Newspaper Articles
April 12, 11903 - Old
Coin Found in the Burying Ground
June 19, 1904 - The
New Branford Street Through Old Burying Ground
June 24, 1906 - Auction
Sale of "Old Burying Ground" Property
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 "Quarter Century's Progress of NJ Leading Manufacturing
Centers" 1887
Opposite Mechanic Street is the city's oldest burial ground, in
which no interments have been made for a century or more.
Though the Legislature enacted nearly forty years ago that it should
be the duty of the mayor and Common Council "to protect and
preserve the Old Burying Ground," we have it on the authority
of one of the city's mayors (Hon. Joseph E. Haynes) that this sepulture
of the early settlers of Newark had for a long time been the scene
of "pollution, desecration, and wickedness," and that
it was a nuisance, "the police, the firemen, or the citizens
who live near it, could substantiate in any court of justice in
the land." "I confess," he said to the city
fathers, "that my feelings are shocked by the application made
to me for permits for its use. Showmen, traveling venders
with brass bands, exhibitors of fire apparatus and fire extinguishers,
the Salvation Army, and the skating rink projectors, coolly and
calmly ask for its use, and, when denied, go away, not in sorrow,
but in anger, evidently feeling that their occupancy of the place
would go to elevate and confer respectability upon it, compared
with its present use, or rather misuse." This was said
in 1885, and since then the Second Presbyterian Society have removed
all the remains from this "God's acre," and propose to
use the ground for building purposes, thus redeeming what had been
an eyesore for many years to the citizens.
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.
The Old Burying Ground between Halsey & Broad Streets was sold
by the Common Council around 1900 to help offset the cost of the
present City Hall.
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."
From: "From Official Guide & Manual of the 250th
Anniversary Celebration" 1916
Old Burying Ground was immediately back of the old First Presbyterian
Church and extended from Broad Street west to what is now Halsey
Street, south nearly to present William Street, and north to the
ponds close to Market Street. Bones of early residents were
removed from the Old Burying Ground in the late eighties of the
1800's and the property was devoted to business uses.
Some of the Older Burial Grounds in Essex County
A Brief Explanation by Joan Bretz
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 re-interred 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.
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