Earle Graveyard in Secaucus in New Jersey

Date: 1711 [unknown]
Location: Secaucus Island New Jersey
Surname/tag: Earle, Erle, Earl

The land originally called "Secaucus Island" in the Provence of New Jersey during colonial times is today known as the town of Secaucus NJ.

Contents 1 Earle Graveyard in Secaucus in New Jersey 1.1 1906 Visit 1.2 Able Smith Burial Ground 1.3 The Old Homestead

Earle Graveyard in Secaucus in New Jersey

Description and Location of the Earle Graveyard and Homesteads from first-hand observations recorded in the book History and genealogy of the Earles of Secaucus ^[1]

In the month of December, 1711, ‘'a fortnight before Christmas,” according to a statement made by his widow, the venerable founder of our Earle family passed into the unseen world, entrusting his soul into the hands of that Redeemer whom he confesses in his will. He was buried on the Island of Secaucus on the 15th of December, being eighty-four years old. His death is registered at the old Dutch Reformed Church of Bergen, now Jersey City Heights, but his body undoubtedly lies at Secaucus.

In 1875, a party of three gentlemen, descendants of Edward Earle through his grandson, Sylvester, paid a visit to Secaucus. They found a number of Earle graves there, in a sadly ruined and neglected condition. They also found the old homestead still standing and, in the garret, lying on top of the wall, was the tablet before referred to, with its inscription, “EDWARD EARLE, 1689.” A fragment of this stone is now in possession of the family of Abraham Lent Earle, one of the visiting party.

1906 Visit

In September, 1906, the writer visited Secaucus, and, with a little inquiry, found the old building, located about where shown on the accompanying map. It is now known as the “Post Homestead,” having been for many years in the possession of a family of that name. Its present owner is Mrs. William Hagan, a member of the Post family, who was born there, and who resides on the Island.

The old homestead is a very unpretentious building, but in its day was undoubtedly quite a mansion. We do not know what changes more than two hundred years have made. The exterior has been whitewashed, but the red stone crops out here and there. The writer’s emotions were indescribable when he realized that he was standing on the very spot consecrated by the presence of his ancestors more than two centuries before. Here lived and died Edward and Hannah Earle, and here were born the sires of our race, to whose childish shouts and laughter these old walls have rung, and no matter how humble this pile of stones, it is holy ground to us. It would be a fine and fitting thing if the family could purchase this old homestead and make it the Mecca of the tribe, the rallving-place of the clan in future family reunions.

“This homestead left the Earle family in 1792, by the deed of the following-named heirs:

John Earle and Elsie, his wife, Clausin (Clasen) Earle, widow of Edward Earle, and Mary Earle,—and was bought by John Smith, father of the late Abel S. Smith—the most prominent freeholder of the place in late years. Smith sold to Col. John Stevens (father of the late wealthy Stevens brothers of Hoboken) in 1795; and Stevens sold to Adrian Post in 1810.”

The above paragraph is quoted from Abraham C. Merritt, a lawyer of New York City and a descendant of Edward Earle, who wrote in 1876 the first sketch of our family history. Mr. Merritt was born at Secaucus, as was his mother, but left it when a year old, though he spent most of his life within a few miles of it. Mr. Merritt visited Secaucus several times and he writes with considerable feeling, I may say with hot indignation, of a piece of heartless vandalism which he found. “There are early Earle graves in wretched condition, and they should be looked to by the family. I will pay my share of the expense of putting them in good condition. They are on an old Earle homestead, now belonging to a Mr. Post, which is situated a short distance south of the house of Mr. Edgar Johnson, a well-known citizen. The headstones have been taken up and thrown into the cellar of this house, which has long been unoccupied. The location of the graves has been ploughed over, long ago, by the representatives of the Posts.

“My mother’s aunt—“Aunt Betsy Berry”—the wife of the late Judge Berry of Hackensack (who died in 1858, a very old man), had always said that this graveyard had been reserved in the deed. I took great pains to search the records—without a clue until I found the right one. I then found that it had not been reserved. It was probably like most occurrences connected with mortuary and sentimental matters.

Some of these Earles doubtless made such verbal agreement with old Adrian Post, intending to make a newer and better cemetery, and then died; while Adrian Post’s son probably said that he didn’t care, etc., etc., and ploughed over the ground. I recollect that I was very hot about the matter, and had it been reserved I would have paid my respects to the descendants of Adrian Post.

“This plot, or at least some fifty feet square of it, could be bought for a small sum, and a fitting monument erected. I think that this was the original Earle homestead, but I do not know.”

Mr. Merritt writes in language almost too strong for print, but we must all share his feelings of disgust and wrath, wrath against the Earles who sold the burying-ground of their ancestors, disgust with the brutish hoggishness of those who could desecrate the resting place of the dead, for the sake of a few feet of arable soil. No language is strong enough to characterize adequately such a dastardly deed. For Mr. Merritt did not learn the whole story.

I had it from a descendant of Adrian Post who was born in the homestead, that the headstones lay for years out behind the building, and were finally used as building stone in the foundation of a neighboring barn!

Think of it! The sacred memorials of our fathers, with their wealth of information which we can never recover, serving to save someone the expenditure of perhaps a couple of dollars for common building-stone!

The people who are capable of such a deed would seem to lack something that belongs to our common humanity.

Mr. Merritt thinks that this was the original Earle homestead, but is not absolutely certain. For ourselves there is not the shadow of a doubt. The location of the family burying-ground here settles the question.

Just in front of the building, a few rods distant, the forbears of our race for three generations are buried, from Edward Senior, in 1711, until the alienation of the property in 1810.

One tombstone still remains to mark the spot, standing close to a line fence, where the land could not be plowed. This circumstance was all that saved it from the fate of its fellows, but we are glad that this one was spared to identify the most holy place on earth to the members of the Secaucus branch of Earles, where the dust of our sires rests till the resurrection morn.

The inscription on this stone is:

"-othy Van Gezer, wife of Phillip Earle, who departed this life March 18th, 1799, aged 63 (or 68) years & 9 months"

Able Smith Burial Ground

Mr. Merritt speaks of other Earle graves on the homestead of the late Abel S. Smith. I visited this old burying-ground, which lies down the island, a mile or two to the south, and found it in a shameful state of neglect and dilapidation. The same process of desecration was going on, for the steam-shovels of the Pennsylvania Railroad were scooping off the soil to fill in the approaches to the Bergen tunnel, and had in spots encroached on the resting place of the dead. A number of tombstones had been thrown down and cast to one side, that modern progress might have the few cubic feet of earth that covered those that lay beneath. I copied all inscriptions that I found on Earle graves. But this is not the original cemetery of the Earles. The one described above is.

The Old Homestead

Another thing that helps to identify the old homestead is the engraved stone to which reference has been made. In 1907 the writer conducted a party of Earle descendants to Secaucus. We found the old stone on top of the wall at the head of the stairs. It was built into the wall and formed a part of it. The engraved surface was uppermost and could be seen only from above. The rest of the stone was rough and unfinished, and lay in its bed of mortar, from which it had been loosened by previous visitors. We lifted it from its place and took it down stairs, in order to make photographs of it.

On a former visit I had made a rubbing of it. Besides the inscription, “EDWARD EARLE, 1689,” there is a bird, presumably a dove, on the left of which is what appears to have been the Roman letter I (marred by the breaking off of the fragment), and on the right the letter C.

There has been much speculation as to what the stone was intended for and the meaning of the device. Several theories, some quite fanciful, have been advanced. At first it was thought to have been an old gravestone, used in building the wall. But it does not have the appearance of a gravestone, and we know of no Edward Earle who died in 1689. But we do know that Edward Earle, Jr., was married in 1688, and nothing is more likely than that this building was erected to accommodate the new family. The simplest explanation of the stone is, that it was a hall-mark. But what is the significance of the device? It was probably a religious symbol. The letters I C are initials of Jesus Christ, both in Latin and Greek, and a dove is the common emblem of the Holy Spirit.

A great deal of interest has gathered about this stone, as well as much mystery. It was felt that it ought to be held by the family, as the only memento of Edward Earle that has come down to us. Mr. Warner Van Norden, head of the Van Xorden Trust Co., of New York City, an Earle descendant, proposed to buy it and place it in his bank building, on Fifth Avenue, where it might be visited by members of the family. He authorized the writer to negotiate with the owner for its purchase. This was done and arrangements were made for its transfer to New York. For some reason, unknown to those who made the arrangements, this was never done. But in Mr. Justus Edward Earle, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, secured the stone and has had it built into the wall of his home. This is a much more suitable resting-place for it, though we had hoped to see it built into some monument to Edward Earle at Secaucus.

This stone, together with the burying-place, is sufficient evidence that this old building was the home of Edward Earle, and we cannot help but reiterate the wish that some of the descendants of Edward Earle, blessed with ample means, might purchase the old homestead, with the thirteen acres that belong to it, and erect some suitable memorial to these heads of our tribe and pioneers of the New World. So far as we know, not a spot, not even a street or alley in all that region, bears the name of the original owner of this fine estate, with vast tracts besides.

A little distance to the north of the homestead, about the location shown on the map, the writer found another old stone house, one of three which are the oldest on the island. On the postcards, to be purchased at the post-office, it is marked “THE OLDEST HOUSE in SECAUCUS, N. J.” But the old homestead is marked in the same way. It had a much newer appearance than the other homestead, but this may have been due to the fact that it had been kept in better repair.

It was probably the older house, for we reason that here Edward and Hannah lived with their only child from 1676 till the marriage of Edward Junior in 1688, when the homestead was built for the old folks, and the young people were left in possession of the original home. In our own mind it was settled that this was the home of Edward Junior and his wife Elsie. It was here that our forbears were born, and here they played as boys and girls. In the Hackensack and Crom-a-Kill they fished and swam, and in the woods that covered much of the Island they hunted and trapped. It is impossible to express the interest with which we looked upon this old building, dating probably from the middle of the seventeenth century, which must have been the birthplace of the entire third generation of Earles.

Our interest was intensified by the knowledge that we should never see it again, and that we were probably the last member of the family to behold it. For we were informed that it was to be demolished in a very few days to make way for some improvements. But while future visitors will not have the privilege of seeing this cradle of our family, the home of Edward Earle, Sr., will probably remain for generations, as it has a sacredness to its present owner, as well as to the Earles. It is easily reached by electric cars from Jersey City or Patterson. Get out at the village of Secaucus and inquire for the old Post homestead.

The Island of Secaucus at the present time is largely a place of residence for those doing business in neighboring towns. When the writer first visited it, in 1906, it formed a lovely picture. In striking contrast with the salt marshes which cover that section of New Jersey, it presented a beautiful bit of upland, with clusters of houses, villages, bits of woodland, gardens, orchards and here and there a farm, all framed by the streams which constitute it an island. He could not help but wish that it were still the home of the Earles.

On a subsequent visit, however, he found sad changes. The Island had been stripped of its forests and the steam-shovels were at work removing the soil to fill in the salt marshes that separate it from the Bergen hills. The Island was being gouged and gashed and scarred to satisfy the Juggernaut of business.