“Salem, first called White Creek and then New Perth, was settled in August 1764 by Scottish pioneers from PeIham, Massachusetts. In the year 2000, the cemetery was mapped and the graves identified and indexed through a Student Learn and Serve Grant.In the spring of 1766, Dr. Thomas Clark arrived with his Scotch-Irish Presbyterian congregation from Ballybay, Ireland. The two groups cooperated in settling this territory and soon determined that a common burying ground was needed. This burying ground was Salem’s only public burying ground until the Evergreen Cemetery was established on March 5, 1859.”
