Tag: Exploring Harrington Park, NJ

Perry Cemetery-Harrington Park Historical Society                                                                            Old Hook Road                                                  Harrington Park, NJ 07640

Perry Cemetery-Harrington Park Historical Society Old Hook Road Harrington Park, NJ 07640

Perry Cemetery-Harrington Park Historical Society

Old Hook Road

Harrington Park, NJ 07640

(201)768-2615

http://www.harringtonparkhistoricalsociety.com/

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=241777

Open: Dusk to Dawn

Admission: Free

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46493-d33215615-Reviews-Perry_Cemetery-Harrington_Park_New_Jersey.html

The historical significance of for the cemetery

The Perry family cemetery is a small family plot in Harrington Park, NJ and example of a time when families still buried their loved ones on property that family’s thought would be there for generations. Many generations of the family are buried here showing the family’s love of this land but like too many tiny cemeteries throughout Bergen County have been lost in time by the family buried there.

Today it sits quiet and respectful and somewhat over grown. Nature now surrounds it.

The Perry Cemetery History:

(From the Harrington Park Historical Society)

The Perry Cemetery is a small family burial ground located on what was the farm of David Perry (1809-1871). The Old Burying Ground cemetery is part of the land apportioned to Garret Huybertsen Blauvelt, son of one of the original sixteen grantees of the Tappan Patent approved by the Governor of New York in 1686. Although there are believed to be earlier ones, the first known burial was in 1722 and the last in 1905.

The Perry Family Cemetery sits quietly on a stretch of Old Hook Road

(From the Harrington Park Historical Society)

The Perry Cemetery is situated in the Borough of Harrington Park on Old Hook Road, east of Bogert’s Mill Road opposite the United Water Company building. David Perry had devised by his will, signed on July 18,1868 that: “the burying ground where the same now is, westerly of my dwelling house, of the use of 40’ square, I give unto all my children to be kept by them and their posterity as a place of burial forever.”

The Perry family tree of loved ones buried at the cemetery

(From the Historical Marker Database)

When David wrote his will, his great-grandson Perry Cole (1866-1867) already had been buried in the small plot. By the end of 1871, six members of the Perry Family had been laid to rest within yards of the family house. The last burial at the cemetery was that of David’s great-grandson, Claude Yeomans (1887-1940). There are a total of twelve people interred at the Perry Cemetery.

The untimely death of many members of David’s family is a reminder of the struggles and uncertainties that people of that period routinely endured. The property remained in the Perry Family until the 1920s when it was purchased by the Hackensack Water Company to become part of the Oradell Reservoir. The graves are laid out in four even rows facing East and the markers are either marble or granite.

The Perry Family tree starting with the marriage of David Perry to Catherine Blauvelt

Son Henry and Daughter Rachel’s tombstones

Patriarchs David Perry and his wife, Catherine Blauvelt Perry

The last David Perry to be buried in the family plot

The family plot facing the stream

The Patriarchs of the family stand in the middle

The newest graves in the cemetery

The latest burials in the family plot

Video on the Perry Cemetery from the Harrington Park Historical Society

Old Burying Ground-Blauvelt Cemetery-Harrington Park Historical Society                                Tappan Road                                                           Harrington Park, NJ 07640

Old Burying Ground-Blauvelt Cemetery-Harrington Park Historical Society Tappan Road Harrington Park, NJ 07640

Old Burying Ground/Blauvelt Cemetery-Harrington Park Historical Society

Tappan Road

Harrington Park, NJ 07640

(201). 768-2615

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1653309/harrington-park-old-burial-ground

http://www.harringtonparkhistoricalsociety.com/

Open: Dawn to Dusk

Admission: Free

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46493-d33215617-Reviews-Old_Burying_Ground-Harrington_Park_New_Jersey.html

The historical marker for the Old Burying Ground

The wall outside the cemetery

The Old Burying Ground known also as the Blauvelt Cemetery, is an interesting look at the burial rights of prominent farming families of early Bergen County and their forgotten legacy of their contributions to building not just the County to our Country as well.

Many of these families intermarried over time combining properties and farms that over time since the turn of that last century, have become lost corners of our county’s history due to growth after WWII of suburban communities.

It is interesting to see who the movers and shakers of these communities of the past whose descendants were still live in Bergen County. The sad part is that these distant family members may not know their own family history enough to visit these tiny pieces of history that hold members who fought in the Revolutionary War and contributions to the growth of businesses with names that have been reduced to well known street addresses. A lot of history lies in these tiny plots that dot Bergen County. Here you can see the ‘ghosts’ of the past and walk past their graves to hear their stories.

The entrance to the cemetery

The History of Burying Ground:

(from the Harrington Park Historical Society)

In use for nearly two hundred years, largely by the Blauvelt family, the earliest known burial was in 1722. The cemetery contains the graves of members of other early Bergen County families, veterans of the American Revolution and slaves. Some of the tombstones are inscribed in Dutch.

The description of the family plots

The grave of Patriarch Justin Demarest

The Blauvelt family plot of Patriarch Daniel Blauvelt

The graves of members of the Blauvelt and DeGraw families

The graves of David and Helen Blauvelt

The middle of the Blauvelt family plot

The cemetery from the other side of the Blauvelt family plot

The Blauvelt and Demarest family plots (damaged tombstones)

(From the Harrington Park Historical Society)

Abraham Quackenbush (1768-1854) and his wife, Elizabeth Myers (1770-1807)) are part of the Abraham Myers family burial plot at the Old Burying Ground. In the middle of the 18th century, Abraham Myers received a royal charter from King George III to build a grist mill on the Hackensack River which his grandson John Bogert later operated, and it thereby became known as “Bogert’s Mill.”

The Myers family members interred in the plot are Abraham Myers, his wife Cathrena Nederman, daughter Cathrena, daughter Elizabeth and Abraham Quackenbush, son John Myers and wife Rebecca Durie. 

The Blauvelt-Eckerson-DeGraw family graves

Patriarchs David and Helen Blauvelt family plot

Video on the Cemetery from the Harrington Park Historical Society