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.
It took me a while to sort out the information on these two cemeteries but facts is facts, ma'am. I have gotten used to the situation since I learned about it a couple of years ago. At least they did try to put some remains in a common grave - and that is what upsets me - just take a shovelful of dirt and maybe someone's ancestor and toss it into the hole - is the scene that comes to my mind.
Actually I think a law was passed to prevent this sort of thing from occuring in the future - unfortunately too late for the founding fathers and mothers. And the argument they made in permitting these actions was that all the descendants of these families had moved out of the local area - I guess meaning that the rest of us didn't care or couldn't come to visit so it wouldn't matter. Also the Old Burying Ground stood in the way of urban expansion and "progress" in Newark. I feel badly for the families who reinterred someone from the original Old Burying Ground into the First Presbyterian churchyard and they still got covered over sixty years later. And as late as the mid 1950s or even later they were finding an occasional remainder in the Old Burying Ground.
Good hunting.
Note:There is also a so called Old Burying Ground at the First Presbyterian Church in Orange, Essex County, at the corner of Scotland Road and Northfield Av/Main St. This burying ground was used from the mid-1700s to at least the mid-late 1800s. Three generations (d. 1714, 1777, 1823) of my early Condit's are buried there, or at least their stones are still there. There is also a memorial to the early settlers who fought in the Revolutionary War from the Orange area. There are many of the early families buried there including Baldwin, Ball, Condit/Cunditt, Crane, Dodd, Freeman, Harrison, Lindsley, Peck, Smith, Ward, and Williams. I have visited and verified the stones for many of my ancestors from early Newark/Orange, but few of the others. The Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey published a listing of the "Gravestone Records from Old Burying Ground, Orange, Essex County" in a series of magazines from October, 1928 (Vol. IV No. 2, Whole No. 14). I have a copy of that listing a it shows the following Ball's:Not many, but some. If a group member wants a lookup in the list I have, just drop me a line, I may be slow, but I will get to it. David Condit - david@condit-family.com
- Mary, wife of David, d. March 12, 1814, aged 59 years; daughter Prudence, d. April 29, 1796, aged 12 years; daughter Esther, d. May 21, 1840, aged 60.2.8; son
- John, d. Feb. 24, 1838, aged 56 years.
- Joseph B., d. Sept. 3, 1842, in 654th year; wife Eunice, d. Dec. 4, 1846, in 65th year.
- Timothy, d. Jan. 7, 1758, aged 47 years; w. Esther, d Oct. 10, 1803 (or 1805), aged 88.0.15 (stone not found); daughter Sarah, d. May 25, 1770, in 35th year; daughter Charity, d. March 8, 1770; in 32nd year.
See Also:There is a Presbyterian Burying Ground now called the Bloomfield Cemetery in Bloomfield, Essex County, Isaac Ball donated the original five acres that made up the cemetery.
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