Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Enoch's Grave ~ Sunday's Obituary

It all began innocently enough. Another grave to find, in another small Maine town. The Falmouth Historical Society proving not only to be the most difficult to locate, but the least helpful of those I visited during this trip, I stopped in at the Falmouth Memorial Library.

Having been a town librarian myself, I have a great love and respect for these enclaves of local lore, and Falmouth did not disappoint. There I found a copy of  Death notices from Town of Cumberland, Maine, Annual Reports 1891-1960, wherein I found the listing for my ancestor:

Leighton, Enoch M.   Apr 4, 1926  Falmouth   8o Ys. 6 Ms 18 ds. 

It was off to the Town Office!

The extremely helpful staff there retrieved the 1926 Ledger from the safe upstairs, and there he was:

But, alas, no record of where he was buried.

So, it was back into the Portland Public Library to check the April 4-6, 1926 Press Herald on microfilm for a death notice or an obituary. BINGO!

Portland Press Herald, April 6, 1926, Page Three, col.1

After a brief visit to the Maine Historical Society, it was back in the car to head to Cumberland Center. Having tramped through 3 Falmouth cemeteries last summer, and feeling confident I had not found him there, I walked through the cemetery right where the Tuttle and  Blanchard Roads meet, but to no avail. The graves in there were way too old.  Next it was Moss Side, pictured above, where I again came up empty.  

Then I re-read the death notice from the Press Herald.

Funeral services were at the Universalist Church, Cumberland Center, with interment at Cumberland Center. Could they be referring to the Cemetery, one I referred to as the Universalist Church Cemetery, that I had explored last summer on the Gray Road, where, as it turns out, Enoch' parents are buried?

I never found a headstone in that Universalist Cemetery for Enoch, my Great Great Leighton Grandfather. He may be there with no marker, my hunch about the cemetery could be wrong, or there may be another explanation. But this is not the end of the search!