German Protestant Cemetery - Waldoboro, ME - Churchyard Cemeteries on Waymarking.com

The book Stones and Bones of New England by Lisa Rogak describes this cemetery as A Monument to Disappointment. German immigrants started to settle in the area around 1740. They came with the idea to find a well established community. However they only found wilderness. A lot of them died during the harsh New England winters and by attacks of Native Americans, now buried here in the grounds. But with the time more and more German settlers came over and life became easier as the town grew. The church, one of the oldest in Maine, was build in 1772 and was also used as a meeting house. It it also a very unique church because it has no steeple.

The oldes headstone is from 1797 and there are maybe 400 to 500 graves on the old part of the cemetery. This photo shows the headstone of Mary Lash, daughter of Paul Lash and Mary Glemmer and wife of Thomas Dockendorf. Thomas Dockendorf, master of the brig Muscongus, was the ninth child of Jacob Dockendorf, who came from Germany in one of Waldo's fleets, Sept. 1733. [Source]

The newer part of the cemetery is a little bit seperated from the older part and can be found behind the old part. The Old German Church is used for funerals, recreation and as a museum. The cemetery is open to the public from dawn till dusk, the church is open for a few hours on weekend afternoons between July and August. To reach the cemetery comming from Waldoboro just drive south on Bremen Rd (route 32) for not more than a half mile. The cemetery will be on your right.

A wonderful historical story of this German Protestant Cemetery can be found in the book Maine's Coastal Cemeteries: A Historic Tour by Karen Wentworth Batignani. A nice old post card picture from 1905 of the Old German Church can be found in the Wikipedia.

The German Church and Cemetery were added into the [U.S.] National Register of Historic Places in 1970, NRIS Item No is 70000050.

Name of church or churchyard: German Protestant Cemetery aka German Church and Cemetery Approximate Size: Large (100+)

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