Historic Forest Hills Cemetery

Burial #1 is an immense honor at Forest Hills Cemetery, sort of like a single digit license plate number, but in this case it is so much more interesting!

Major General Henry Dearborn (1751-1829) was a physician, statesman and veteran of both the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Dearborn served as Secretary of War under President Thomas Jefferson, and later as Minister Plenipotentiary to Portugal from 1822 to 1824 under President James Monroe. His extensive estate in Roxbury was on Parker Hill and is today the site of the Mission Church. Dearborn, and his second wife Dorcas Osgood Marble Dearborn (1752-1810) were interred on Sweet Briar Path at the new Forest Hills in 1848, after having been removed from Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. The Dearborn Monument surmounts Mount Dearborn and was erected by Henry Dearborn to commemorate the Reverend John Eliot (1604-1691) known as the “Apostle to the Indians” and minister of the Roxbury Meetinghouse. The simple sixteen foot white marble Corinthian column is flanked by matching urns, which mark the graves of Henry and Dorcas Marble Dearborn, parents of Henry A.S. Dearborn, who were interred at Forest Hills Cemetery as Burials #1 and #2. They had been buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery but were moved here upon the founding of Forest Hills Cemetery.