New London, CT Fishers Island Steamer Atlantic Wreck, 1846

Two of the most imposing funerals ever witnessed in the city, are connected with interments in this ground, viz., the burial of the Walton family, and the re-interment of the remains of Commodore George W. Rodgers. These solemnities demand a more particular description.

Among the passengers of the Atlantic wrecked on the coast of Fisher's Island, was an English emigrant family of the name of Walton. They had sojourned a short time in West Newbury, Mass., and were then on their way to the far west. The father, mother, and four children perished. A young man, recently married to one of the daughters, and a boy, thirteen years of age, were all that survived of a family of eight persons. They had no home in this country---no departed relatives to whom they might be gathered---no friends to claim their remains, and bestow on them the last rites. This family was brought to New London, and the whole city spontaneously pressed forward with offers of aid and sympathy to the bereaved, and of an honorable sepulture for the dead.

A granite pillar, twenty feet in height from the surface, was raised over the graves of the family in the third burial-ground, with the following inscription:

"Erected by citizens of New London, as a memorial of the loss of the steamer Atlantic wrecked on Fisher's Island, Nov. 27th, A. D. 1846.

"Near this spot are buried John Walton, aged 51. Jane A., his wife, aged 45, and their children, Mary-Ann, aged 18, (wife of Robert Vine.) John, aged 13, Eleanor-Jane, aged 11, and James, aged 6, natives of England, who with more than thirty others, perished in the wreck."

History of New London, Connecticut: From the First Survey of the Coast in 1612 to 1860, page 652
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Transcribed by Linda Horton. Thank you, Linda!