ROCKLAND COUNTY CEMETERIES

 

VOLUME I

 

CLARKSTOWN

 

Compiled and computerized by

 

Vicki Barker, Marie Koestler, Michael Secora for:

 

The Genealogical Society of Rockland County, Inc.

 

 

 

Thanks to the following for making the publication of this book possible: Florence Anderson, Les Baisley, Joan Brooks, and Richard Peterson.

 

© Copyright 2007 by The Genealogical Society of Rockland County, Inc. P.O. Box 444, New City, New York 10956

 

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be Reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any Means,

electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without the express written permission of The Genealogical Society of Rockland County, Inc.

 

The Genealgoical Society of Rockland County, Inc. is not responsible

for any spelling, clerical and/or Transcription errors that may be found in this work.

 

Cemeteries included:

 

Barmore Family Burial Ground, (no longer in existence), Valley Cottage

Brisley Family Burial Ground, Congers

Brower Family Burial Plot, New City

Brower-Furman Graves, New City

Clarkstown Reformed Church Cemetery, West Nyack

Conklin / Snedeker / Springsted Burial Ground (formerly Fred Jones Farm, New City

Davy / Goetschius / Nash / Rothhaubt, Centenary, New City

DeBaun / Swartwout Burial Ground, Congers

Deming Castle (High Tor Estate), New City

Dutcher Burial Plot, New City

Garrison / Kendall / Youmans Burial Ground, New City

Germonds Presbyterian Church Cemetery, partial, New City

Gethsemane Cemetery, Older Section Only, Rockland Lake

Gethsemane Cemetery, (in woods), Rockland Lake

Jersey / Stevens / Helms Burial Ground, New City

Johnson Burial Ground, Valley Cottage

Jones-Green Cemetery, New City

Knapp Burial Plot, Centenary, New City

Knapp / Nash Burial Plot (no longer in existence) Centenary, New City

Lake Avenue Chapel, Valley Cottage

Martinus-Hogencamp Cemetery, New City

Mount Moor Cemetery, West Nyack

Nanuet Cemetery (new section), Nanuet

Nanuet True Reformed Church Cemetery, Nanuet

New City Burial Ground, Old, formerly New City

Nyack Rural Cemetery, West Nyack

Oak Hill Cemetery, Ancient plots, Clarkstown

Oak Hill Cemetery, older section, Clarkstown

Onderdonk Graves, New City

Perry / Trumper Burial Ground, Rockland Lake

Russian Orthodox Cemetery (Novo Diveevo), Spring Valley

St. Agatha’s Cemetery, Nanuet

St. Anthony’s Cemetery, Nanuet

St. Paul’s Highview Cemetery, Nanuet

Scotland Hill, Spring Valley-Clarkstown Section

Snedeker Graves, Congers

Snyder Cemetery, Valley Cottage

Trumper / VanOrden Burial Plots, Centenary, New City

Upper Nyack Cemetery, Upper Nyack

Upper Nyack Former Burial Sites:

Appleby Gravestone; Burial Site for Blacks; God’s Acre; Indian Burial Place;

Old Stone Church Burial Grounds, and Roman Catholic College Chapel site.

Van Houten Family Burial Plot, New

Van Houten / Howard Burial Ground, New City

Van Orden Burial Ground, Centenary, New City

Waring Family Graves, Congers

Wells Family Burial Ground, Rockland Lake

Williams Grave, New City

Wood / Blauvelt / Stephens Burial Ground, New City

Yeomans / Townsend / Herme Burial Ground, New City

Youmans Graves, Centenary, New City

 

 

APPLEBY GRAVESTONE

Information from Upper Nyack Historian Winston C. Perry, Jr.

 

The gravestone of Mary (Gisner) Appleby turned up in the backyard of a home at 325 North Broadway, Upper Nyack.  The red sandstone has the inscription: Mary Gis(ner), wife of Elijah Appleby.  Date of death: April 16, 1828, age - 35 years 06 months and 07 days.  Elijah Appleby is believed to be the operator of a boat service on the Hudson River.

 

 

BARMORE CEMETERY

Unknown location in Valley Cottage

 

Green’s History of Rockland County, 1886, notes that Alfred Barmore, owner of a boot and shoe business in Greenwich Street, New York City, bought an ice business at Slaughter’s Landing (Rockland Lake).  He began his own successful venture with Moses G. Leonard in 1840 “Barmore, Leonard and Co.”  Alfred’s son, Nathaniel sold his share or interest to E. E. Conklin in 1843, and the company name was changed to “A. Barmore and Company.” 

One of the burials in this plot was Nathaniel’s daughter Harriet (1809-1848) who married Peter Bodine.

The cemetery had been located in the vicinity of the Carriage Hill Development; it disappeared by 1962.

 

BRISLEY CEMETERY

Behind 36 Dover Road, Congers

[In the Thornhill Development off Kings Highway.]

 

This burying ground was on the former George P. Felter farm, south of Conger’s Church..  It was forgotten for many years.  When a housing development was being constructed in the area, the site was found.  Builder Sherman had the brick wall restored and some stones were reset in 1966.  Eight of the graves are members of the Brisley family, the other three are Felters.  The earliest date was 1844 and the latest 1869.

 

 BROWER FAMILY BURIAL PLOT

Germonds Road behind the Germonds Presbyterian Church and

[At the north end of the cemetery on a dirt lane]

 

There were nine burials dating from 1801 to 1860 of Brower and Myers families.  Germonds Presbyterian Church provides maintenance for the site.

 

BROWER/ FURMAN GRAVE

South Little Tor Road, opposite Collyer Avenue, New City, NY

{Adjoining the Martinus Hogencamp Cemetery}

 

Three of the graves contain the remains of the children of Henry and Mary C. Furman.  To the right of these graves is Civil War Veteran, George Brower.

 

BURIAL SITE FOR BLACKS

South side of Old Mountain Road, Upper Nyack

Information from Upper Nyack Historian Winston C. Perry, Jr.

 

This site was between the old school site (now identifiable only by a small depression where the building stood, across the road and 400 feet West of the Upper Nyack Burying Ground) and the East side of Midland Avenue.  The names and number of those buried is unknown, no sign of gravestones had been found.  Two houses have been built on the Western part of the site.  The remainder is a narrow strip of land between the road and a deep glen.  The tax maps show it to be part of a parcel in private ownership, having a house across the glen.

 

CLARKSTOWN REFORMED CHURCH CEMETERY

Germonds Road, West Nyack

 

Clarkstown Reformed Church Cemetery contains the graves of some of the area’s earliest settlers, as well as the remains of 23 Revolutionary War veterans, and 18 War of 1812 veterans.

There are approximately 275 graves at this site dating from 1703 to 1922.  Family names include: Blanch, Blauvelt, Campbell, Clark, Cole, Cornelison, DeBaun, DeClark, Demarest, Eckerson, Garrison, Haring, Hill, Hogencamp, House, Jersey, Johnson, Martine, Myers, Oblenis, Polhemus, Pye, Remsen, Scott, Shuart, Smith, Serven, Snyder, Stephens, Storms, Tallman, Vanderbilt, VanNostand, VanOrder and Warner.

The 1703 tombstone is in Dutch , and the second burial was in 1705.  A bronze tablet is on a monument made from the original threshold of the church by the Rockland County Society, marks the site of the First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of New Hempstead.

 

CONKLIN/ SNEDEKER/ SPRINGSTED BURIAL GROUND

formerly on the Fred Jones Farm, New City, west of Paul Klieber’s

Reinterred to Oak Hill Cemetery, Nyack, in December of 1963

 

This small burial plot was recorded by J. Elmer Christie of Nyack as being located “on the Long Cliver Road.”  George H. Budke noted 11 gravestones, 11 March 1840 – 22 July 1887.

When NYS Route 304, north of New City, was widened, the remains, tombstones, and other markers were removed to Oak Hill Cemetery.

 

DAVY/ GOETSCHIUS/ NASH/ ROTHBAUT CEMETERY

Formerly near 673 South Mountain Road, Centenary, New City

Removed to Veterans Memorial Plot, Brick Church Cemetery, October 1937.

 

In the Journal-News issue of 16 October 1937, the bodies of four Civil War veterans were removed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars from the private burial plot just north of the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church.  New headstones were provided for all the veterans.

Two of the veterans, George E. Nash and William Rothaubt are included in a list of 14 graves in a plot known as the Knapp/ Nash Burial Plot.

 

DE BAUN/ SWARTWOUT/ SNEDEKER BURIAL GROUND

Congers Lake Memorial Park,  Gilchrest Road, Congers. NY

 

This burial ground includes members of two of the most important families and early settlers in the Congers area.  Snedker and Swartwout, both large landowners. 

The Snedeker ancestsor was Jan Snedeger who immigrated to New Amsterdam before 1642 and became an early settler in Flatbush.  He served there as a magistrate in 1654.

In 1736, a grandson, Tunis Snedeker of New Hempstead, Long Island) purchased about 1,300 acres of land in the northern half of the Pond Patent—including most of the present Congers area.  Gen. Erskine’s military map of 1778-79 this is shown as Snedike’s Pond.  After Tunis’ death in 1750 his four sons – Garret, Theodorus, Johannaes and Abraham, inherited equal portions of the farm.

Garret Snedeker served as Supervisor of the Haverstraw Precinct, including the Pond Patent and present-day Congers, from 1736-1743.  Theodorus served as Sheriff of Orange County from 1739-1747.   Abraham constructed the Central Hotel, Old Haverstraw Road in 1835.  It was destroyed by fire in 1894.

The 18th century Snedeker farm homestead became the property of former Clarkstown Supervisor Charles E. Holbrook --- inherited from his parents.  Family legend says that General Washington once dined at the 18th century home of Garret Snedeker.  A historical marker was placed on the site by The Historical Society of Rockland County.

The Swartwout family traces its roots back to 1660. The family pioneer lived in Esopus, NY and was Sheriff of Ulster County.  Derick’s father purchased the large tract of land which was confiscated at the time of the Revolution.   Jacobus D. Swarwout and his wife Mary Pye, both born in 1792, and four of their children are buried at this site.

The DeBaun Family – the patriarch of this family buried in this cemetery is Christian DeBaun, born 06 Jan 1735, the son of Charles DeBaun and Jane Haring.  Christian married Rachel Helm (Helling) of Paramus, NJ in 1761; they had 12 children and are reported to have lived near Rockland Lake.  Christian died in 1821 and his Will was probated at New City, NY on 21 December 1821.

 

 

DEMING CASTLE

High Tor Estate, 591 South Mountain Road, New City, NY

 

This medieval style castle was built by Harold S. Deming .  The son of Horace Edward and Caroline (Springstead) Deming, was born 13 September 1883 in Brooklyn, NY.  The current owner is Dr. Martha MacGuffie.  Dr. MacGuffie’s two sons, Robbie and Reid, are buried on the estate grounds.

The castle reportedly has a resident ghost.  It was first sighted, in the 1960s, by Dr. MacGuffie’s housekeeper, Eliza, who was from the British West Indies.  Eliza died at the age of 59 years on the same spot where she had seen the ghost.

 

DUTCHER BURIAL PLOT

near 137 South Mountain Road, New City.

 

This burial site is located on a lane off of South Mountain Road leading to a house at  No. 137.  Prior directions were 75’ north along a stone wall back of Mrs. Content’s house.  The plot is 15’x25’ with five known graves – Peter Dutcher, a Revolutionary War veteran, a son Andrew J., a daughter Amelia, and Emma, wife of James Mather, and one unknown.

 

GARRISON / KENDALL / YOUMANS BURIAL GROUND

and

­WOOD / BLAUVELT / STEPHENS BURIAL GROUND

Off Congers Road, New City (between East and West Evergren Roads)

 

Formerly known as The New City Cemetery, there had been a total of at least 45 graves in these two plots.  The Coquillet Family Association had permission to remove family stones and they are now in the Fantinekill Cemetery.  Evidently there have been other removals as the cemetery is very small at this time.

The oldest burial in the Garrison / Kendall plot is John A. Youmans and his wife Elizabeth Felter.  Sophia A. Youmans married George H. Kendall; their two children are also buried here: George Ann and Agnes F.

The Wood / Blauvelt plot contained the remains of 23 members of the Wood family.  Patriarch is John J. Wood, born 1784, married Elizabeth Lydecker.  The Wood family members were born between 1784 and 1860.

 

GERMONDS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH CEMETERY

Germonds Road, New City, N Y

[Overview}

 

On 26 March 1860, 32 men from Clarkstown area gathered at the home of Charles Kreuder to found and build a church – known as the Dutch Evangelical Church.  By the year 1987, there were 48 burials.  The first columbarium site was erected; there is also a veterans section in this active cemetery.   For additional information on burials in this cemetery, contact the Superintendent for the cemetery.

Many of the area’s early settlers and community leaders are buried in the Germonds Cemetery.  There ae eleven members of the Bardon family.  The Eberling family has 32 family members buried here. See the book by Norman R. Baker The Way It Was: An Informal History of New City regarding “examples of German industry and thrift.”

 

GETHSEMANE CEMETERY

Rockland Lake, NY

 

The current owners of this cemetery is St. Paul’s Catholic Church Corp., Congers, NY.  Gethsemane is closely tied to the hamlets of Rockland Lake, Congers, and Valley Cottage.  The original property was purchased in 1901.  St. Paul’s is the successor to St. Michael’s of Rockland Lake and St. Theresa’s of Valley Cottage.

There are many Irish, Bohemian/Slovak, and Italian Catholic families buried in this cemetery.  Many had worked in the Rockland Lake quarries and ice houses.  The listings recorded here are only of the older section.

Outside the planned area of Gethsemane Cemetery is a small burial ground located in a wooded area to the rear and East.  Debris from this section has been cleaned in 2004-2005 under the leadership of Deacon Dominic Buonocore.

 

GOD’S ACRE

North end of Broadway, Upper Nyack

Information from Upper Nyack Historian Winston C. Perry, Jr.

 

This was a small cemetery on the hillside northwest of the turnaround at the North end of Broadway.  It was on the Marydell property and was maintained by the Sisters of Our Lady of Christian Doctrine from 1937 until 1961.  It was the burial site for members of the Order which had a convent East of Broadway.  In 1961, after the convent property was sold, the remains of the nuns were moved to Ascension Cemetery in Monsey, and those of the employee buried there were moved to St. Anthony’s Cemetery in Nanuet.

 

INDIAN BURIAL PLACE

On property of Christian-Missionary Alliance

West of Route 9W.

Information from Upper Nyack Historian Winston C. Perry, Jr.

 

Six or seven long parallel barrows of heaped-up stones on the mountainside on this property were reported in “Trails and Pleasant Walks in Rockland County,” page 11, by the Audubon Society, 1949, as a possible Indian burial place.  An anthropologist ha stated that local Indians did not build burial mounds.  More likely the stone piles are the result of field clearing work by early settlers, being located where the usable land meets the steep slope.

 

JERSEY / STEVENS / HELMS / STOKUM BURIAL GROUND

184 North Little Tor Road, New City, NY.

 

This small burial ground, 10’x10’contains the remains of Abram J. Jersey and his wife Elizabeth, John Jersey & Resolvert Stevens - Revolutionary War veterans.  The earliest date was 1821 and the latest was 1879. 

 

THE JOHNSON BURIAL GROUND

Off Mountain View Avenue, Valley Cottage, NY

 

This site is on a knoll about 100’ south of a large water tower, east of a small pond.  It is 50’ in diameter, and has/had an iron fence around it.  There were about 14 graves -- the earliest date is 1813 and the latest 1899.  There is a large obelisk in the center. 

 

JONES / GREEN BURIAL GROUND

Near 8 Parkway Drive, New City.

 

This burial ground, 50’x50’, is on the former Green farm, off West Clarkstown Road.  There were 36 burials including

19 Jones family members.   The life span of this family covers 134 years or three generations.  The patriarch was Joseph Jones, born in 1722 and his wife Charity, born in 1725.  They had ten children.  Three of their sons are buried here.  The New City Methodist Church

noted that worship was conducted for a time in the home of Isaac Jones – a small house off West Clarkstown Road

The last known Boy Scout Eagle Scout project at this site was by Gary Rohrback, Troop 99, in March of 1979. 

 

KNAPP AND VAN ORDEN BURIAL GROUNDS

1 High Tor Road, Centenary, New City, NY

 

These two small burial grounds are side by side.  The Knapp site had 12 burials, 1848-1881, and the Van Orden had 17 burials, 1833-1908.  Names of family members include – Knapp, Trumpers, Staggs, Howards and Johnsons.

This burial plot is adjacent to the VanOrden plot but was not reachable.  It was located by a member of the Genealogical Society as being half-way up the hill from the VFW Hall, behind a house.  Some stones were standing and others were heaped in a pile. There were eight family members, two Langleys and two Johnsons buried in this plot.

Until his death in February of 1942, the tact of about 113 acres was owned by Elmer Van Orden, born c. 1863.  He was the son of David and Charity Van Orden. He was the eighth generation to live on the property which his ancestors had acquired before the Revolution from King George III.  Mr. Van Orden became famous as the inspiration for the character “Van Van Dorn” in the play “High Tor” by Maxwell Anderson. 

 

KNAPP / NASH BURIAL PLOT

West of the former M.E. Church at Stagg’s Corner

 South Mountain Road, Centenary

 

This burial site was closed in 1937, the located remains were removed to Brick Church Cemetery on 16 October 1937.  Among these were the remains of four Civil War veterans.  The remains of Elizabeth Ann Knapp and John A. Knapp were reentered at Mount Repose Cemetery, on 19 December 1928.

 

LAKE AVENUE CHAPEL BURIAL PLOT

Driveway at #489 Lake Road, Valley Cottage, NY      

 

The Lake Avenue Chapel is no longer in existence.  The burial site was located at the rear of the chapel.  When seen in 1988, it was located on the east side of the driveway on a small knoll approximately 100’ east of a house.  There was only one stone visible, that of John L. Smith, who died in 1860.  Four Felters, first names unknown, were supposed to be buried here;

no stones were located.

 

MARTINUS / HOGENCAMP CEMETERY (MOSESTOWN)

8 Little Tor Road, New City, opposite Collyer Avenue.

 

The cemetery is enclosed by a fence, with a stone wall off South Little Tor Road. There are a total of 329 graves with the earliest date 1723 and the latest 1987.  In 1973 the Martinus / Hogencamp Cemetery Association celebrated its 250th anniversary.  The origin of the cemetery is a mystery.  As early as the 1800s, Martinus Hogencamp and a W. B. Smith were involved in an assignment of property. 

According to Norman Baker, a former local historian, “To the south of the cemetery proper is a smaller area referred to as the ‘slave burying ground,’ the few markers going back to the last century.”

Another story is “that sailors who died on a ship quarantined in New York harbor when it was swept by bubonic plague were brought to that plot for burial.”

When Little Tor Road was widened, a skeleton, identified as that of an Indian, was uncovered outside the cemetery propr.

A sandstone marker has an inscription  in Dutch.  There is one odd marker, made of cast gunmetal, of Jacob Halstead Smith, who died in 1878.   Many of Clarkstown’s oldest residents and early settlers are buried in this cemetery.

 

MOUNT MOOR CEMETERY

Formerly BENSON’S COLORED CEMETERY

Off Route 59 at entrance to Palisades Center, West Nyack, NY

 

On 07 July 1849, a three-page deed transferred a parcel of land from James Benson and his wife Jane to three Trustees of the “Burying Ground for Colored People.”  (William H. Moore, Stephen Samuels, and Isaac Williams).   Six years later, in 1855,  Mr. Benson transferred the southern portion to Samuel Samuels, George Williamson, William Samuels, Titus Jackson and Thomas Thompson – thus completing the three-acre cemetery.

Of these eight original trustees, only two, William Samuel and Thomas Thompson, are buried at Mount Moor – both were Civil War veterans.

In 1988, the Clarkstown Town Board designated Mount Moor Cemetery as an historic site.   This is a most unique burial ground – there are 20 black veterans of the Civil War, Spanish-American and Korean wars buried in this cemetery.

When Pyramid Companies made their arrangements to build a $50 million dollar shopping plaza – The Palisades Center – they also agreed to preserve the cemetery site – including placing a fence around it and putting up a plaque.  The name of the access road was changed from Cemetery Lane to Dexter Road.

 

NANUET TRUE REFORMED CHURCH CEMETERY

Corner of Middletown Road and Church Street, Nanuet, NY

 

This is the oldest cemetery in this area.  The Church itself was organized 08 Aug 1826 and was destroyed by fire in 1954.  A gas station is on the site of the church.  Joseph N. Blauvelt purchased property for cemetery use during 1826.  Most burials in this cemetery occurred between 1827 and 1903, there were additional burials between the years 1903 to 1969.  Mr. Blauvelt is buried in the Nanuet cemetery, adjacent and to the south.

Nanuet True Reformed Church disbanded in 1895, the property was sold to the True Dutch Reformed Church Classis of Hackensack, NJ.

In October of 1907, a group of residents organized the Lutheran Church.  They rented the church building from the True Reformed Church Classis.  In the spring of 1908, St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church purchased the church building.  It was destroyed by fire in 1954.  The building was raised and a gas station garage was built on the site.

The cemetery contains the graves of many of the settlers of the Nanuet area – including Blanch, Blauvelt, Calrk, Cole, DeBaun, DeClark, Demarest, Haring, Hogenkamp, Onderdonk, Polhemus, Serven, Tallman, VanDerwall, Vanderbilt, VanHouen, VanOrden and Wood.

The current owner of the cemetery is St. Paul’s Church, Main Street, New City, NY.

 

 

NANUET CEMETERY (new section)

Corner of Middletown Road and Church Street, Nanuet, NY

[Selected records]

 

About the time the True Seceder Church split from the Dutch Reformed Church, an addition was made to the old cemetery.  The land, about three acres, was donated by Joseph N. Blauvelt and was to be used by all Protestant denominations.  Burial permits dating from 1908 are on file.  In this recording there were 645 selected graves.

The dividing line between Nanuet and St. Paul’s Highview Cemetery to the south is the row of large maple trees.  See St. Paul’s Highview Cemetery for further information.  All three cemeteries are maintained by the cemetery crew.

Mr. David P. Demarest donated the land on which the present Nanuet Baptist Church stands.  Until 1865, this church was known as the Middletown Baptist Church.   The church changed its location from Pearl River to Nanuet in 1859 and the new church was completed in 1860.

 

NEW CITY BURIAL GROUND (old)

Location unknown

 

It is believed to be the area between the two existing small burial grounds off Congers Road (Garrison / Kendall / Youmans and Wood / Blauvelt / Stephens, New City).  At present it is a small parking lot for the general public.

In the 1936 WPA Survey this cemetery was noted as being on the “old Fair grounds, opposite the Elms Hotel, New City.  At that time it was reported to be in fair condition, containing 28 graves.  It was believed that some of the remains from this cemetery were removed in 1966 to the Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Viola.  One veteran mentioned is Daniel Coquillet, b. ca. 1750 and died 1835, a Revolutionary War soldier.  George H. Budke recorded the other 46 names of burials in this site, ca. 1918-20.

  

NYACK RURAL CEMETERY (three sections)

North side, off Route 59, West Nyack, NY

 

The upper and lower sections are located between the West Nyack Shopping Center and Home Lumber Company.  The adjoining section is located east of Home Lumber Company.

There were a total of 268 graves in the upper and lower sections – earliest date 1837 and latest date 1977.  Oak Hill Cemetery, Nyack, had agreed to the maintenance of this site. 

In 1887, the original booklet issued by the Nyack Rural Cemetery, the site was founded in June 1887 and envisioned as a special burial ground for “citizens of New York City, as well as those of Northern New Jersey and Rockland County, because of its natural beauty and admirable location.”

Over the years the tract has been gradually narrowed.  A part was sold to the small shopping mall, which comes close to the burial ground.  Widening of Route 59 took an easement portion.  In 1982, the cemetery was given a zone change from residential to regional shopping status, and a sale of about one acre of land and the sandstone front “holding shed” which dates from about 1889, was sold to a lumber company.

In 1976 there was a great deal of destructive vandalism, 34 of the 153 graves, on the lower slope approaching West Nyack were damaged.  Many graves mark the final resting place of some of the early families: Polhemus, Vanderbelt, VanHouten, and DeBevoise.

 

OAK HILL CEMETERY

Route 9W, Nyack, NY

[Ancient plots and older sections in Clarkstown]

 

On 27 June 1848, Oak Hill Cemetery was dedicated on property of D. D. Smith.  Mr. Smith was the owner of the cemetery, trustees were: Thomas Hurd, Isaac P. Smith, and Jones F. Conklin.  John Mace was the fist superintendent.  On 17 March 1865, the New York Sate Legislature passed a special act to incorporate the cemetery.  The site was roughly 50-50 in Clarkstown and Orangetown in the beginning.  According to Green’s History of Rockland County, 1886, there were 150 lot owners ; the price of a lot was $25 and the price of a grave was $4 to $6.

In 1800 a Presbyterian Church Cemetery was started in the Nyack area, burials continued to 1850.  These remains were disinterred and reinterred at Oak Hill Cemetery in 1869.  In 1810, burials were permitted on the farm of a John Gesner of South Nyack.  A short time later a burial ground for Blacks was opened on the property of M. Cornelision.  Little is known of these interments.  The remains in the Cornelison Point Graveyard were disinterred in 1873 and reinterred at Oak Hill.

  

OLD STONE CHURCH BURIAL GROUND

North Broadway, Upper Nyack

Information from Upper Nyack Historian Winston C. Perry, Jr.

 

“A local story that an Indian beggar was buried on the grounds of the Old Stone Church on North Broway cannot be confirmed and is doubted by older members of the Church.”

  

ONDERDONK GRAVES

New Hempstead Road, east of 1 Lynhaven Drive, and opposite Alliance Church

 

The two graves on this site are for Adrian G. Onderdonk, War of 1812 veteran, and his wife, Rebecca Blauvelt.  Garry Onderdonk III of Spring Valley was a direct descendant.  In May of 1951, Shatemuc Chapter of the DAR and the San Juan-Romagne Post 3050, VFW, placed a marker at the site.

 

PERRY/ TRUMPER BURIAL GROUND

[Quaspeck Cemetery]

Valley Cottage, NY

 

This 15-grave cemetery was believed to have been destroyed when Route 9W was realigned.   In August of 1940, a descendant in search of this burial site found it in a landlocked area between five homes that were built in the 1950s off Lake and Valley roads in Valley Cottage.  No stones remain

In 1918, George H. Budke recorded and noted that all the headstones had inscriptions.  It is hoped that the cemetery will be restored by Clarkstown.  Burials in the site were: Charles, Elizabeth, George, James Fulwood; Sarah E. Kershaw; Hannah Mannel; Charles E., Maria, Harman and John H. Perry; George, William P. and Daniel P. Tremper; Jemine Vanderbilt and Abraham Vervalen.

 

ROMAN CATHOLIC COLLEGE CHAPEL

Off North Broadway, Upper Nyack

Information from Upper Nyack Historian Winston C. Perry, Jr.

 

Green’s History of Rocland County, p. 348, reports “The burial of several construction laborers in the yard of a chapel at a Roman Catholic College which was being built on North Broadway in 1832.  The college building was burned, the project abandoned and ‘most of the bodies were removed.’  The precise site is unknown, but the property extended from South of the present Lexow Avenue to North of the present Locust Drive, on the both sides of Broadway.”

  

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CEMETERY -  NOVO DIVEEVO

Smith Road, Spring Valley

[Overview only]

 

Novo Diveevo Cemetery is unique in the New York Metropolitan area.  The closest similar one is near the Russian Orthodox Cemetery near the Jordanville, NY, a monastery. 

The Russian Orthodox Convent was founded in 1950 by the Russian patriarch, Bishop Andrei.  In 1950 there were close to 5,000 burials here; each grave is marked with the traditional three-tiered Orthodox cross.  The inscriptions are in Russian.  There are regular visitors to worship or decorate the graves.

 

ST. AGATHA CEMETERY

Duryee Lane, Nanuet, NY

 

This enclosed cemetery is the burial ground of 149 nuns, one priest, and 20 others (two WW I veterans, four children, and St. Agatha employees).  The first burial was in 1891 – Sister M. Francina Flanagan, and the latest in 1984 was a nine-year old Jewish boy, - David Kleiman.

St. Agatha’s was founded by the Sisters of Charity in 1884 as a caring facility for children and their families—most dependent and neglected from New York City.  John Reid of Brooklyn donated 16 acres of land in Nanuet for the facility.

In 2006, Nancy Canfield, a former resident, completed her book: HOME KIDS, The Story of St. Agatha Home for Children, The book covers St. Agatha Home from its inception in 1884 to its closing in 2005.  There are many personal memories of the children who had lived there for a few years or for many years. 

 

ST. ANTHONY’S CEMETERY

[Formerly Rockland Calvary Cemetery]

34 East Route 59A, Nanuet, NY

[Overview only]

 

St. Anthony’s Cemetery was started in the year 1899 on a tract of land donated by the John Hengstler family.  Church trustees named it “Rockland Calvary Cemetery.”  The original church had been a wooden structure built less than a mile away in 1898 on the grounds of the Overmeyer farm in Bardonia (Schultz Ford Company now occupies the property).  In 1901, St. Anthony’s became independent of St. Paul’s, the same year St. Augustine’s parish in New City was established as a mission church.

In 1912 a fire destroyed the original church.  A basement church and rectory were begun in 1916 on land off old Route 59 (West Nyack Road).  The basement church became the foundation of the Shrine Church of St. Anthony’s.    As the church grew, so did its needs.  The growth of the cemetery caused rules and regulations for burials and care of graves to be formulated; in 1948 it was renovated to conform with Clarkstown’s Master Plan.  In 1955, burials were limited to single depth only, and in 1960 burials were reserved for use of Rockland residents only.

Buried here are many of the first families who settled in Nanuet: Frohling, Bonhotal, Beckerle, Hobestil, Reiber, Cucolo, Flamick, Stefan, D’Annunzio, Kemmer, Overmeyer and Overbaugh.

 

ST. PAUL’S HIGHVIEW CEMETERY

Middletown Road and Church Street

Nanuet, NY

[Overview only]

 

St. Paul’s is one of the three cemeteries at this location: Nanuet True Reformed Church Cemetery and Nanuet Cemetery (new section).

Burials in this section include Ferdinand R. Horn, Jr., “The Father of the Tappan Zee Bridge.”  Mr. Horn is credited with persuading Gov. Herbert Lehman to sign a bill to allow construction of a bridge connecting Rockland and Westcheser Counties.  Dubbed “Horn’s Folly,” the three-and-a-half mile bridge was not built until 1955.  The opening of the Tappan Zee Bridge changed the way of life for Rockland County with the exodus of families from Westchester County and New York City, which increased Rockland County’s population three-fold.

Dr. Edmund Mayer died in 1987 at the age of 97 years.  He was a pioneer in pathology—founder of American Cyanamid’s first experimental pathology laboratory in 1943.  Dr. Mayer transferred to Lederle Laboratores in Pearl River from American Cyanamid staff in Stamford, CT in 1956.

Stephen M. Flamik, died in 1986 at the age of 79 years.  He was a butcher and owner of Flamik’s Meat Market in Nanuet; past chief and president of Nanuet Fie Engine Co., a WW II Army Air Force veteran.

One of the most interesting Nanuet families is the Insley family.  Albert Babb Insley died in 1937 at the age of 95 years, his biographer, Roy Blankenship, called him “one of Rockland County’s most prolific resident artists….one in the last generation of Hudson River Valley painters.”  His father, Henry Earle Insley (1811-1894) was one of America’s earliest photographers.  In 1839, he, in association with his brother-in-law George W. Prosch and Samuel F. B. Morse (inventor of the telegraph) made their first daguerreotype of a still life. 

Albert A. Insley studied painting in 1864 in Greenwood Lake, NY, with Jaspar F. Cropsey.  In the 1920s, he lived on Orchard Street, Nanuet.  The house was demolished in the 1930s.

The original Insley farmhouse, constructed prior to the Civil War still stands on its original foundation at 261 South Middletown Road, Nanuet.  A larger home built about 1880 still stands at 36 Old Middletown Road, Nanuet.

 

SCOTLAND HILL BURIAL GROUND

Carriage Lane, off South Pascack Road, Nanuet, NY

 

This burial ground [also referred to as Blauvelt Family Burial Ground] is on the former Albert Hopper/Cornelius Blauvelt farm property.  The site is now within a housing development and can no longer be described as being on a slight rise of ground near a small brook.  The brook is gone, and the entrance to the site is from Carriage Lane, down into a lower level.  It has been designated as a historic site and a marker was to have been placed there in 2000 or 2001.

The earliest burial date recorded is 1749 and the latest date, 1839.  Only one stone was standing, that of Rachel Cole Blauvelt.  Two Revolutionary War veterans are known to be buried here: Cornelius A. Blauvelt, 3rd Co. Regiment, Orange County NY Militia (Cornelius was married to Margaret; and Harmanus Blavuelt, 2nd Regiment, Orange County NY Militia.  Harmanus was married to Rachel Van Orden

 

SNEDEKER GRAVES

Alongside the United M. E. Church, Congers NY

[At intersection of Congers Road, Old Haverstraw Road and Kings Highway.]

 

This grave site was formerly the property of the Snedeker family.  Garret Snedeker’s Will, dated 1841 and proved 1843, mentioned this as a family burial ground.  It was later considered to be unsuitable.  A site in the southern part, on land at the south end of Congers Lake was selected. [See DeBaun / Swartwout Burial Ground, Gilchrest Road, Valley Cottage.]

The two remaining gravestones are flat in the earth and difficult to find.  Earliest date: 1810 and latest, 1856.  The other two stones are not visible.

 

SNYDER CEMETERY

Kings Highway, Valley Cottage

 

The tract of land for this cemetery was donated by Hercules Ryder who owned considerable acres of land in this area.  He had donated land where the one-room (enlargeable to a double room) school at Lake Road.  This school was later demolished for the construction of the present elementary school.

Hendrick Snyder was the owner of a house a short distance to the North; original construction was in 1730.  There were 143 burials at this cemetery, the earliest date was 1773.  A total of 100 are for the following families: Garrabrant, Tremper, Ryder, Conover, Onderdonk, Baker, Tallman, Garrison, Locke, Conklin, Stoothoff and Gilchrist.

The Garrabrant family have been residents of this area for close to 200+ years.  The patriarch, John P. was a vegetable farmer with produce being shipped to New York City on the ferry Christina to Fulton Market.  The family homes were located around Mountain View Avenue, a part of the Garrabrant Mountain.  For many years the entire mountain was fruit tree area.

 

TRUMPER / VAN ORDEN BURIAL GROUND

Off Old Route 304, Centenary, NY

[On a knoll just south of the Centenary Grocery store at the intersection of South Mountain Road]

 

This burial ground spans a total of 82 years, basically the cemetery for members of the Trumper and VanOrden families in the Centenary area – the outskirts of New City.  There are two Civil War veterans in the Trumper family, one VanOrden, and one Ackerman.

 

UPPER NYACK CEMETERY

Old Mountain Road, Upper Nyack, NY

 

This is one of the two oldest burial grounds in Clarkstown.  It has 66 graves of some of the earliest families and includes six Revolutionary War soldiers.

Old Mountain Road was used by the Indians and early settlers who traveled from Nyack to Rockland Lake and the West Nyack area by way of Christian Herald Hill and Storms Road.  It was called “the road to the pond” in early deeds.

In a history of Rockland County published in City and Country during the year 1882, appears the following: “The old burying ground at Upper Nyack was started in about the year 1730 and the names of Snedeker, Smith and Perry are most abundant….

“All Upper Nyack at one time belonged to Cornelius Claessen Cuyper who, with his “huisvrouw,” Aeltje Teunis (Bogert) and their family of little ones, settled somewhere along the river shore between 1685 and 1687.  Frontier hardships apparently agreed with the young couple, for by 1708 their progeny had increased to fifteen; thirteen of whom reached maturity.  Cuyper became a wealthy, prominent and influential man in the County of Orange…On his farm and near his house he laid out this family burial place before 1730….”

“Cornelius died in 1731 and his wife died four years later, both are interred in the family plot.  Their graves wee marked by low, heavy slabs of red sandstone undressed except for the crude lettering.  These probably had been quarried from the five stone beds near the river shore.

Aury Smith bought 320 acres and Capt. Jacob Vanderbilt and his step-son, Andries Onderdonk, also became residents of the locality.  A homemade headstone containing the initials “V.D.” and the date “1739” is supposed to mark the Captain’s grave.

“If Aury Smith is buried here, he lies in an unmarked grave.

“The last burial marked by an inscribed stone was that of Garret S. Smith in 1857.”

 

VAN HOUTEN FAMILY BURIAL PLOT

South side of Ridge Road, east of driveway for house #87, New City

 

This family burial ground was located a short distance from the family residence.  Claus R. VanHouten settled in Clarkstown prior to 1761.  He was a farmer and miller.  He built a house a short distance from that of his son, Isaac B. VanHouten.  No visible evidence of these former residences remains.

Isaac B. VanHouten was born in his father’s house on 04 June 1776.  Like his father, he was a farmer and miller, and was elected in 1833 to represent his district in the 23rd Congress.  He was also appointed as Rockland County Treasurer.

There were ten graves here, the earliest date: 1844 and the latest date, 1907.

 

VAN HOUTEN / HOWARD BURIAL GROUND

74 Ridge Road, New City, NY

[On the north side of Ridge Road.]

 

This small burial ground includes Cornelius Howard, his wife Ann VanHouten and their two children.  The Howard family traces its lineage back before the Revolutionary War when Thomas Howard, Sr., came from England to Boston in the 1680s.

It was a great-grandson John Cornelius Howard, who settled in Rockland County after the American Revolution on 98 aces of farmland near High Tor Mountain, Centenary, in northern New City.  The Howard family lived in the area for over 200 years. 

There were six graves here with the earliest date 1841 and the latest date 1890.

 

VAN ORDEN and KNAPP BURIAL GROUNDS

1 High Tor Road, Centenary, NY

 

See the history of these two sites under  Knapp and VanOrden Burial Grounds.

 

WARING FAMILY GRAVES

Congers Road, Congers, NY

[opposite Garecht Road]

 

The only known gravestone is that of Solomon Waring, born 31 January 1772.  Solomon married Aefje Snedeker, born 31 October 1776.  He was one of the members of the first town meeting on record in Rockland County history—held at New City on Thursday 04 April 1809.

Prior directions for the site were “On top of hill on the New City Road on the G. A. Cropsey farm.”  There were four graves with the earliest date 1841 and the latest date 1842.

In the 1980s, only two stones remained – one was overturned and the other broken in pieces.  The site had been threatened by a large housing development.

 

WELLS FAMILY BURIAL GROUND

Landing Road, Rockland Lake, NY

 

This site is located in Rockland Lake State Park: take theLake Road entrance, east into the Park, bear left, past Gethsemane Cemetery to the intersection.  North from the Knickerbocker Fire Engine Co. about 1000 feet.  At the concrete barriers, turn left onto the Blue-Yellow trail into the woods.  A half-cast iron fence surrounds the 50’x50’cemetery.

There are 21 graves here with the earliest date1831 and the latest 1874.

Benedict Wells was the former owner of a large portion of Rockland Lake.  He donated land for the hamlet’s church and school.  His brother, Thomas Wells, owned property on the north side of the lake.  Green’s History, p. 179, notes that “after he (Thomas) cut all the ice he needed, he built a fence between the lake and the highway and demanded a royalty on every ton of ice collected by others.  Litigation was commenced against him, but it was never resolved.”

Along with Benedict and Bridget Wells, other family members are buried in this cemetery.

In addition to stone quarrying, Rockland Lake was the scene from about 1830 to 1924 of ice harvesting.  Rockland Lake was called the “icebox of New York City” because of the dependence on Rockland Lake’s clear ice by hotels and restaurants in the metropolitan area.  In 1855, Knickerbocker Ice Co. was formed.  Nearly 4,000 men were employed by the company in the 1880s.  In 1926, about two years after the ice industry died, fire destroyed the last of the ice houses.  Sawdust in the building’s ruins burned for more than two years.

 

WILLIAMS GRAVE

3 Muller Court, New City, NY

[To the rear of the former Home of the Sisters of St. Augustine’s Catholic Church]

 

The prior owner of the site was the Herman Irion Mansion.

This solitary grave, identified only by a two-by-four marker bearing the initials “O.L.W,” has been identified as the burial place of Oscar L. Williams.

The only known information is that Oscar was 19-years-old and died of smallpox while a prisoner in the County Jail on

24 February 1902.

 

YEOMANS / TOWNSEND/ HERME BURIAL GROUND

121 Ridge Road, New City

[South side of Ridge Road]

 

Prior directions: “Private Plot on west side of road from Pye’s Mill to Short Clove, near Turner’s Corner.”

There are eight graves in this 15’x75’ burial ground with the earliest date: 1863 and the latest: 1908.

 

YOUMANS GRAVES

South Mountain Road, Centenary, NY

[At the rear of the former Centenary M. E. Church; in 1985, it was the VFW Hall.]

 

There are two graves located at the rear of the building, the one of John Youmans, died 22 Jun 1852 and the other William J. Youmans, who died 28 October 1854.  The relationship between the two men is unknown.