Friends' Burial Ground, Orchard Street, New York City?

+6 votes
371 views

I've found reference (Oxford Dictionary National Biography) to the interment of noted Quaker minister Daniel Wheeler being at the Friends' Burial Ground, Orchard Street, New York City. I am unable to find any reference to this cemetery. The location, if correct, should not be hard to find in historical records since Orchard Street spans only 7 1/2 blocks on Manhattan's Lower East Side from Division Street to East Houston. Having walked that street many times, I never noticed any plaque mentioning such a cemetery once existed.

A mapping project of historic Manhattan Cemeteries (including those no longer existing) does not show this cemetery. It only shows a Moravian Cemetery (disinterred and moved to Staten Island) that was once entered from Orchard between Delancey and Rivington.


The only possible alternative I see is the Quaker Little Green Street Cemetery (bounded by Liberty and Little Green Street which is now Liberty Place). F-a-G has that here.

Any assistance in finding further information is appreciated.

Edit: if you are not familiar with the story of Daniel Wheeler, the short profile of the Quaker farmer of Tsar Alexander I is worth the two minute read.

WikiTree profile: Daniel Wheeler
in The Tree House by T Stanton G2G6 Pilot (649k points)
reshown by T Stanton
What an extraordinary life.  Very interesting.

2 Answers

+6 votes

I am still looking, but found this article reporting his demise in The Friend:

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Friend/lKWqmXWeW8sC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Friends%27+Burial+Ground,+%22Orchard+Street%22+New+York+City&pg=PA130&printsec=frontcover

Thought that you might find it interesting.

by Roger Stong G2G Astronaut (1.8m points)

P.S. Look at this link:

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_New_York_City_and_Co_partnership_Dir/71Q_AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Friends%27+Burial+Ground,+%22Orchard+Street%22+New+York+City&pg=PA414&printsec=frontcover

It talks about a Friend's Meeting House at No. 27 Orchard Street, and has a cryptic final column on Burial Grounds that says "Yard, Houston, Between Chrystie and Bowery."

P.S. Here is something similar about a burial yard on Houston Street between Chrystie and Bowery.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/History_of_the_Public_School_Society_of/f5Nybph5_WoC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Chrystie+and+Bowery+New+York+City+Friends&pg=PA172&printsec=frontcover

I suspect this is (was) his resting place. The mapping project shows this former cemetery on East Houston between Bowery and Christie and notes it was disinterred and moved to Westbury. The Presbyterians had a burial ground immediately east of this with the Dutch Reformed Church having one just east of the Presbyterians. And, the Baptists had one which is now literally under East Houston just north of the Presbyterians and Dutch.

I suspect Daniel Wheeler's service was held on Orchard street and this is how the burial location was misidentified. From your link above, it seems the four lower Manhattan Quaker meetings used this burial ground on Houston.

Friends Cemetery (Houston Street)
id 3,044
NAME Friends Cemetery (Houston Street)
TYPE Religious
SUB-TYPE Institution
RELIGION Quaker
METHOD Inhumation
ASSOC'N Cemetery
STATUS Obliterated
REINTERM'T Westbury Meeting Ground; Prospect Park Friends Cemetery
OPEN YR 1796
CLOSE YR 1848
OBLIT YR 1874
MAP REF Mapped to boundaries on 1851 Harrison/1854 Perris and adjusted to modern
OTHER Remains recovered by JMA in 2003 reinterred at Prospect Park Cem
SOURCES New York Times 1876; Cox 1930; Parsons 2000; Inskeep 2000; John Milner Associates [JMA] 2003

And here is a history of that cemetery that talks about it closing in 1846 and the remains being re-located:

https://nycemetery.wordpress.com/tag/lower-east-side/

Thanks for your help in finding this information. Since the Quakers of this period rarely marked graves, we will likely never know if Daniel Wheeler was reinterred at Westbury or Prospect Park. The last link regarding the Baptist Cemetery is so interesting stating the graves were 5-6 or more deep and over 5,000 interment in that tiny space.
+2 votes

I think your mistake was in assuming the burial ground was on Orchard Street. The narrative reads

His remains were conveyed to Friends Meeting-house, in Orchard Street, where a large and solemn meeting was held, in which testimony was borne to the sufficiency of that Divine Power, by which he was prepared for usefulness in the church, and made instrumental in promoting the cause of vital Christianity in the world.

After which the corpse was followed to the grave by many Friends and others, and interred in Friends burial-ground, the 15th of the Sixth month, 1840.

So, a careful reading of the text shows that while a meeting was held at the Orchard Street location, the body was buried elsewhere. I think Roger's speculation is likely correct. 

by Paul Schmehl G2G6 Pilot (165k points)
Actually, I was not reading the text you quote at the time the question was posed. The ODNB (1921) gives his place of burial as Orchard Street. The profile has since been updated though his final resting place after reinterment is uncertain.
So the ODNB didn't read it carefully enough. Yet another reason why one must access original documents to confirm what others say.

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