American militia Captain in the Revolutionary War. He died and was buried there in 1790.
The settlers liked the Abenaki name: The area eventually became known as Naskeag Village on Naskeag Peninsular, which was reachable by Naskeag Road. There was a community there that had a school and attended Beth Eden Chapel that you see across Naskeag Road in the first image.
Beth Eden is a one-room church and meeting place that was completed in 1900 and is now used primarily for occasional ceremonies and programs. Named in 2001 to the National Register of Historic Places, the Chapel is listed as an example of late Victorian architecture. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on May 18 and 19 [closeup], 2023.)