The Howard Street Old Burial Ground in Northborough was established in 1749 after an epidemic of throat distemper among children during the winter of 1749-1750, and it contains graves of early ministers, civic leaders, and residents whose lives were closely tied to the town’s religious, political, and local history. Among them are Reverend John Martyn, chosen as Northborough’s first minister in 1746 and ordained on May 21, 1746; Reverend Peter Whitney, second minister of Northborough; Rabbi Judah Monis, a Hebrew instructor at Harvard College for 40 years who came to Northborough in 1761; Colonel John Crawford, who helped supervise the erection of the second meeting house in 1808; Lieutenant William Holloway, at whose home the first precinct meeting was held; Deacon Jonathan Livermore, the first town clerk; Bezaleel Eager, who served as selectman, town clerk, committee of correspondence member, and representative for Westborough in the General Court; Captain James Eager, who gave the land for the first church in Northborough in 1746 and was moderator at the First Precinct meeting; and Doctor Stephen Ball, the first physician of Northborough. The cemetery also includes graves connected to families and places important in town history, such as those of James and Nathan Ball, for whom Ball Hill is named, Colonel John Crawford and Reverend Peter Whitney, for whom local streets are named, and Jacob and Elizabeth Rice, siblings of Reverend Luther Rice, who later became one of the first missionaries to Burma and a trustee of George Washington University. Other stones preserve epitaphs and poems for residents including Mary Fairbank and her infant child, Sarah B. Stratton, Seth Rice, William Babcock, Deacon Seth Rice, Silas Bruce, Lydia Warren, Sarah Eager, Paul Fay, Rebekah Fay, Josiah Bowker, and Susanna Allen, while the twin sons James and Joseph Eager, born on May 25, 1749, are thought to have the oldest stone in the cemetery.