Palisado Cemetery

Only a few slaves remained in Connecticut by the time the state passed its full emancipation law in 1848. Apparently, several of these individuals were determined too aged to care for themselves and therefore continued with their former owners. It is believed that Nancy Toney, a former slave of the Chaffee/Loomis family of Windsor, was the last survivor of this group in Connecticut. When she died in 1857, she was buried in Palisado Cemetery. The grave is at the rear of the cemetery, located on the left side of the road in an area with few markers. Also buried in the cemetery is Civil War veteran Virgil Simmons, who was enlisted in the Connecticut Twenty-ninth Colored Regiment C.V. Infantry. His gravesite is located next to that of Nancy Toney.