The cemetery was built on land once owned by Colonel Moses Edgell, who gave thousands of dollars for the construction of the cemetery’s memorial chapel. It was laid out as a “garden cemetery,” modeled after Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. Garden cemeteries were lavishly landscaped and designed to provide a peaceful resting place for the dead, as well as a contemplative setting for mourners. The story of one such mourner appeared in the Framingham Gazette in December of 1891 under the headline:
A sad, uncommon story is that of the death of Elbert Hemenway and Elven, his brother.
Elbert, the younger brother had passed away at the age of 73. Several days later, brother Elven, his wife by his side, was driving the family carriage to the Hemenway plot in Edgell Grove for the burial. Without warning, he gasped, dropped the reigns, and fell back in his seat, dead. The first person to respond to Mrs. Hemenway’s anguished cries was Mr. Thomas, the undertaker, who was waiting at the grave for the arrival of the mourners. Elven was loaded onto the same wagon that had just brought his brother to his own grave, and transported to the undertaker’s. There are those who say that the unfortunate Mr. Hemenway can still be seen on these roads, desperately driving his ghostly carriage in an attempt to make it to his beloved brother’s funeral.