Few if any gravestones were erected in the earliest years of the burying ground. The Puritan settlers considered grave markers to represent the ornamentation and idolatry of the Church of England, which they sought to purify. A frontier community had little need for gravestones.
The earliest stones in the Ancient Burying Ground featured only words about the deceased, with no decorative carving. But even these “plain style” stones cost enough to be considered status symbols. It’s been estimated that only one out of 10 people who died during this period had a marker erected over their grave. The simple presence of a gravestone indicates that the deceased person was prosperous or recognized. Often families erected one gravestone that memorialized several individuals, such as a mother and her children. The painful loss of life was no less painful in the colonial period, a difficult time to survive amidst wars, raids, childbirth, and illness.