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Jersey City/Harsimus Cemetery |
Jersey City/Harsimus Cemetery |
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| Lithograph
showing Newark Avenue near Waldo and Magnolia Avenues. Until it was cut
down in 1871, an ancient tulip tree known as the "King of the Woods" stood on the brow of the hill overlooking the site of the Jersey City Cemetery. General Lafayette was said to have encamped under the shade of this tree in 1779. Harriet Phillips Eaton. Jersey City and Its Historic Sites. Jersey City, NJ: Women's Club of Jersey City of Jersey City, 1899. |
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The Jersey City/Harsimus Cemetery is on five and one-half acres south of Newark Avenue and is under the supervision of an independent board of trustees. It is claimed that the cemetery was founded in 1829 after refusal by residents to pay a reported exorbitant $12 charge to open a plot that was purchased in the Old Bergen Church Cemetery for an unidentified man; he had drowned and his body was found on the shore off Paulus Hook . The residents collected money for the plot and the marker, but when the sexton requested the additional fee they called a meeting at Hugh McCutcheon's Farmers' Hotel at 42 York Street. Here a decision was made to form a cemetery company. David Cadwalader Colden, the mayor of New York City and one of the investors in the Associates of the Jersey Company, became the president of cemetery. According to Colin Egan, "From its inception the cemetery has served the people of downtown Jersey City and bears witness to the area's changing ethnic make-up." There are markers for early Dutch settlers like Jacob Van Riper, May Rood Drayton from England as well as those for German, Italian, Irish, Polish and Hispanic residents. Among the markers, the oldest is that of Andrew Gannel, who died June 22, 1830. In 1955 the Hudson
Dispatch printed an article on the 126th anniversary of the cemetery
and commented about its status in the city: "Stretching out like
a huge octopus with the passing years, the city has all but enveloped
that once quiet and secluded section. To the north and west, city streets
entwine the cemetery, and the the south the Pennsylvania Railroad has
right-of-way. Still free on the east, however, it is bordered by Mary
Benson Park, a favorite recreation spot for children." The other cemeteries in Jersey City are Holy Name Cemetery, Speer Burial Ground/DeMott Burial Ground, Bayview-New York Bay Cemetery and Old Bergen Church Cemetery. References: |
| By: Carmela Karnoutsos Project Administrator: Patrick Shalhoub |
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