Cemeteries

Black Adirondack Farmers, Escaped Slaves, Civil War Veterans, Remembered at Union Cemetery

July 10, 2022 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

Curt Stager’s scholarly demeanor cracked on July 4th when he spread three small plastic baggies of soil on three graves of Black Adirondackers at Union Cemetery on state Route 3 in Vermontville, Franklin County, NY.

Stager didn’t know any of these people personally. They all died in the late 1800s. But in researching their lives, Stager, a Paul Smith’s College biology professor, said he’s become immensely respectful of their fights for freedom for all Americans, on the battlefield, or at home. [Read more…] about Black Adirondack Farmers, Escaped Slaves, Civil War Veterans, Remembered at Union Cemetery

Revolutionary Veterans in New Lebanon’s Cemetery of the Evergreens

March 11, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Former New Lebanon resident George Clark, a member of the community’s Floyd Carlton Post of the American Legion, has been working to identify the graves of Revolutionary War soldiers for many years.

Helping him has been his friend Dale Ackley. Former town historian Sharon Moon and Cemetery of the Evergreens board members have been working at it, too. The undertaking has been immense, and, if they succeed in their goal to restore headstones, it will be very costly. [Read more…] about Revolutionary Veterans in New Lebanon’s Cemetery of the Evergreens

Macabre Mania From Charles Allan Gilbert to Andy Warhol

March 8, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 2 Comments

The ossuary under the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini at Via Veneto in Rome houses the skulls and bones of some 4,000 former Capuchin monks who were interred there between 1631 and 1870. The dead were buried without coffin and later exhumed to make room for newly deceased. Their remains were transformed into “decorative designs.”

In the summer of 1867 Mark Twain visited the Capuchin Convent and recorded his observations of the crypt’s “picturesque horrors” in The Innocents Abroad. What the novelist witnessed were arches built of thigh bones; pyramids constructed of “grinning” skulls; and other structures made of shin and arm bones. Walls were decorated with frescoes showing vines produced of knotted vertebrae; tendrils made of sinews and tendons; and flowers formed of knee-caps and toe-nails. [Read more…] about Macabre Mania From Charles Allan Gilbert to Andy Warhol

A Grave Marker for an American Veteran

February 25, 2022 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

This week’s guest on The Historians Podcast is Peter Betz of Fulton County who explains how he was able to help a family acquire a grave marker at no cost for a deceased family member who was a United States Army veteran.

Betz is a member of the Perth town council and president of the Perth Center Cemetery Association. He found that a veteran who died in recent years was buried next to his wife who had died in 2010. His wife had a headstone but the veteran, Howard Forgette, did not. [Read more…] about A Grave Marker for an American Veteran

A Dog’s Tale: Dachshunds, Hot Dogs, Coney Island & Greenwood Cemetery

January 31, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 2 Comments

Exploding urban populations during the nineteenth century demanded new solutions towards burying the dead. Traditional congregational graveyards were either full or overcrowded. A combination of practical thinking and the wish to commune with nature (inspired by Romantic poetry) led to the development of serene burial grounds outside the city boundaries.

Founded as a “rural” or “garden” cemetery in 1838, Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery is famous for its picturesque landscape features with evocative names such as Camellia Path, Halcyon Lake, Oaken Bluff, or Vista Hill. Elaborate monuments and mausoleums, designed in an array of architectural styles, honor the Lispenard dynasty (Norman), William Niblo (Gothic), the Steinway family (Classical), and others.

And then there is the Feltman mausoleum, the columns of which feature Corinthian capitals. On each side of the doorway stands a trio of mourning figures. Those on the left hold symbols of faith (cross and doves); those on the right show grief and sorrow. The pediment features two cherubs holding a wreath with the initial F in the center. On top of the temple is a cupola with the Archangel Michael standing guard, sword at the ready. The building serves to celebrate the memory of just one man. Who was this person? A Founding Father maybe? A respected politician (if that is not a contradiction in terms)? A celebrated artist? [Read more…] about A Dog’s Tale: Dachshunds, Hot Dogs, Coney Island & Greenwood Cemetery

A Saratoga County Cemetery Mystery

January 13, 2022 by Dave Waite 3 Comments

Along Plummer Road in the town of Milton in Saratoga County sits the Powell-Wiswall Cemetery, a peaceful rural cemetery where local residents have been laid to rest since the early 1800s.

Standing like a sentinel over it all is a large statue of Christ. On two sides are engraved the names Ella Frances Wood-Mann and her husband Enos Rogers Mann. This monument sits adjacent to Wood family plots, where over the years Ella’s parents and other family members have been laid to rest. [Read more…] about A Saratoga County Cemetery Mystery

Green-Wood Cemetery’s Historic Chapel Wins Preservation Award

November 21, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Green-Wood Cemetery’s Historic Chapel has won a 2021 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award from the Preservation League of NYS.

The Historic Chapel, located just down the hill from the Cemetery’s main entrance in Brooklyn, is an icon of Green-Wood’s landscape. Designed in 1911 by the architectural firm of Warren & Wetmore, the Neo-Gothic design features 41 carved window openings, filled with figurative stained glass. [Read more…] about Green-Wood Cemetery’s Historic Chapel Wins Preservation Award

Irish Immigrant, Medal of Honor Winner Terrence Begley Being Honored in Albany

August 17, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Friends of the Albany Rural Cemetery will hold a ceremony on Saturday, August 21st to dedicate a military marker for Irish immigrant Civil War Medal of Honor recipient Terrence Begley.

Begley was born in Ireland and raised in Albany. He enlisted as a private in the 7th NY Heavy Artillery regiment, an Albany regiment, on February 11th, 1864.

A Delaware County Cemeteries Podcast

May 30, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

This Memorial Day week, Kaatscast visited two cemeteries where historians are taking steps to memorialize former Catskills residents in the towns of Delhi and Roxbury. At the Roxbury Methodist Church cemetery, gravestones obscured by years of algae and lichen growth are being restored with a special cleaning agent and elbow grease. And in Delhi, a poorhouse cemetery lost in time is finally getting the recognition and care that it deserves. [Read more…] about A Delaware County Cemeteries Podcast

Early Orange County Burial Ground Marked

May 17, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Washingtonville Cemetery has installed a new historic roadside marker commemorating Washingtonville Cemetery, an early burial ground in Orange County.