Category: Old Burying Ground, Huntington, New York
Categories: Suffolk County, New York, Cemeteries | Huntington, New York
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Profiles are placed in this category with this text [[Category:Old Burying Ground, Huntington, New York]] .
The Old Burying Ground in Huntington is four acres in size. It is a historic landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also locally designated a landmark. It is not known when the first burial took place here, but the first recorded death in Huntington was of Jeffrey Este, who died 4 January 1657. The last burial was of Russell F. Sammis, who died 2 May 1957. The first markers were made of wood and are no longer to be found. For about 200 years the markers were made from locally sourced fieldstone, many carved by local masons. Later, marble, iron, zinc, and granite were used to mark the graves.
In 1782, the British troops that had been occupying Huntington since 1776 ordered the construction of a fort on top of the burying ground. It was called Fort Golgotha and was built on top of actual graves, destroying at least 100 tombstones. Local residents were enraged. They also used tombstones to build fireplaces and bread ovens. It is said that epitaphs were imprinted on the bottom crust of bread loaves. The fort was occupied until June 1783 and removed in 1784.
Once the burying ground ceased to be the main burial place for the Town of Huntington, it fell into disrepair due to neglect. There were clean-up efforts in 1911 by local chapters of the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution of Huntington. During and after the 1950s vandalism increased and the condition of the cemetery further deteriorated. In 2004, a multi-year restoration project began with matching funds from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the Town of Huntington.
The Old Burying Ground is racially integrated and includes a number of Native Americans and about four hundred African-Americans interspersed among the graves of European Americans. The first recorded African-American buried here was first enslaved in Africa, brought to Barbados and then to Huntington in 1657. He died about 1690 and was buried here. About one hundred slaves shared a similar experience as well as over two hundred of their American born children. About one hundred of their descendants were either set free before 1799 or were born free and are buried here too.
Elijah, who died in 1810, was a third generation African-American. His grandparents were transported from Ghana to Barbados and became bondservants of the Scudder family in Huntington. His mother was Native American. Elijah was the butler at Platt's Tavern and became a Revolutionary War celebrity and a notable musician. He is buried among the Platt family.
At least six free African-Americans are buried in the far southeast corner. One of them is David Hammond who died in 1838. He was a descendant of Jupiter Hammon, the first African-American published poet. Daniel's grandfather, Benjamin, was freed by the Lloyd family in 1793, and purchased land in Huntington in 1799.
Nelson Smith buried his first wife and daughter here in the 1840s. He owned property in the village, worked as a cabinetmaker and was one of the seven founders of the Bethel AME Church. He went on to remarry and have several more children, but lived to age 90 and was the last African-American buried here in 1888.
- From the plaque posted at the cemetery.
Person Profiles (10)
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