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The Pilley Family of Vernon St.

Updated: Aug 7, 2021

Bennett Pilley (1829-1906)

Mary A. Curtis Pilley (1834-1913)

Walter C. Pilley (1870-1873)

There are two stones standing in the Pilley lot in Old Parish Cemetery.

The larger stone commemorates Bennett Pilley and his wife, Mary Curtis Pilley.


Bennett Pilley was born on May 3, 1829 in Maine; Mary A. Curtis was born on December 1, 1834. They were married in Maine in 1855. The couple had 3 children: Albert (1858-1859), Ellie Augusta (1859-1910) and Walter C. (1869-1873). Only one lived into adulthood.


Mary and Bennett, who was a wheelwright and carriage maker, came to South Dedham before 1870. He was employed at the railroad car shops by 1880. They lived at 135 Vernon Street in Norwood when Bennett Pilley died on March 27, 1906 of dilation of the heart and cardiac pneumonia. (Although the death certificate says 1906, his gravestone has his date of death as 1907.) His widow, Mary, continued to live at 135 Vernon Street until her death from uraemia in 1913.

A separate small gravestone marks the final resting place of the couple’s son, Walter C. Pilley, who died at the age of 3 in 1873.

Young Walter Pilley's Stone being aligned by OPPV



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