First Presbyterian Church Cemetery
(Old Burying Ground)
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From 1872 Map
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Additional images: 1874 map
From "Charter of the City of Newark, and Laws of New Jersey Relating to
said City with the Ordinances passed by the Common Council" April 5, 1850:
AN ACT
Requiring the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Newark to protect and
keep in repair the Old Burying Ground in said city, and quieting the possession
of such parts of said burying ground as are already occupied
1. Whereas, the old burying ground of the city of Newark hath for many
years ceased to be used as a place for burying the dead; and whereas it has so
occurred by lapse of time that a portion of the land originally allotted for the
purpose of a burying ground lying adjacent to the premises now designated by
enclosures as the old burying ground, has been appropriated for other purposes,
and has been improved for the most part by erecting thereon expensive buildings
and whereas it hath been insisted that the portion of said ground appropriated
and occupied otherwise than for a burying ground should be restored to the use
for which it was originally set apart, and according to the trust to which it
was originally set apart, and according to the trust to which it is alleged the
same is subject, which would be attended with great inconvenience, and subject
innocent purchasers to great pecuniary loss and be of no public utility,
inasmuch as the location of said ground renders it improper and inexpedient to
make any further interments therein and whereas it is desirable that the said
burying ground, enclosed as aforesaid, should be protected, and that the
occupancy of the portion thereof occupied otherwise than for a burying ground
should be quieted therefore,
Be it enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey,
That is shall be the duty of the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Newark,
to protect and preserve the burying ground as now enclosed aforesaid and the
enclosures thereof and that the occupation of such parts of said ground,
originally allotted as aforesaid, as are now occupied for purposes other than as
a burying ground as aforesaid, shall remain undisturbed, and that the Mayor and
Common Council of the City of Newark shall apply such proceeds and profits
thereof as they may receive to the protecting, and keeping in repair, the
burying ground aforesaid, and the enclosures thereof Provided nevertheless, that
nothing in this act contained shall in any manner affect the vested rights, if
any, of any person or persons in the said lands, independent of the said alleged
trusts and provided that this act shall not confer any additional rights to any
person or persons, as to lands south of the town lot, bordering on the said
burying ground, and which have within the last ten years been enclosed.
Approved, March 3d, 1848
From various issues of the Newark Daily Advertiser 1853 & 1854,
"Newark, The Unhealthiest City":
In 1853 an anonymous benefactor was willing to donate $10,000 for the
building of a hospital if the city would raise an additional $30,000 and build
the cemetery on the site of the Old Burying Ground. The central location
and the lack of any adjacent buildings made the Old Burying Ground a desirable
location. The plans fell through when the public looked upon this venture
as trespassing upon the remains of the dead and the fear of the spread of
communicable diseases.
From "Hand book and guide for the city of Newark, New
Jersey: carefully edited and compiled from authentic sources" Newark Daily
Advertiser Print, 1872:
"Though
many of the churches in the city are still surrounded by their old graveyards,
internments have long ceased to be made in them. The rural cemetery has
superseded all other forms of sepulture, as being not only better adapted to the
purpose, but as affording greater certainty that the remains of the dead will
remain undisturbed by the extension of the city. Of these urban
graveyards, one is the most venerable of all our ancient landmarks, being coeval
with the town, and the last resting place of many of the original
inhabitants. It lies in the rear of the stores and factories on Broad
Street, south of Market Street, where the first church stood. A handsome
gateway fronts on Broad, having the houses of the Minnehaha Engine Company, and
Union Hook and Ladder Company on either hand. Entering, we find a quiet
piece of green sward surrounded by the rear walls of factories and stores.
Through not by any means neglected, it has a few evidences of a loving
regard. It's irregular square is crossed by a few walks and shaded by a
few trees. Most of the remains have been removed, and the headstones
bearing dates of a century ago or two, are piled on the western side of the
plot, to still further moulder with the lapse of time. The few that remain
in the ground are suggestive of how ancient cities gradually disappeared, and
are in need of an "Old Mortality" with steel chisel and mallet, to
deepen those early records which the winds and rains of heaven have contributed
to so nearly obliterate. The old graveyard is under the charge of the
city, but a municipal government is necessarily more alive to the active issues
of the present, than interested in the dead past. Our people cannot
reasonably expect more of them than they have already done. Were the whole
place under the care of an intelligent committee of citizens, who would take a
pride, not only in preserving, but in beautifying and adorning the spot, we
might hope to see the grounds in the condition so beautifully pictured by Dr.
Stearns, in his Historical Discourses. 'Let the ground be made the most
beautiful and attractive in the city, as it is most replete with holy memories;
and let the generations as they rise, learn to hold in especial honor and
affection, the old graveyard where the Fathers lie waiting for the resurrection
of the just'."
From the "Newark City Directories"
1886
"The old burying ground is given over for public purposes and bones of
settlers are removed to Fairmount Cemetery"
January 21, 1887
"The city resolves that provision be made at once for the removal of the
bodies buried in the Old Burying Ground to some suitable location.
Branford Place crosses the area that once was the burying ground between Broad
and Washington and Market and William. The bones and headstones were
removed to Fairmount Cemetery where a metal monument marks the spot of their
re-interment, stones and all."
December 29, 1888
"The digging up of the remains of the bodies in the Old Burying Ground
between Broad and Halsey streets, now crossed by Branford place, is in progress,
60 men are at work and already four pine boxes of bones are ready for Fairmount
Cemetery."
From: A History of the City of Newark New Jersey
Embracing Practically Two and a Half Centuries 1666 - 1913:
In 1828 the Township of Newark,
after long deliberation, bought a plot of nearly nine acres east of New Jersey
Railroad Avenue and south of Ferry Street, for a "New Burying Place,"
to be used in place of the Old Burying Ground, which it had been decided in 1826
must no longer be used for interment of bodies. The sum of $641.27 was
paid for the new cemetery property, but it speedily became too valuable for
burial purposes, as the building of the railroad proceeded, and was cut up into
building lots in 1835, and sold. Very few interments were made
there. In the early 1830's the town of Newark was indicted for maintaining
a nuisance in the Old Burying Ground, and steps had to be taken to draw off the
water that continually gathered there. Little regard for the tombs of the
town's founders was shown in those days, and it is not altogether pleasant to
note that when a new burying ground was necessary a plot of low, cheap land,
below the present Pennsylvania Railroad, was purchased.
From "HISTORIC NEWARK"
A Collection of the Facts & Traditions about the Most Interesting Sites, Streets,
&
Buildings of the City
Printed for the Fidelity Trust Company
Newark, NJ
1916
"Behind the church (on the west side of Broad Street, nearly opposite the site of the
present First Presbyterian church), Dr. MacWhorter has said, was the old training-ground. This was
between the swamp and the brow of the hill. The burying-place was beyond this swamp, ' on a rising
knoll or tongue of land which divided this from a greater swamp or pond, westward of which the land
rose into another hill, then presently sunk into a flat or brook, called the watering-place'.
This last hill was the original burying-ground."
Having volunteered to do lookups for early
Essex County in the materials I have in my library, I have had several inquiries about the old burying grounds of Newark. I thought I
would send general information to the list about two of these since they were the resting
places of many of the founding fathers and mothers and their families.
The original Old Burying Ground where many of
the first generation were buried was located west of Broad Street in downtown Newark, where Branford Place is now located and across
the street from the First Presbyterian Church. There were few burials into the 1800s and
by the end of the 1890s the burying grounds were in such a state of disrepair and unused that
the remains and stones were removed and placed in a crypt in Fairmount Cemetery beneath
the statue of a Puritan gentleman - many of you may have seen this statue in pictures.
The First Presbyterian Church also had a large
burying ground behind it where many of the second and third generations of the early families where buried in the late 1700s and
first part of the 1800s. By the mid-1950s it too was unused and in a state of disrepair and in
1959 the church was authorized to replace it with a parking lot (to earn revenue during the
week). The church does have a small memorial garden with a low wall inscribed with all the early
family names. I believe any remains they found were placed in a common grave beneath
this garden area and the stones turned over, smoothed out with fill and paved over by the
blacktop.
Some remains from both cemeteries were
reinterred in other area cemeteries. Lists of burials in both these cemeteries have been published by the historical societies. Further
the NJHS has a number of books which show the actual inscriptions from the actual stones in
these and other area cemeteries as they were made in the 1800s. These include, for
instance, the inscriptions of the Lyons Farms Baptist Church cemetery which now lies under
the church which was enlarged in 1907. I believe the actual stones are in the basement of
the church, though I have yet to see them.
The churchyard of the First Presbyterian Church
of Elizabeth is still extant though there are few stones earlier than the mid-1700s. (I have found three generations of greats there.)
The British troops probably didn't care much about them when they were burning the church
during the Revolutionary War. There is a published book which lists all the inscriptions,
which I discovered in the Newark Public Library.
The Old Newark Burying Ground
