Village Cemetery

The Town of Nelson has two cemeteries: the Nelson Cemetery, just south of the village center on Hardy Hill Road, is the original burying point for what was originally known as Packerfield.   In the oldest part of the Nelson cemetery stands a memorial to the men who left their fields to fight in the Revolutionary War. It was built in 1917 on the 150th anniversary of the founding of the town.nnBack in 1751, the area to eventually become Nelson was designated by the Masonian Proprietors as “Monadnock #6”, sixth in a line of towns designed to protect Colonial New Hampshire against attacks from Native Americans in the region. One man in the group responsible for settling the town was Thomas Packer. Packer was the high Sheriff of Portsmouth, and he never actually lived there, but they named the town after him! The first actual settlers were Breed Batchellor and Dr. Nathaniel Breed, who arrived in 1767, and it is this year that has been chosen as the birth-date of the town. Packersfield was officially incorporated in 1773, and was renamed in 1814, after Lord Horatio Nelson, an English war hero who died in the British war against Napoleon.nnThe passing years took their toll to the point that repeated patches could not longer keep the monument in repair. Thanks to the generosity of the Bradshaws and the expertise of stonemason James Rodriques the monument was totally rebuilt using most of the original cobble stones and rededicated on Memorial Day of 2004.