Orchard Street Cemetery

44 Chestnut Street

Dover, NJ 07801

https://www.orchardstreetgatehouse.org/history

https://www.facebook.com/p/Orchard-Street-Cemetery-100057217459315/

Open: Sunday-Saturday Seasonal Check the website for the hours

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g46397-d28113226-r964248261-Orchard_Street_Cemetery-Dover_Morris_County_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

The entrance of the Orchard Street Cemetery and Gatehouse

The Orchard Street Cemetery in Dover, Morris County,  NJ was originally founded in 1851 when a group of men determined that a cemetery was needed in the Village of Dover, then part of Randolph Township.  One member of the group, William Young, the first baker in Dover who had his store on Dickerson Street traded his “garden plot” at the end of Orchard Street to this new endeavor in return for several building lots on Orchard Street.  The plot transferred from William Young to the Association was approximately one acre in size (Orchard Street Gatehouse Historical Society website).

The Gatehouse

The first thing you notice when you enter the cemetery is the Gatehouse. It needs a lot of work. Also it was not manned. Funny, the building looks like it belongs in a cemetery.

The historic plaque for the cemetery

The historic sign for the cemetery

The Cemetery is the final resting place of more than 3500 men, women, and children from the greater Dover area, primarily Dover, Randolph, Wharton, and Rockaway.  There are over 125 veterans from the War of 1812, the Civil War, The Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and Vietnam as well as well as peacetime veterans.  There are many of the founders of Dover, Wharton, and Rockaway, civic and industrial leaders, and ordinary citizens of the area.  Unfortunately, many burial records have been lost through the passage of time, fire, etc. so a full accounting of the burials will most likely never be realized as many people were buried without a stone memorial through choice or economic reasons (Orchard Street Gatehouse Historical Society website).

The entrance to the cemetery by the gate

When I visited the Orchard Street Cemetery, I noticed that most of the cemetery was designed into family plots, most gated or sectioned off. In each plot, you can see the generations of family members. There is a distinct change on the tombstones of family member marking the graves. Either is was prosperity of the family or just a sign of the times when people died where you see the changes in the tombstones and what they look like.

At least the families are housed together. Each of the family plots are marked by a gate or just a series of tombstones. Each of these family plots deserve respect and please remember this as you walk around the cemetery to pay your respects. There is a very positive feel to this cemetery.

I noticed the cemetery was broken into family plots separated by fencing

The Munson family plot

The Munson family plot

The Moller family plot

The Moller family plot

The Ford family plot

Deer watching me at the cemetery

The Hoagman Family plot

The Dickerson family plot

I had just come from the Bridget Smith House in Mine Hill and discovered that the Dickerson’s were once a prominent mining family who owned a large mansion just outside of Mine Hill.

The grave of Mahlon Dickerson

I found out from a member of the Cemetery Society that this is not the grave of the former Governor of New Jersey but a distant relative.

The Orchard Street Cemetery from the back of the cemetery

The Gatehouse at the front of the cemetery

The cemetery is an interesting look of how burying our dead has changed over the last 100 years.

The History of the Cemetery:

(this comes from the OrchardStreetCemeteryGatehouse.org website)

The Orchard Street Cemetery

The Orchard Street Cemetery in Dover, Morris County,  NJ was originally founded in 1851 when a group of men determined that a cemetery was needed in the Village of Dover, then part of Randolph Township.  One member of the group, William Young, the first baker in Dover who had his store on Dickerson Street traded his “garden plot” at the end of Orchard Street to this new endeavor in return for several building lots on Orchard Street.  The plot transferred from William Young to the Association was approximately one acre in size.

The inside of the cemetery

On September 11, 1854 following the passage of the “Rural Cemetery Act of 1854 by the New Jersey Legislature, the Dover Cemetery Association was founded during a meeting in the Village of Dover held at School House District No. 1.  The location of this school was to the east of Morris Street and to the south of the railroad tracks.  This puts it on the opposite side of the railroad tracks from the old Stone Academy.  The papers of incorporation were dated September 14, 1859 and duly registered with the County of Morris.

The inside of the cemetery

A deed dated February 22, 1855 was signed by Jabez Mills and his wife Hannah selling approximately 4.5 acres of their property to the Trustees of the Dover Cemetery Association.  This deed was received and recorded on February 27, 1855 by the County of Morris.  The acquisition of this property brought the cemetery to its final boundaries and size of 5.4 acres.  It is believed based on gravestones in the cemetery that the entire property was being used as a cemetery prior to the date of the recording of the deed.  Further, some sections of the cemetery property may have been used prior to 1851 due to gravestones that predate the founding of the cemetery.  It is also known that there was an earlier Dover cemetery, the Morris Street Burying Yard located south of the train tracks along Morris Street. 

The Munson family plot

It is believed that a number of the remains that were interred there were disinterred and moved to the Orchard Street Cemetery.  Many stones in Orchard Street predate the cemetery founding and it can be inferred that either there were burials in the cemetery confines before it was founded or these are reinterments from the Morris Street Burial Yard, or both.  In addition, there was later a small cemetery on Grant Street next to what was the Swedish Methodist Church.  Around the turn of the 1900’s, this cemetery was closed and again, the remains within were disinterred and many were removed to Orchard Street.

The entrance to the historic Orchard Street Cemetery

The old Gate House at the entrance of the cemetery