Tourtellotte Cemetery
Tourtellotte Cemetery also known as Holmes Cemetery
Wilsonville Rd. 0.41 acre GPS Latitude 42.00919 Longitude -71.86310
A family cemetery on the land formerly owned by Joseph Tourtellotte and possibly even by his father, Abraham Tourtellotte, before him. Abraham Tourtellotte is noted by Ellen Larned in her History of Windham County, CT, as living in Killingly (this is prior to it becoming Thompson) in 1770. Abraham supplied salt peter to the war effort (American Revolution) in 1777. The earliest graves in this cemetery are that of Abraham, May 1779, and his wife Phebe (Thornton), May 1808. He may have even fought in the French & Indian War from RI; prior to moving to CT.
The Hale’s list (early 1930s) lists many descendants of the Tourtellotte and Holmes families.
The sons of Abraham Tourtellotte were Joseph, Isaac and Joshua. His other children were perhaps buried in RI as they apparently did not come to CT with him.
Lucy Tourtellotte, daughter of Joseph and Abigail married Stephen Holmes and thus started the Holmes line.
Hale’s list does not include the Ballard Family buried in this cemetery. Winthrop Hilton Ballard (1801-1894) married Abigail Holmes (1803-1830), daughter of Stephen and Lucy (Tourtellotte) Holmes. She died and his second wife was Salome (Joslin Alton) (1805-1882). Then the son of Winthrop & Salome is Stephen Ballard (1841-1913) and wife, Sarah Day (Barber) (1839-1909)
Son Isaac Tourtellotte and wife, Zeruiah, were the parents of Jacob who married Polly Ballard (sister to Winthrop H. Ballard). Jacob and Polly had four sons, two of them were in the Civil War and had distinguished careers. See the book, Thompson’s Tourtellottes and the Civil War by Joseph J. Lindley, 2012. John Tourtellotte remained in the military under Gen. Sherman. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Jacob Francis and Harriet (Arnold) Tourtellotte were the benefactors who gave Tourtellotte Memorial High School to the town of Thompson. They are buried in Winona, Minnesota. The obelisk in this cemetery is a cenotaph (memorial erected to honor them).
So there are a lot of inter-relationships of people in this cemetery and other surnames. A few people buried here may have been neighbors. Many field stones and stones with no dates. There have been a few burials since the 1930s. Clarence Ballard for many years maintained this cemetery.
American Revolution Patriots: Abraham Tourtellotte and his sons, Isaac and Joseph
Civil War: John E. Tourtellotte, Jacob F. Tourtellotte and Lucius Holmes
War of 1812: Stephen Holmes
(Compiled by Mary Tomeo)
Documents:
Tourtellotte Memorial High School