Old Town Burial Ground

A Little History.........

In the Autumn of 1643, two New England men, Rev. Robert Fordham and John Carman, with their families, came across Long Island Sound from the New Haven Colony, to Nassau Island, which was then territory under Dutch control, but which today is known as Long Island in the State of New York. These men were the advance agents of a new emigration representing families who had settled in Stamford, Connecticut, only five years earlier, but who were again seeking homes in a: land where they might enjoy greater political and religious liberty. That year they secured from the Sachems of the native tribes of Indians a quit-claim deed of a section of land on the south shore of Long Island, which is now part of the Town of Hempstead. Near the present village of Merrick they. made their homes and spent their first winter.

The next summer a considerable number of the Stamford families came across the Sound, and scattered themselves and located their farms throughout the territory which, in the Dutch archives received the name of "Heemstede." In the autumn of 1644 these settlers, recognizing the sovereignty of the Dutch, secured from Governor William Kieft of Manhattan, a grant of a larger and more clearly defined territory, extending from Long Island Sound to the Atlantic Ocean, and being about sixteen miles in length.

As the men of this new settlement had previously been associated together at Stamford, they now worked together in harmony, and speedily completed their new plans. Their farms were scattered over- the large township, because they were mostly raisers of cattle and sheep. But, in a central place a "Town spot, was located, where a "Fort" or palisade was constructed for protection against the Indians. Enclosed within the "Fort" was built a "meeting house," which thereafter was used on Sun days as a place of worship, and at other times, when needed, for Town Meetings and the public business. This Fort, occupying a space of about six acres, was in the center of the modern village of Hempstead, on the east side of Main Street, extending from Fulton to Front Streets.

On a corner north of and across Fulton Street, was located the Town's first Inn or Tavern, with an ample farm attached, which for two and a half centuries continued under the management of landlords of the names of Smith and Sammis. It was just east of this Tavern Farm that the early settlers set apart, out of the Common Lands of the Town, a Burial Ground which for many years was the common burial place of all the Hempstead families.

The first book of Town Records of Hempstead, which came to be known as the "mouse eaten book", contained much detail, and many interesting facts relating to the first fourteen years of the Town's history. This book has been lost. The latest occasion of its being used and. quoted from was about one hundred years ago, when a lawsuit between the North, and South sections of the divided Town of Hempstead was carried on appeal, up to the highest Court of the State, to settle the ownership of, and rights to, the Swamp lands on the South side. The evidence produced in this case showed that in 1647, three years after the Dutch charter was granted, there were sixty-seven families settled within the boundaries of the town. Within five years, the one hundred families required by the Dutch charter had been exceeded.

Although the record of the beginnings of the Fort, the Meeting House, the Tavern and the Burial- ground, are lost with disappearance of the "mouse eaten book," the earliest remaining book of records tells of them as accomplished facts. Under date of May 4, 1670, we find "It is ordered by the Constable and Overseers, that Simon Sering is to look to the burying place, and take the fines according as it is ordered for creatures they shall at any time find there, four pence a sheep, and twelve a hors and all other cattle, and six pence a swine." The method of protecting God's Acre seems later to have changed. The record of the Town Meeting held April 1, 1740, says: -"Att ye same Town Meeting was ordered that Jerimian Bedle, Richard Bedle: Elias Dorland and John Dorland was to take care and fence ye Burial Ground lott, and to be paid out of ye Towns money by ye Trustees for their service."

There were doubtless many interments in this ancient burying ground from the very beginning; but for a long time there seem to have been no inscribed stones or markers to identify the graves. The earliest stone found there twenty years ago, when the village authorities decided to convert the overcrowded and neglected space into a Public Park, and gave it the name of "Fulton Field," was a rough field stone bearing the roughly traced initials and date "R.S. I711." There were about two dozen similar rough and primitive markers. This lack of early memorial stones may be accounted for, doubtless, by the great difficulty and expense of obtaining cut stones. There are no quarries, or supplies of native stone upon Long Island. Of the markers brought from abroad, many have been destroyed. The action of the frost has wholly chipped off the face, of many a sandstone monument, and the lettering on many a weather-beaten stone is indistinct. When soldiers of the British army, during the Revolutionary War, were stationed at Hempstead, and occupied the adjoining Presbyterian Meeting House for a riding school, it is said that many stones were used by them for making ovens, and the bread baked therein was marked with the name and record of one of Hempstead's departed townsmen. While we now have the record of only a portion of the graves in this old yard, it seems probable that at least two thousand of the earlier men, women and children of this town were laid to rest there.

The title to this portion of the "common lands" ever remained in the Town of Hempstead, and it was for burial purposes only that plots were apportioned to the different families of the Town. When it was decided to convert this ground into a public park, a careful record was made from each gravestone, which is preserved in the office of the Village Clerk, together with a map on which is indicated by number the location of each grave. Each stone was then buried over the body of the person of whom it was a memorial, and paths and benches were 'arranged upon the graded and swarded acres.

Four times have there been made extensions to the old Town Burial Ground, through private enterprise. By a deed dated April 22, 1766, Nehemiah Sammis, the Inn-keeper and owner of the adjoining farm on the West, conveyed to the "Deacon's and Elders of the Presbyterian Church, a plot of: land fronting on the Northerly side of Fulton Avenue where the present Church. building is located their third structure on that site. At about the time when the Church was located there, Mr. Sammis commenced selling plots in the rear thereof for burial purposes. This would. indicate that the ground set apart by the Town had been fully apportioned.

Two more additions were made on the Westerly side, when in 1837, and again in 1844, the Trustees of the Presbyterian Church purchased from Henry Sammis, the son of Nehemiah, additional land extending to the present tracks and terminal of the Long Island Railroad. Ninety plots were laid out and sold for burial purposes.

The fourth and final extension was made on the Easterly side in the year 1847, when Benjamin Rushmore, owner of the adjoining land, prepared a map of one hundred and forty-four plots which were rapidly sold to Hempstead families. This was called "The New Cemetery of Benjamin Rushmore in the, Village of Hempstead." Still further East, fronting on Fulton Avenue, was the newly located Manse of the Presbyterian Church. In 1922, the grave-stones in the Rushmore section were also buried beneath the sod, by the Village authorities, forming an addition to Fulton Field.

There had been no interments in any of these grounds for many years. In later years, however, many bodies were removed from these unincorporated and neglected grounds to the more modern "Greenfield Cemetery" a mile or so South of Hempstead village.

Here follows the record of five hundred and forty-four inscriptions from stones in the old Town Burial Ground, as made by Thomas V. Smith, C. E., at the time the stones were buried in each grave. In some cases his record has been amplified by a comparison with copies of the inscriptions made at an earlier date. 

Source: The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record
Vol. LIV. NEW YORK, JULY, 1923. NO. 3