At The Matthew Curtiss House—

The Mystery Of The Tombstone In The Garden

By Jan Howard

Newtown residents attending functions at the Matthew Curtiss House on Main Street may have noticed in the back yard garden a tombstone for a child that died on August 23, 1864, at the age of three years, four months, and 15 days.

How the tombstone of Otis Morehouse came to be in the garden is an interesting story, but it is not the entire story, nor is there as yet an answer to a mystery that surrounds it.

For years the tombstone was housed in the basement of the Salmon Glover house on Berkshire Road in Sandy Hook, formerly owned by Dan and Mary Beth Scheid. When they sold the house three years ago, the new owners, through their realtor, donated the tombstone to the Newtown Historical Society.

For a while it rested on the back porch of the Matthew Curtiss House and then was inside for a while until it was finally placed in the garden.

The tombstone was in the basement of the house when the Sheids purchased it in 1983.

“When we moved in, I was concerned that a tombstone in the basement might scare our youngest daughter who was 8 at the time,” Mr Scheid said. “I decided to move the tombstone to the barn. That is when I discovered how heavy a tombstone is. It stayed in the same place for the 17 years we owned the house.

“Instead of scaring our kids, it was a great source of ‘show and tell’ when their friends came over to visit,” Mr Scheid said.

According to Mr Scheid, “The house has an interesting history, having been built by a descendant of John Glover, the first town clerk of Newtown.”

Mr Scheid said the house passed through several generations of the Glover family before it was sold. “I do not recall the exact dates, but I believe the Morehouse family lived in the house in the 1860s.”

Though he has no verification from historical records that this story is correct, Mr Scheid said it is believed that Lorenzo and Julia Morehouse had nine children, of which seven died, including Otis.

Town Historian Dan Cruson said it was always assumed that the stone had been replaced and that the family merely left the original marble stone in the basement when they moved.

The family apparently left Newtown for a new home in Kent because Lorenzo and Julia are buried in the cemetery behind St Andrew’s Church in the center of town. Julia died in 1892 at the age of 70 and Lorenzo in 1899 at age 87. Included on the family tombstone is the name of Otis L. Morehouse and his siblings.

There is no record of his dying in Newtown, and it has been verified that the child is buried in the family plot in Kent. As Otis died many years before his parents, it can be assumed that the stone now residing at the Matthew Curtiss House was his original stone. Later, perhaps after the deaths of his parents, his name was included on the family stone and the original stone removed. A footstone, with his initials O.L.M, marks his grave as do footstones for his siblings.

But the mystery is… how did the original stone get back to Newtown from Kent if indeed it once marked his grave? Did some member of the Morehouse family still residing here bring it back out of sentimental reasons when the new family stone was erected? Or was it replaced by another, for some reason, and left behind.

There may well have been family members residing here, as a framed marriage certificate on exhibit in the old kitchen of the Matthew Curtiss house tells of the marriage of Edgar C. Page of Kent and Miss Julia A. Morehouse of Newtown in Newtown on January 25, 1871. The witnesses were Walter Page and Sarah J. Morehouse. Could these women have been sisters of little Otis or cousins, perhaps?

Anyone having information regarding the tombstone and how it came to be in Newtown or about the family is asked to call Jan Howard at 426-3141.