Rev. Justin Perkins
Posted by Laurel on 17 Jan 2007 | Tagged as: Holyoke People, Cemeteries
About seven years ago or so I inventoried the tombstones at the Rock Valley Cemetery (the entire database is available elsewhere on this site). When I was there, the cemetery was looking cared for and in pretty good shape. Over the years the condition of the cemetery has been, at times, severely neglected. In fact Holyoke owes a lot to Earle Brick for the current restoration and maintenance of the cemetery. All without remuneration I might add.
However, this was not the first time Rocky Valley Cemetery was brought back from severe neglect. In a 1945 issue of the Holyoke Transcript there is an article about the city of Holyoke taking over Maintenance of the “Old West Holyoke” Cemetery formally known as the Rock Valley Cemetery.
The well-known and much beloved Rev. E. B. Robinson of Grace Church is said to have driven past the cemetery one day, and — unable to see the headstones due to the unchecked growth of the grounds — initiated action. First, a group of Amherst College student volunteers cleaned the site, then the City of Holyoke accepted responsibility for the maintenance. The Amherst College student volunteers were not involved by chance but through a connection to the College via a notable alum buried at Rock Valley.
Among the graves at Rock Valley Cemetery, the Perkins clan has a large family plot where buried were John in 1792 and his wife Mary in 1799. The most famous of the Perkins family, and a man whom Holyoke as well as Amherst College lays claim to is Justin Perkins, who volunteered as the first missionary to the Nestorians in Uramia, Persia in 1834.
