Modeled after Mt. Auburn Cemetery, in Cambridge, MA this victorian cemetery has burials dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries and is still active to this day. It contains more than 31,000 burials on 40 acres. Burial Register entries from 1841-June 1868 do not exist. Many entries in Burial Registers that do exist after June 1868 lack sufficient location details or any location information at all. Records gradually improved through the early 1900s. • Dedicated in 1841 • Land was once officially called "Thompson's Dingle," then gifted to Martha Ferre (wedding present) and, on that same day, was sold to Alexander Bliss. Many years later, the land was known by the Bliss family as "Martha's Dingle" and ssold by Alexander Bliss to George Bliss (a founding member of the cemetery) and the Proprietors of Springfield Cemetery (for $1) to establish the cemetery. • Alternately and unofficially was widely referred to as "Peabody Cemetery," in honor of Unitarian minister and founding member of the cemetery, Rev. William B. O. Peabody. • Acquired remains from Springfield's first burying place (Elm St.) in 1848. Oldest know burial dates to 1657 -- Mary (Pynchon) Holyoke, daughter of Springfield's founder, William Pynchon. More than 2,000 remains were unidentified and placed in a mass grave. • Acquired Methodist burying ground (Mulberry St., established in 1825) from Union St. Methodist Society, in 1858.