Wing Family Cemetery

Wing Family Cemetery
Wing "Ring" Cemetery in Wayne, Maine
Nearest city Wayne, Maine
Coordinates 44°22′14″N 70°4′1″W / 44.37056°N 70.06694°WCoordinates: 44°22′14″N 70°4′1″W / 44.37056°N 70.06694°W
Area 0.4 acres (0.16 ha)
Built 1871
Architect Alonzo Wing; James Norris Wing, builder
Governing body Private
NRHP Reference # 91001514[1]
Added to NRHP October 16, 1991

Wing Family Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Wayne, Maine.

The Wing "Ring" Cemetery was founded by the descendants of the seven sons of Simeon Wing & Mary Allen. The seven sons (Thomas, Ebenezer, Dr. Moses, Aaron, Allen, Simeon & William) emigrated from Sandwich (Pocasset, now Bourne), Barnstable Co., Massachusetts to what was originally called New Sandwich at the end of the Revolutionary War. The brothers settled around the body of water originally called Wing Pond, but now known as Lake Pocasset.

Originally, the family had a traditional "burying place" on the homestead of the youngest son, William (as the parents lived with William for the last years of their lives). In 1867, descendants of the brothers formed a Wing Cemetery Corporation for the purpose of creating a new memorial to their deceased members. They leveled off the top of a hill, dug down several feet to remove all of the larger rocks, and graded the lot. Alonzo Wing of Wisconsin drafted the "ringed" formation, aligning the stones in concentric circles around a central obelisk. James Norris Wing learned the trade of stone-cutting and supervised the creation of curved granite footings to form the base of the concentric circles (upon which the gravestones would be placed).

The process took several years, and hundreds of dollars (which was privately financed by the Cemetery Corporation through donations from family members). The cemetery was finally completed about 1871 and proudly stands to this day.

The cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.

Wing Family of America, Inc. www.findagrave.com - Wing Cemetery