The burial grounds of Lansingburgh,
Rensselaer County, New York
Forward
Lansingburgh, N.Y.: F.D. Broderick
Typescript, no copyright notice
[Transcribed by Dave Swerdfeger]
|
Lansingburgh, New York. FOREWORD Lansingburgh has been fortunate in the preservation of its old cemeteries and burial grounds. of the five grounds within the old village, four remain. the fifth burial ground, the private burial ground of the Lansing family and their relatives, located on the bank of the Hudson River at the end of the present 109th street, has no remaining stones, although a number of people still lie buried there. However an almost complete record of this old ground-is available due to the fact that the bodies removed from it, were reinterred in five lots in nearby Oakwood cemetery, and their records are now part of the excellent oakwood cemetery records. Oakwood cemetery lies along the east boundary of Lansingburgh and two of its main entrances are from the village. many Lansingburgh residents are buried there and a number were removed from our older cemeteries and reburied there. This record will attempt to cover some of these removals, under the heading of each individual burial ground from which they were removed. The oldest and most historic of the five burial grounds is the lansingburgh village burial ground, located at the north-east corner of the present third avenue and 107th street. This burial ground dates back almost to the founding of the village by Abraham Jacob Lansing in 1771. Either used as early, or almost as early was the Lansing family burial ground. Due to the removal of the stones from the Lansing ground it is not possible to place the date of the first burial there. the founder of the village, Abraham Jacob Lansing and his wife Catherine (Leversee) were buried there on the same day in October 1791. Catherine died october 8 and Abraham died the following day, October 9. It is probable that there were earlier burials in this ground, and that it was already established and set aside at the time of their deaths. The third cemetery to be opened was the Episcopal Cemetery in 1804 located at the north west corner of the present Third Avenue and 115th Street, and known as Trinity Churchyard. This cemetery is located at the rear and side of the church building. It stood in the same relation to the earlier church building on this site. The fourth cemetery to be opened was the Catholic Burial Ground located at the south east corner of the present Third Avenue and 107th Street, across the street from and just south of the Village Cemetery. In 1829 when this cemetery was purchased this location would have been described as Congress and Mill Streets. This cemetery was opened in 1829, on land purchased by Keating Rawson, an outstanding early Lansingburgh Catholic layman, the first burial being that of his wife Ann. He deeded the cemetery ground to "The Catholic Church of Lansingburgh". later St. John's and still later called St. Augustine's Church. For a consideration of $140 he purchased lots nos. 114, 115, 116, 162, 163 and 164 from Philander Wells and Elizabeth, his wife. The next cemetery to be opened was the Oakwwod cemetery. in 1848, and the last in our area was St. John's On The Hill, the present catholic cemetery, which was opened in 1869. Some removals were made from the older catholic ground into the present St.John's Cemetery, so a partial record of St. John's is included in an effort to cover these removals. Many soldiers, veterans of all our wars, are buried in the Lansingburgh cemeteries. Of the men who fought in the Revolutionary war from this area, several are to be found in the Village Cemetery; together with other veterans of the Revolution who came to Lansingburgh with the tide of New England settlers shortly after the close of this conflict. There are also a few Revolutionary War veterans buried in Trinity Churchyard and also others among those people removed from the Lansing Cemetery to Oakwood Cemetery. Soldiers who fought in the War of 1812 are to be found in both the Village Cemetery and Trinity Churchyard. Veterans of the Spanish American War are buried in all the cemeteries covered here, together with numerous veterans of the Civil War. Several private cemeteries are located within the bounds of what constituted for many years the Town of Lansingburgh: The Brookins Cemetery, Bancker Cemetery, Bancker-Ryan Cemetery (later moved into a larger cemetery nearby), The Speigletown Cemetery, and private cemetery adjoining this last named ground, and perhaps a few others. Within the bounds of the Village proper I have found no private burial grounds except for the Lansing Cemetery. This was probably due to the fact that the spacious and attractive Village Cemetery was in use at a very early date. As many slaves were owned in the Village it is possible that there were slave burials on some of the farms, but none that can now be traced. The only evidence of other burials within the Village came to light when on several different occasions tombstones or parts of stones were found at the corner of the present 113th Street and Fourth Avenue, the location now of the Lansingburgh Boys Club. No record of the names on these stones can now be found. Although it is almost impossible to make a perfectly accurate record of old cemetery inscriptions, due to the ravages of time and vandals, every effort has been made in this book to do justice to the Lansingburgh Burial Grounds. They have been checked and rechecked over a period of five years, and in different light and weather conditions, and then checked against the following sources:
|