Subterranean Celebrities: The Strangers

The Eastern Cemetery in Portland, Maine holds the memories of around 7,000 persons. Some of them are known; some are not. As we uncover stories of their lives, we share them through our e-newsletter. Sometimes the tidbits are not of life, but only of the artifact that remains. These are our subterranean celebrities.

In old burial grounds, sometimes a section was designated for strangers. These people either could not afford a burial or grave marker, had no family or friends, or were unknown to anyone. They could even include stillborn babies. The Eastern Cemetery had at least one, and in 1838 the city allowed the burial of 2 strangers per gravesite in it. We believe we know where one area in the cemetery is located, and burial records indicate a few of the names of those buried there:

Adeline Drowne
5 months
died 8-4-1846
daughter of James

William Coffin
died 8-16-1846
son of William

Joseph Anlry
died 11-17-1847
20 years

Rest in peace, dear strangers. We know you are many.

This information was first published in the March 2010 issue of Spirits Alive eNews. It will be updated here as more information is available, but my contain information that is not quite right or needs to be corrected. Text may have been edited to make sense for this page as opposed to the eNews issue it had been a part of.

Further Reading

Last update: September 2026