“Historical Cemetery, East of Carr’s Pond Road, 36 burials with 0 inscriptions, On Macera’s place (the old Straight Farm). The Straight cemetery is all fieldstones. The Spencers buried 4 people on the west side of this cemetery. … Henry Straight’s family and others are buried here…”
–database cemetery description–
Esther Amanda (Spencer) Briggs (1835-1929), local historian and known as “Aunt Mandy” wrote of the Spencers buried in the Straight Cemetery.
Page 40 of Aunt Mandy’s (E.A.B) notebook gives us information on the Spencers being buried in the Straight Cemetery. Hence the name of the cemetery is called the Straight-Spencer Historical Cemetery because both Straights and Spencers are buried there. Since the Straight family was buried there prior to the Spencer burials, the Straight name is always listed first.
Because members of the Straight family and then four members of the Spencer family were buried in this cemetery, the cemetery has been called the Straight-Spencer Cemetery. Because of Rhode Island’s separation of church and state, burials were on the land of the family’s farms and not by the church. Henry and Hannah Straight was the first family on this farm and in 1750, the Spencers purchased this land. Lifted from the internet in the 1990s:
Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries EG 84-Straight-Spencer Lot
STRAIGHT-SPENCER CEMETERY registered in Nov. 2001
Internet’s Description of the Straight-Spencer Lot Historical Cemetery
Diagram of Straight-Spencer Cemetery
In 2001 the name was changed from Straight Cemetery to Straight/Spencer Cemetery because of the two families being buried there. The Straight family was there first, so the Straight name is very appropriately listed first. Also it is appropriate that the Straight name be most prominent as over thirty Straights family members are there, whereas there are only four Spencers buried there. The Spencer father and elder son died from smallpox in October of 1777, and seven years later, the wife was buried next to her husband and thirty-seven years later the eldest daughter, who died from scarlet fever, was buried next to her brother.
