"His choice of land proved to be one of nature's prizes, with a rolling contour and a great many beautiful trees, a place where sun and shade played well together." - Mildred McClary Tymeson
The far-sighted Worcester citizens who, in 1837 "prayed the Legislature" for the right to own a cemetery, were horticulturalists at heart. When the charter was granted "incorporating a unique association providing for individual proprietorship," they saw to it that it included a provision for the planting and care of trees, shrubbery and "other ornaments." In the beginning, proprietors tended their own lots. It was Frederick William Paine, whose family house, The Oaks, still stands on Lincoln Street, who saw the need in the 1840s for a cohesive landscape. It is because of the early "hands-on" efforts of Mr. Paine and other Trustees and, later, through the Trustees' supportive interest and the knowledge of caring Superintendents, that the cemetery has continued to provide rural serenity in spite of urban sprawl.
The trees are a testament to this caring. Some older than the cemetery itself, such as the larch there to welcome Harriet Kinnicutt, the first burial in 1838. Here, too, is an enormous oak whose acorn was planted more than a hundred years ago by the child who lies beneath. Many of the over 650 trees are as diverse in character as those whose watch they keep: swamp cypress flourishing in dry ground, the "telephone pole" tulip, large protective green and copper beeches, mature Scotch pine, a rare ash, a bank of holly.
A Tree Fund, established in 1985 as an on-going trust, assures that Rural Cemetery always will be a true arboretum.
