Historic Orser Cemetery
Tucked above Orser Street, just across from Town Hall, this small hillside cemetery is one of Hartland’s quietest links to our earliest days. A steep footpath leads to a grassy plateau where weathered marble and granite markers rest beneath the watch of a single towering pine. It’s a humble spot with a big story to tell.
This burial ground holds William Orser and his wife, Mary Blake-Craig-Orser, two of Hartland’s founding figures. William, a Loyalist from New York, arrived in Saint John in 1783 and later received the land grant that would become much of present-day Hartland. Mary, known in local history as the first female white English child born on the St. John River, rests beside him.
The oldest known stone here dates to 1834, marking the grave of young Enoch Orser. The newest is from 1918. Folklore also speaks of two unmarked children’s graves and a pine tree planted in their memory, a story that adds depth to the peaceful landscape. Early photographs from 1870 even show the same pine as a much smaller tree.
Today, the Orser Burial Cemetery stands as a quiet reminder of the families who shaped our community’s earliest chapters and the stories that continue to live on among the stones.