History
Named for an Algonquian Native American word for mineral water, the area the cemetery resides on was formerly a hotel and resort known as Togus Springs. The resort failed as a business due to the outbreak of the Civil War, and its owner died shortly thereafter. The federal government purchased the property for 50,000 dollars and established a veteran care facility. The first veterans were admitted on November 10, 1866. The facility was expanded and eventually had the capacity for 3,000 veterans.
The cemetery itself is divided into two plots, the West Cemetery and the East Cemetery. The older West Cemetery was first established in 1865 and moved to its present location in 1867; it closed for interments in 1936. The East Cemetery was opened in 1936 to provide additional interment space. It was closed for interments in 1961.
Read more about this topic: Togus National Cemetery
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)