MILTON TOWNSHIP – Members who have attended the Sessions family reunion from the Rumford and Norway areas have wanted to honor William Sessions for many years. One of the family’s members, Bernice Easter, had worked particularly hard to raise money to buy a stone marking Sessions’ grave.
Finally, the goal was met.
Leonard Lindberg, a Mexico resident and attendee at the Sessions’ reunions for years, said the stone was set earlier this month in the Greenleaf Cemetery on Concord Pond Road in East Milton Township.
Sessions was born and raised in Rumford, moved to Gilead, then to New Hampshire where he and his family became the first settlers in what was to become Berlin, N.H.
The simple granite stone marks Sessions’ birth and death dates – 1794-1885. He died in what was then Milton Plantation.
Lindberg said the stone was also set in memory of Bernice Easter, who died last year before the goal of placing Sessions’ stone was completed.
“This is a tribute to her,” said Lindberg.
Sessions’ headstone is placed in front of those of his son, Sumner, and Sumner’s wife, Victoria.
According to historical data compiled for Berlin’s centennial celebration in 1929, Sessions was almost a “professional” pioneer. He had also cleared land and built cabins in several other New Hampshire areas before they became incorporated as towns.
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