Category: Historic Churches and Cemeteries

Hanover Heritage Association/Whippany Burying Yard 325 Route 10 East Whippany, NJ 07054

Hanover Heritage Association/Whippany Burying Yard

325 Route 10 East

Whippany, NJ 07054

https://www.hanovertownship.com/1396/Whippany-Burying-Yard

https://whippany.net/whippany-burying-yard

(973) 539-5355

Open: Check the website/Cemetery Hours

Admission: Check the website

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46925-d23534409-Reviews-The_Whippany_Burying_Yard-Whippany_Morris_County_New_Jersey.html

The burial ground from a distance

On my last stop of touring Historic Morris County for the “Pathways for History ” event, I visited the Whippany Burial Yard at 325 Route 10 in Whippany.

The entrance to the burial grounds

The old cemetery is steeped in history as one of the oldest cemeteries in New Jersey and home to many Revolutionary and Civil War veterans. As we learned on the tour later on, the only people that can be buried there now are former Mayors of the Town of Whippany who have died.

The sign of the historical burials

The historical marker

The town historical plaque

Two of the founding families of the town have many family members buried here, the Tuttle’s who still have relatives living in the area and the Kitchel’s. The guide for the afternoon took us on an hour tour of the cemetery, pointing out prominent members of the war years including Timothy Tuttle (died 1754), a founding judge of Morris County, Keturah Tuttle Platt (died 1850), who was a Charter member of the First Presbyterian Church, Captain Timothy Tuttle (II of III-died in 1816), who was a member of George Washington’s First Regiment in the Continental Army, Samuel Tuttle (died in 1762) and Colonel Joseph Tuttle, a blacksmith and Deacon at the Presbyterian Church who served in the French & Indian War.

Joseph Tuttle’s gravesite

Joseph Tuttle’s grave

The historic marker

Joseph Tuttle Jr.’s gravesite

The Tuttle family plot from before and after the Revolutionary War

The Tuttle family plot after the Revolutionary War

The Kitchel family was prominently represented as well with Abraham Kitchel (died in 1741), who was one of the six original judges of Morris County and his wife Sarah, whose family was claimed to date back to Charlemagne, Emperor of France, Abigal Kitchel (died in 1768), Uzal Kitchel (died in 1813), a Militiaman in the American Revolution and his wife, Anna (died in 1815). Many of these people as well as their ancestors made major contributions to the growth of the surrounding community.

The graves by the old entrance

We were also given a lesson in the construction and care of the old tombstones, some of which were beyond repair. Some of the original grave sites were made from sandstone, marble and granite with granite becoming the popular choice later on. Here and there some of the tombstones were decorated with winged skulls or cherubs. These show morality images of the dead (Whippany Burial Yard pamphlet).

The Post family plot

We were also walking by the river that the graveyard sits on and were told that current erosion is affecting some of the grave sites. These might have to be moved in the future and the tour guide was not sure if any have been lost over the years. The old Presbyterian Church that sat on the site (built in 1718 and removed in 1755) has since disappeared and there is no trace of it now.

The Whippany Burial Yard has many different types of tombstones. This part of the cemetery faces the old Tuttle homestead

At the end of the tour, the guide explained to us that the old Tuttle House, dating back from the late 18th Century was just left to the town by its last owner to be preserved as a museum for the community. The Tuttle house will need a lot of work in the future.

The back of the cemetery facing the Tuttle Homestead

I ended my tour of the cemetery here as the graveyard was closing for the evening but planned on coming back in the future. There are more interesting things to see amongst the tombstones.

The Tuttle Homestead on Route 10 will be a museum in the future

The Tuttle House historical marker

History of the Whippany Burying Yard:

(From the Township of Whippany website/The Township of Hanover Landmark Commission):

The Brokaw Family tablet for care to this cemetery

The Whippany Burying Yard is the oldest graveyard in North Central New Jersey. It contains the oldest dated colonial artifacts in Morris County. It was established in 1718 before the United States was conceived before New Jersey was a state and before Morris County was founded. Two of Morris County’s first governing judges and many Revolutionary War soldiers are buried here.

The Tuttle family homestead

The three and a half acres of land was donated by John Richards for a “meeting house, schoolhouse, burying ground, training field and for public use. Mr. Richards was the first one buried here when he died in 1718. His grave is the oldest in Morris County, NJ.

The Mary Sheldron historical burial site

For the next 200 years, the burying yard was maintained by the members of the Presbyterian Church with which it was closely associated. In 1914, the Presbyterian Church elected trustees for a group that would be known as The Whippany Cemetery Association. They maintained the yard for the next sixty-one years.

The burial ground marker in the cemetery

The graveyard is legally, publicly owned but no particular entity or institution in named in the deed. The grantee is interpreted to be the “Christian friends and neighbors in Whippanong”. It was formally maintained and administered by the Whippany Cemetery Association until its maintenance and administration was transferred to the Township of Hanover in 1976 as an historical site. The Township gave the responsibility for the Burying Yard to its Landmark Commission, where it remains.

The back part of the Whippany Cemetery

The Burying Yard holds about 450 graves that include 11 veterans of the American Revolution, nine Civil War veterans. In 2011, the Burying Yard was listed on both the State and the National Register of Historic Places. When visiting the Yard, you can see that the gravestones are made out of three different materials: sandstone, marble and granite. Visitors can see a 300-year time span of various commemorative styles. The Burying Yard is also home to two prominent families in the area: The Tuttle’s and the Kitchel’s.

The family plots at the Whippany Cemetery

Some of the prominent members buried here are John Richards who was the schoolmaster who donated this land for public use, Abraham Kitchel who was an early settler from Newark, NJ and one of the six original judges of Morris County. Joseph Tuttle Sr., who was a blacksmith, had served as a Colonel of Morris County militia in the French and Indian War and Timothy Tuttle who was a Sergeant of the First Company under Captain Joseph Morris in Lord Sterling’s First Battalion of New Jersey’s First Regiment in Washington’s Continental Army.

The Tuttle House at 341 Route 10:

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=91152

The Tuttle House will be the future museum for Whippany, NJ

This 1796 National Register site is the house of Samuel Tuttle, the grandson of Joseph Tuttle, a Colonel in the Morris Militia. The Tuttle’s were among the first to setting in Hanover and they played an important role in its development.

The historic marker for the Tuttle Homestead

Union Schoolhouse & Union Church and Burial Ground/Washington Township Historical Society 6 Fairview Avenue Long Valley, NJ 07853

Union Schoolhouse & Union Church and Burial Ground/

Washington Township Historical Society

6 Fairview Avenue

Long Valley, NJ 07853

(908) 876-9696

https://www.wthsnj.org/

https://br-fr.facebook.com/wthsnj

http://www.pathwaysofhistorynj.net/19.html

Open: Sunday 2:00pm-4:00pm/Monday-Saturday Closed

Admission: please call site

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46583-d24075223-Reviews-Union_Schoolhouse_Union_Church_And_Burial_Ground-Long_Valley_Morris_County_New_Je.html

A Video on the Washington Township Historical Society

I came to the Washington Township Historical Site as part of Morris County’s “Pathways of History” tour and visited the Union Schoolhouse Museum and then the Union Church and Burial Ground that is located right next door on the same property. This sleepy little town was once a bustling manufacturing site with the sawmill and Ghrist around the corner and the Welsh Farms Ice Cream factory up the street from the site.

The Union Schoolhouse Museum at 6 Fairview Avenue

The museum, which was once the town’s schoolhouse, is an engaging site that showcases how the town developed over the last two hundred years. On the bottom floor, the society has Native American artifacts, period furniture and clothing and in the back of the museum is a full display of the original Welsh Farms Ice Cream factory. The Welsh’s were a very prominent family from the area.

The Welsh Farms Ice Cream Factory display

Some of the old bottles and equipment from the factory

The second floor of the museum has a display of town memorabilia from different businesses, farming equipment from the area’s agricultural past and pictures of businesspeople and prominent citizens of the town. It shows how the commercial past of the community kept evolving.

Display of the town memorabilia

To the side of the second floor is a display of a period schoolroom from the time that the building served as a school of the local population. You can see that not much has changed over the years.

School rooms of the past are not too different from today

The one thing that creeped me out was a picture of a local businessman from the 1800’s who looked exactly like the actor, Blake Ritson, who plays “Oscar Van Rijin” in the TV show “The Gilded Age”. These men are almost 100 years apart and he looks like the actor from that exact time period.

The picture is of local businessman Ernest Paul Hunger

This picture is of actor Blake Ritson who plays “Oscar Van Rijin” in “The Gilded Age”

I had to take this picture because everyone says you have a twin from the past and I can tell that these two men look exactly alike in the same clothing. What is really interesting is that they are the same age at the same time period. Like that picture of the gentleman from the 1880’s that looks exactly like actor Nicolas Cage, I think there is some weird time travel here. It is almost like the film “Time after Time”.

After touring the whole museum, I went next door to visit the church and the cemetery for a tour. When I exited the museum, I had not really noticed the beauty of the gardens that surrounded the museum. The local garden club had done a great job in landscaping and planting the walled garden around the museum. In the early Spring, it was a colorful display of flowers.

The walled garden was so colorful in the early spring

The cemetery walk was intriguing in that you got to walk through the ruins of the old church and get to see how it was once constructed. It gave me insight of how big these churches were at one time and building construction was in early colonial New Jersey.

The ruins of the old Union Church

The Union Church surrounded by the cemetery

When we visited each family’s plot, there was a discussion about what contributions that everyone made to the town and their place in society. What was interesting was that the volunteers were cleaning the tombstones with tombstone cleaner, and I had wondered when we were taking the tour why they looked so new. There is a lot of care of the people of this cemetery.

The Welsh Farm Family plot at the Union Church was just cleaned

The whole site is an interesting look into the community’s past by a group of volunteers who give it their all to make the site interesting, historical, visually engaging to the visitor and offer a surprise or two into history that you may not know of New Jersey. One the warm, sunny day that we visited the site, it made it even nicer to walk around and have the time to soak it all in.

When you visit the Union Schoolhouse and Union Church and Burial Ground take the time out to take the formal tour of the site. It is very informative to a past that is not so different from today. It offers a lot of insight of people’s lives of this community.

The history of the Union Church and Cemetery Site:

(From the Washington Township Historical Society pamphlet)

Mission: To bring together people interested in the history of Washington Township, Morris County, NJ and promote a better appreciation of our American heritage.

The history of the site:

European settlement had begun in Long Valley by 1730. The early settlers, primarily from Germany and Holland, came fleeing religious persecution, an oppressive tax burden and hoping for a better life in America.

In 1749, a joint log meeting house had been built near the site of the Stone Church by the Zion Lutherans and Dutch Reformed Congregations. During these early times the congregations were served either by preachers from these churches or by laymen. One of the ministers of the time was Henry M. Muhlenberg, who has been called the Father of the Lutheran Church in America. His son, John Peter also ministered to the Raritan Valley before 1772. In 1776, John left his church in Virginia to raise and lead a regiment in the American Revolution, serving with distinction and retiring as a brevet major general.

On February 4th, 1774, the Dutch Reformed and German Lutheran congregations drew up articles and agreements that provided for the building of a joint meetinghouse. “Whereas we the members of the Evangelical Reformed Congregation and we, the members of the Evangelical Lutheran Congregation are willing to build a meeting house jointly, “Acted the 4th day of February 1774, which is testified to by: Henry Muhlenberg Jr., deputy director of Zion’s Welsch; Diedric Strubel; Conrad Rorick; Casper Eick; Anthon Waldorf; Adam Lorenz; Philip Weis; Christopher Karn; Leonard Neighbour; Roulof Roulofsen; John Schwackhammer; Andrew Flock.”

Let the Building Begin:

According to local tradition, the stone used to construct the building of the meetinghouse, the people of the two congregations turned out in a body to cart the stone. It had been a previous agreement, that whoever on the day appointed, should bring the first load, should receive the honor of having his horse decorated with flags and ribbons. The story goes that Judge David Welsch, then 17, secretly loaded his wagon and hid it that night. The next day, wagons came like thunder from all parts of the valley. Although David Welsch was confident of winning, he was almost beaten. Before he could unload his wagon, all of German Valley was on the ground.”

A Stately and well built structure:

A description of the Stone Church was given during a sermon by Reverend Alfred Hiller in July 1876. He said, “it was a heavy gallery on the one side and across each end; the entrance on one side (south), under the gallery and on the opposite side (north) was the pulpit, one of the Jack in the Pulpit style, with sounding board suspended above. There is no chimney on the church, in the center of the church, a space about eight feet square was made with a dirt floor and on the square a great mass of charcoal was burned, the congregation getting for their share at least the smell of the fire.”

The Old Stone Church today

Historic photographs indicate the building had a clipped-gable or jerkin-head roof with roof ridge parallel to the longer north and south walls. The two-story church, three bays wide and two bays deep, featured a wide and two bays deep, featured a wide central entry surmounted by a segmental arch, as were the windows. The walls were of coursed rubble stone construction, pointed with a white lime-rich mortar, except on the south or front elevation which was stuccoed and “penciled” with white pointing to replicate regular ashlar stone. However, this may have been a later 19th century embellishment.

Decline:

In 1832, both congregations decided to separate houses of worship. Since that time the Old Stone Church has stood abandoned and surrounded by the graves of the early congregants. Despite efforts at stabilization between the 1960’s and the 1980’s, the deterioration continued until recent efforts spearheaded by the members of the Washington Township Historical Society with permission of The Zion Lutheran and Long Valley Presbyterian Churches have improved this.

The Old Stone Church with the cemetery surrounding it

Day Two Hundred and Four: Halloween Returns Part I: The Gotham City Ghost Tour/Michigan vs Michigan State Game October 30th, 2021 — mywalkinmanhattan.com

I had a busy Halloween weekend with the Michigan State versus Michigan game and a Gotham City Ghost tour in the afternoon. Halloween searching for ghosts.
Day Two Hundred and Four: Halloween Returns Part I: The Gotham City Ghost Tour/Michigan vs Michigan State Game October 30th, 2021 — mywalkinmanhattan

Please print this guide to haunted sites of Lower Manhattan and have a nice afternoon walking around. It is a nice tour!

Hope Historical Society 323 High Street Hope, NJ 07844

Hope Historical Society

323 High Street

Hope, NJ 07844

No Phone Number-Please email via their website.

https://www.hopenjhistory.com/

Open: Sundays 1:00pm-3:00pm from June to October: Please check website for times

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g46518-d23805634-r822429868-Hope_Historical_Society-Hope_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

Hope Historical Society at 323 High Street in Hope, NJ

Trout Alley right next to the museum during the tour in 2024

On Friday the 13th in 2023, the Hope Historical Society had been open for the afternoon for a tour and I was able to visit the inside of the museum for a short visit. The museum is tiny inside being an old home and it takes less than an hour to visit the museum.

The museum’s collection is vast for such a small museum. They have history of this section of New Jersey with maps and old pictures, they have displays on rural New Jersey and the history of the area. The town of Hope, NJ was founded as a Moravian community and their are artifacts from that time.

They also have decorative objects from a rural home’s parlor with furniture and decorative items from a rural farm home. There is all sorts of Victorian furniture, paintings and prints and things from homes of the area.

the hominess of the museum with its fireplace.

The decorative furniture and objects of the museum.

Furniture and decorative objects of the local community.

Decorative objects in the cases.

In December 2021, I went on a Lantern Tour of Hope, NJ’s downtown district for the Christmas holiday season visiting this once Moravian founded town. The evening was an interesting tour of the history of this small town near the Delaware Water Gap with visits to historical homes of the residents of the town and the manufacturing hub.

We toured the historic downtown district that was ablaze with lights and garland learning about the residential and commercial district and the role it played in the development of the town. We toured the former Grist Mill, Cannery, Distillery, homes and former barns and churches and given a short history of them.

The New Jersey history display of the Hope Historical Society.

We toured the Historical Society which had a collection of artifacts from the town including pictures of the town at various times of history, resident’s personal affects including gloves, shoes and glasses and family heirlooms. There is also a small assortment of vintage furniture from different periods. The building may have been small but it was packed with information.

The Hope Historical Society at 323 High Street at Christmas time

The displays included old photographs and local memorabilia, an 1850 map of Warren County, NJ, genealogy of the town’s residents and historic documents, primitive furniture and Moravian history (Hope Historical Society). Two of the major fundraisers that the Society has is the Christmas Craft Market and the Lantern Tour.

The inside of the museum for the holidays in both 2021 and 2024 was decorated for the Christmas holidays with traditional Moravian decorations. The decorations included dried herbs, homemade decorations and a ‘Tower Tree’ which is made from a framework with pine branches and fruit and herb decorations that would reflex the times.

Moravian Decorations 2024 Christmas decorations

Moravian Decorations 2024 inside the museum

Moravian Decorations 2024 The Traditional Moravian Tower Christmas tree

Moravian Decorations 2024 The Nativity Scene

The Hope Lantern Tour on December 11th and 12th, 2021 (Again in 2024)

This is the ‘Hope Lantern Tour’ on December 11th, 2021 and 2024:

We continued the tour as the night grew darker and the town lit up with all its Christmas glory. There were supposed to be 1500 luminaries but because of the upcoming rainstorm that was supposed to arrive later that evening, they canceled them. The rest of the town was adorned with white lights and garlands. We started the tour at the Hope Community Center where food and bathrooms were available.

The Hope Community Center on Hope Blairstown Road during Christmas tour 2024

One of our tour guides, Anne, who was wearing traditional Moravian clothing

We moved to what was once the manufacturing center of the town and passed the former factories and manufacturing took place. We then walked down the hill to the Inn at Millstone Creek, where the Christmas tree display was located. We then moved up the hill to visit the Hope Historical Society.

Downtown luminaries light up Downtown Hope, NJ

This is “Trout Pass” where people avoided paying the tolls on the bridge during the day

While we were walking through “Trout Pass” during the tour. a group of school children performed Christmas songs by a large fire. I felt for these kids as it was getting colder outside.

The kids singing by the fire just below the Hope Historical Society

Video of the performance:

IMG_3730 Download

Video of the performance:

IMG_3731 Download

We then walked to the home across the street from most of the buildings where the businesses were located and heard the tales of Moravian Christmases past. All that talk about Gingerbread house making and baking to get ready for the holiday feast made us all hungry.

Starting the walking tour in Downtown Hope, NJ

We started at the old Dairy Creamery

Starting the walk around Moravian Hope, NJ

First we visited the Nativity scene display at the old Creamery. This is what the Moravians did when they visited each other during the holidays to see each of their displays in the homes.

The Nativity Show

The Nativity Show

The video of the show:

IMG_3723 Download

We made our way to former homes that are now a local bank were light with white lights along the doors and windows. The First Hope Bank was once known as the ‘Gemeinhaus’, which was the church/community center of the Village of Hope. It was built in 1781.

The walking tour showcased the town beautifully

The First Hope Bank at dusk

The luminaries by the Hope Bank in the middle of Downtown Hope, NJ

Our last part of the tour, we visited someone’s garage for a ‘Live Nativity’ of the Baby Jesus and was told the story from the Bible about the birth of Christ. The actors involved were very interesting but they could have cleaned the garage of the modern items located on the side of it.

The live Nativity (the actors looked like they were freezing outside in the 30 degree weather)

Homes decorated for the December 2024 tour

Downtown Hope, NJ is so beautiful at Christmas

We ended up back at the Community Center as they were cleaning up and I went to visit the ‘Festival of Trees’ at the Inn at Millrace Pond that itself was closed for renovation. I was the last one on the tour to visit what was the dining room to see various Christmas trees decorated by members of the community.

The Festival of Trees

The Festival of Trees

The Festival of Trees

It was a very festive room with Christmas of various shapes and sizes each decorated with a different theme and tables set elaborately for Christmas Dinner. I really liked the one that the elementary school students had created with the handwritten artwork and letters to Santa.

The Christmas tree decorated by students in 2024

In 2024, the ‘Festival of Trees’ was in the Community Center where we started the tour and it seemed that the volunteers liked it better there.

The “Festival of Trees” in the Community Center at the start of the tour in 2024

After I left the Inn at Millrace Pond, everything had wrapped up for the evening and the town was really quiet. I was starved and found the only open restaurant in the area, Hope Pizzeria at 435 Hope Blairstown Road located in a small strip mall. The pizza here is excellent (see my review on TripAdvisor).

435 Hope Blairstown Road

https://www.hopepizzeria.com/

https://www.facebook.com/hopepizzeria/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g46518-d19270906-r821734185-Hope_Pizzeria_Catering-Hope_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

The pizza here is delicious

For the tour in 2024, I ate dinner at the Community Center where the Hope Fire Department prepared the food for the fundraiser. You had a choice of a Meatball sandwich, Eggplant Parmesan, Mac & Cheese or Penne Vodka. I chose the Mac & Cheese with a Apple Cider Donut for dessert. The perfect comfort food on a cold night.

The Mac & Cheese dinner at the Community Center warmed me up after a cold night walking

The last part of the evening was spent at the Moravian Candlelight Service at the St. John’s Methodist Church. This beautifully run service included all the traditional Christmas Carols, a very engaging talk by the former pastor and a candlelight ceremony towards the end service. You can see the whole service on the St. John’s Methodist Church’s Facebook page.

The church during Christmas 2024

The Cemetery decorated for the holidays in December 2024

https://www.umc.org/en/find-a-church/church/11006

https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Methodist-Church/St-Johns-United-Methodist-Church-1406394686297265/

(You can see the church service on their Facebook page)

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g46518-d20377992-r821735002-St_John_United_Methodist_Church-Hope_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

It was a wonderful evening of music, songs and prayer and the church was crowded with both locals and visitors. In 2024, it was funny that I have gotten to know the merchants and the people at the Hope Historical Society so everyone was greeting me at the church or we talked after services were over. What I loved about the Moravians is that you do not have to stand up during services like the Catholics do and I prefer this. It was nice to just sit and enjoy the services.

In 2021, this service took about an hour. By the time I got to my car, it started to mist and then rain. It was pouring by the time I got on the highway. Still, it was a wonderful evening of touring and it put me in the Christmas spirit. In 2024, it was just freezing outside, so I had to make a dash to the car and let it warm up. There was no traffic leaving Hope that evening as most people went home after the tour and there was no traffic on Route 80 so I got home in forty-five minutes. Enough time to relax and fall asleep on the guest room bed. It really was a beautiful night and the town could not have been prettier.

St. John’s Church in Downtown Hope, NJ for the Christmas services

The Christmas tree decorated in the church

The Candlelight Service was very nice and was the perfect way to start the holiday season

After the Candlelight church services, I joined the other parishioners for cookies and hot drinks in the community room of the church. They had a nice crowd that night but everyone looked so cold and the temperature dropped to 25 degrees in 2024. People did not linger that long and I felt bad for the church who had trays and trays of cookies. Still it was a wonderful night of touring around the town.

The History of the Hope Historical Society:

(From the Hope Historical Society website)

The Hope Historical Society & Museum are located at 323 High Street (Route 519 North) at the top of a stone bridge within the State and National Historic Register District in Hope Township, NJ. The tiny frame building was thought to be the original 1820’s toll keeper’s house. It was used as a private home until 1955, when it was restored by the Hope Historical Society and became the current museum and organizations headquarters.

Historical Society meetings with guest speakers of topics of historical interest are held April-November on the first Tuesday of the month, generally, at the Hope Community Center.

Site from Friday the 13th on January 13th, 2023:

The Moravian Cemetery in the film.

The Moravian Hope Cemetery

Where Annie got dropped off in the film

The Moravian Church cemetery

The John Blair grave that the Moravian Cemetery.

The Cemetery dirt being sold by the church on “Friday the 13th”

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