Veterans of the American Revolution are buried in all but one of Agawam’s six historic cemeteries.
The Springfield Republican reported in 1895 that, regarding participation in the Revolution, “Feeding Hills contributed more than her fair share of soldiers and the graves are in proportion.”
The Old Feeding Hills Cemetery on South Westfield Street in Feeding Hills, was established in 1752, and was in use until 1923.
Veterans of the Revolution interred in this cemetery include members of some of Feeding Hills’ earliest families.
J.H. Beers & Co.’s 1901 Commemorative Biographical Record of Hartford County, Connecticut, containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of Many of the Early Settled Families includes the following information about Joseph Pheland: “He took an active part in the Revolutionary war as first lieutenant of Company 10, 3rd Massachusetts Regiment, under Capt. Jesse McIntire. At this time his name became changed, presumably by mistake in his commission, and he was afterward known as Joseph Phelon. All of his descendants have spelt the name Phelon, with the exception of our subject (C. Irving Pheland), who uses the original spelling. Joseph Phelon was a Democrat in politics, and a member of the Presbyterian Church. He married Elizabeth King Sept. 5, 1754, and died on his farm in Feeding Hills, Nov. 27, 1800, his remains being interred in the old cemetery at Feeding Hills, Massachusetts.”
The Geneology of the Flower Family of New England, in the Line of Joseph Flower, contains the following entry for Col. Samuel Flower, which includes information from Louis Everts’ History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts: “Col. Samuel Flower (...) died at Feeding Hills, October 29, 1815. He enlisted in the old French war at the age of sixteen, and was distinguished for daring service and hair breadth escapes. When news of the affair at Concord and Lexington startled people of the colonies, a company of the ‘minute men’ was organized in West Springfield, of which he was Lieutenant. When by declaration of independence, resistance by appeal to arms was determined, he was commissioned Captain in the artillery. (...) He served six years in the war of the Revolution, and was honorably discharged from the service. In Shay’s Rebellion, he was Aid to Gen. Shepard, and was in the action at Springfield. He incurred the intense hatred of Shay’s men, one of whom told his son, then a small boy, that he ‘had a hundred bullets which he intended to put through his father.’ He was prominent in civil affairs—selectman, justice of the peace, postmaster at Feeding Hills when the office was established in 180, represented West Springfield in the Legislature, and was said to be a man of commanding appearance, and almost Herculean mold.”
Other veterans of the Revolution buried here included: Eleazer Bates; Christopher Burbank; Lemuel Clarke; Daniel Flower; Samuel Flower; Timothy Flower; Justin Granger; Abijah Hendrick; John Killum; Abel Leonard; Asaph Leonard; Daniel Leonard; Timothy Leonard; Amasa Loomis; Jesse Mcintier; William McIntier; Abel Morley; David Morley; Joseph Pheland; Daniel White; and Jacob Winchel.
Stone carvers with examples of work in the Old Feeding Hills Cemetery include: Ebenezer Drake; John Buckland; Solomon Brewer; and Stebbins family members or related carvers of the Longmeadow School Ezra Stebbins Sr.; Ezra Stebbins Jr.; John Ely or John Ely Jr.; Simeon Newell; and Elijah Sikes.
