James Gifford (1821-1913) | Gifford.
This is the Gifford of the Gifford House, 9-11 Carver Street. And naturally, he’s buried in Gifford Cemetery. There may have been an inn on the site of the Gifford House, at the crest of Mill Hill, as early as 1858. An 1869 news account noted that Gifford “intends remodeling in order to accommodate a few boarders during the summer season.” (He also owned the Pilgrim House.) The History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, offers corroboration, saying Gifford “rebuilt” the hotel in 1869. When President Ulysses S. Grant came to town on 28 August 1874, Gifford offered the town’s civic greeting: “To whatever of enjoyment or interest there may be found on this far-off end of Cape Cod — a place memorable in the history and the institutions of the Pilgrims of the May Flower — during your brief stay, we bid you hearty welcome.” Gifford gave up management of the Gifford House in 1903 and died a decade later of “senile debility.” [Lot No. 86.]
¶ Last updated on 23 January 2018.
Find a Grave Memorial No. 120488554.