General Shorter’s Plot

General Shorter’s plot is the original plot at the cemetery. It is surrounded by a high brick wall. The plot contains his and his wife’s graves plus the graves of five of their children, a son-in-law, six grandchildren and their family preacher. 

Living on the frontier was very hard. Water borne diseases: typhoid, diphtheria, yellow fever, etc. killed many of the people who lived here close to the river.  Women were doubly at risk as they also had a high mortality rate from child birth.

Within four years after setting on the property in 1839, the Shorters had buried three of their children and a 23 year old son-in-law here. Of the seven Shorter children buried in Shorter Cemetery; five died young as did the eight of the grandchildren buried in the cemetery.