Cemeteries and Burial Sites in Westchester County -- by the Half Moon Press

October, 2003 issue

Cemeteries and Noteable Burial Sites in Westchester County

With much legwork, literally, the Half Moon Press assembled a list of cemeteries and the final resting spots of noteable personalities, both famous and infamous.

Old St. Peter's Churchyard - Oregon Rd. and Locust Ave., Van Cortlandtville, Cortlandt Manor Fourth oldest cemetery in New York State. Burial site of 54 Revolutionary War soldiers. Burial site of eight French Revolutionary War soldiers - Lieutenant de Mauvis, Jean Joseph Paguay, Joseph Duguin, Claude Pierre Dumageot, Jean Bonnair, Alexis Labrue, Georges Mochl and Phillipe Mortague.
Also:

John Paulding
Born 1758; died, February 18, 1818
Patriot - with Isaac Van Wart and David Williams was responsible for the capture of the British spy, Major John Andre. In 1827 a marble monument was erected over his grave by the corporation of the city of New York.

Major General Seth Pomeroy
Born May 20, 1706; died February 19, 1777
Hero of Bunker Hill, died in Peekskill and was buried in an unmarked grave. A monument in his honor was later erected by the Sons of the Revolution.

Philip Van Cortlandt
Born 1749; died 1831
Representative from New York, 1793-1809.

Pierre Van Cortlandt
Born 1721; died 1814
Lieutenant Governor of New York, 1778-95.
Original interment in private or family graveyard; reinterment at Old St. Peter's Churchyard.

Pierre Van Cortlandt, Jr.
Born 1762; died 1848
U.S. Representative from New York 3rd District, 1811-13.
(Cornelia [nee Van Cortlandt] Beekman and her husband, Colonel Gerard Beekman, are also buried in the Van Cortlandt family plot.)

Van Cortlandtville Baptist Church Caleb Hall
Died, 1791
A Baptist and a pioneer, he was laid to rest on land he had given to the Baptists.

Hillside Cemetery - Peekskill Chauncey Mitchell Depew
Born April 23, 1834; died April 5, 1928
US Senator. Elected as a Senator from New York to the United States Senate, serving from 1899 to 1911.

James William Husted
Born March 16, 1870; died January 2, 1925
US Congressman. Elected to represent New York's 25th District in the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1915 to 1923. He was defeated as a Republican in 1912. Also an attorney and Member of the New York State Assembly from 1895 to 1897.

William Nelson
Born June 29, 1784; died October 3, 1869
Representative from New York 7th District, 1847-51

Old Burying Ground - Peekskill Located to the west of Drum Hill.
Henry Tice was the last person buried in 1812.

Lent's Cemetery, Lafayette Avenue, Cortlandt Manor (Also known as Pleasantside Cemetery.)

St. Patrick's Cemetery, Broadway, Buchanan
Saint Patricks Roman Catholic Cemetery, Verplanck
Chase Cemetery, Furnace Woods, Cortlandt Manor
Dutch Reformed Church Cemetery, Montrose (Also known as Cedar Hill Cemetery)
As of February, 1917, there were 770 stones dating from 1800 - 1917. It is conjectured there were also a number of private cemeteries scattered on farms in rural areas.

Church of Divine Love Cemetery, Montrose
Crugers Cemetery
The Briggs family cemetery plot is/was located 400 rods south of the site of the Crugers Railroad Station, 300 ft. from the highway.

New Croton Dam 1500 bodies had to be taken out of six cemeteries and relocated with their stones and fences. In 1898 New York City awarded undertakers who removed the bodies from $15 to $58 a body and from $3 to $8 a headstone.

Croton Valley (Quaker) Cemetery Bodies re-interred in Chappaqua.

The Society of Friends Cemetery, Croton-on-Hudson Located behind the meeting-house on what is now Grand Street. Many bodies re-interred in Amawalk after the property was sold.

Bethel Cemetery, Croton-on-Hudson Contains the graves of several Revolutionary War soldiers and Native Americans.
Also:
Joseph Barber Briggs
Born July 21, 1785; died September 28, 1858
Lived on "Hessian Hill" and died intestate.

Lorraine Hansberry
Born 1930; died 1965
Playwright. She wrote "A Raisin In The Sun," and was the first African American, and the youngest winner of the New York Drama Critic Circle Award (1959).

John Peterson
Born 1745
Patriot. With Moses Sherwood (see Sparta Cemetery) shot against the British ship "Vulture" from Teller's (Croton) Point when it was preparing to pick up the British spy Major John Andre after his meeting with the traitor Benedict Arnold.

Croton Point During an archaeological "dig" on Croton Point in 1899, the graves of several Native Americans were discovered.

St. Augustine Cemetery, Hawkes Avenue, Ossining Many of the early Italian and Irish immigrants who worked on the Croton Dam are buried here.

Ryder Cemetery, on farm two miles back of Ossining Dale Cemetery, 104 Havell Street, Ossining Organized in January, 1851 with General Aaron Ward as president of the committee of trustees. It was was designed by landscape designer architect Howard Daniels who was a runner-up to design Central Park in New York City.

Thomas Allcock
Born January 27, 1815; died December 27, 1891
Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General.

Benjamin Brandreth
Born June 23, 1808; died February 18, 1880
Manufactured and sold pills in Ossining.

Franz Boas
Born 1858; died 1942
Scientist. Helped establish anthropology in the United States on a scientific footing while teaching at Columbia. One of his students was Margaret Mead.

Chester 'Red' Hoff
Born May 8, 1891; died September 17, 1998
Major Leage Baseball Player. Before his death at the age of 107, he was the oldest living Major League Baseball Player.

John Thompson Hoffman
Born January 10, 1828; died March 24, 1888 Served as New York City Mayor 1866 to 1868. Served as Governor of New York from 1869 to 1873.

Aaron Ward
Born 1790; died 1867
U.S. Representative from New York 4th District 1825-29, 1831-37, 1841-43.

Samuel Youngs
Born December 4, 1760; died September 12, 1839
Revolutionary War soldier and literary figure. He was the model for the character of 'Ichabod Crane' in Washington Irving's story "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow." J. Thomas Scharf in his "History of Westchester County" (1886) notes "His remains were brought to Dale Cemetery from their original resting place in the grounds of 'The Old Dutch Church,' (in Sleepy Hollow) where they should have been permitted to remain unmolested."

Congregation Sons of Israel Cemetery, adjacent to (west of) Dale Cemetery entrance, Ossining Approximately 100 graves, all Jewish, from late 19th century to about the 1970's.

Heady Burying Ground, Spring Valley Road (An African-American Cemetery)

Hunter's Burying Grounds, Ossining Located on the grounds of where the Baptist Church was located in 1790.

Sing Sing Prison, Ossining Albert Fish
Born May 19, 1870; died January 16, 1936
Criminal. Bribed children of New York City and took them to a place in the woods where he killed them and used their flesh in a stew. Executed in the electric chair.

Sparta Historical Cemetery Originally allotted to the Presbyterian Church by Frederick Philipse, lord of Philipse Manor.

James Boorman
Born 1783; died January 24, 1866
Served as a charter member, director, vice-president and president of the Hudson River Railroad Company.

Jules Bourglay "The Leatherman"
Died March 24, 1889

Tramped the country roads in Westchester, New Haven, Fairfield and Litchfield counties, wearing a suit of leather clothes.

Captain Lewis Brady
Born 1773; died October 29, 1881
Born into slavery (his father belonged to General George Washington and was freed at the death of Mrs. Washington), he escaped to New York after the War of 1812, bought a small sloop. After he started catching clams and oysters he became known as "Captain."

George W. Cartwright
Born November 4, 1785; died June 12, 1867
Civil engineer -- he assisted in the planning and development of Sing Sing Prison.

Enoch Crosby, Jr.
Born 1796; died February 7, 1836
Son of Enoch Crosby "The Spy" of the Revolutionary War made famous by James Fenimore Cooper.

Abraham Ladue
Born September 28, 1769; died October 21, 1774
The was stone damaged by the cannon ball fired from the Vulture September 1780.

Caleb Roscoe
Born November 20, 1800; died April 23, 1877
Published the "Westchester Herald" until 1856 when the building in which it was located was destroyed by fire.

Moses Sherwood
Born 1761; died February 17, 1837
Patriot. With John Peterson (see Bethel Cemetery) shot against the British ship "Vulture."

Thomas Storms
Born October 1, 1844; died May 6, 1919 Soldier in the Civil War. On the night President Lincoln was assassinated, he was on guard duty at the White House.

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow Contains the graves of 70 Revolutionary War soldiers.

Elizabeth Arden (Florence Nightingale Graham)
Born 1878; died 1966
Beautician, business executive and a true innovator in product development, sales promotion, and packaging.

Leo Hendrik Baekeland
Birth November 14, 1863; died February 23, 1944
Scientist and inventor. After experimenting with synthetic resins, he introduced Bakelite in 1907 and formed the Bakelite Company the next year.

Robert Livingston Beeckman
Born April 15, 1866; died January 21, 1935
Governor of Rhode Island, 1915 - 1921.

Holbrook Blinn
Born January 23, 1872; died June 24, 1928
Film actor. He died after falling from a horse.

Edward Bowes
Born June 14, 1874; died June 13, 1946
Radio entertainer, he hosted an "Amateur Hour."

Alice Brady
Born November 2, 1892; died October 28, 1939
Actress.

Eleanor Van Tassel Brush
Born 1763; died 1861
Literary Figure. She was the model for the character of Katrina in the book, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving.

Andrew Carnegie
Born November 25, 1835; died August 11, 1919
Businessman. Well-known steel magnate and philanthropist.

Walter Chrysler
Born April 2, 1875; died August 18, 1940
Industrialist. Commissioned the Chrysler Building.

Parker Fennelly
Died January 22, 1988
Radio Personality.

Amanda Foster
Born 1807; died 1904
Instrumental in the founding of the Foster Memorial AME Zion Church in 1864.

Samuel Gompers
Born January 27, 1850; died December 13, 1924
Father of American Labor.

Walter S. Gurnee
Born March 9, 1813; died April 17, 1903
Mayor of Chicago, Ill., 1851-53.

Robert Havell
Born November 25, 1793; died November 11, 1878
John J. Audubon's engraver for "Birds of America." He also painted and sketched in the New York area around the Hudson River.

Mark Hellinger
Born March 21, 1903; died December 21, 1947
Theatrical Producer.

George Washington Hill
Born October 22, 1884; died September 13, 1946
Cigarette magnate (introduced Lucky Strike Brand).

Washington Irving
Born April 3, 1783; died November 28, 1859
Author, Minister to Spain, 1842-46.

Abraham Martling
Born 1741; died 1779
He was the model for the character of Brom Bones in the book "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving.

Whitelaw Reid
Born October 27, 1837; died December 15, 1912
Editor of "New York Tribune." U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, 1905-12.

William Rockefeller
Born 1841; died 1922
Noted businessman. New York head of the Standard Oil Company.

Carl Schurz
Born March 2, 1829; died May. 14, 1906
Politician. Senator, secretary of the interior under Rutheford B. Hayes.

Henry Villard
Born April 10, 1835
President of the the Oregon and California Railroad and the Oregon Steamship Company and then Northern Pacific Railroad. He purchased the Edison Lamp Company of Newark, NJ and the Edison General Electric Company in 1889 and reorganized them into General Electric Company by 1893.

Thomas Watson
Created IBM.

Walker Whiteside
Born March 16, 1869; died August 17, 1942
Film Actor.

Rockefeller Family Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow Abby Greene Rockefeller
Born October 26, 1874; died April 5, 1948
Philanthropist. She was the daughter of Senator Nelson W. Aldrich. Married to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., she was the mother of Abby, John D. III, Nelson, Laurance, Winthrop, and David Rockefeller. Encouraged the establishment of the Museum of Modern Art and the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

John D.Rockefeller Jr.
Born January 29, 1874; died May 11, 1960
Philanthropist.

John D. Rockefeller III
Born March 21, 1906; died July 10, 1978
Financier/Philanthropist.

Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, [cenotaph]
Born July 8, 1908; died January 26, 1979
US Vice President / Governor of New York from 1959 to 1973. (Ashes scattered at the Pocantico Hills estate.)

Old Dutch Burying Ground At Sleepy Hollow William Paulding Jr.
Born 1770: died 1854
US Congressman. Elected to represent New York's 2nd District in the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1811 to 1813. Also served as the Mayor of Tarrytown.

Frederick Philipse
Born 1626; died 1702
Early settler, founder of the Old Dutch Church in Tarrytown, and builder of Philipse Manor

Joseph Youngs
Born 1722; died 1789 and Susannah Youngs Born 1732; died 1783
Parents of Samuel Youngs (model for Ichabod Crane). Samuel Youngs was originally buried here but his remains have been removed to Ossining's Dale Cemetery.

The Hermit's Grave, Irvington Johann Stolting
Born 1810; died January 10, 1888
The only marked grave in the Village of Irvington.

Presbyterian Cemetery, Dobbs Ferry James Bowen
Born February 25, 1808; died September 29, 1886
Civil War Union Brigadier General.

Little White Church Cemetery, Dobbs Ferry Owned by the South Presbyterian Church, but located next to The Lutheran Church.

Temple Israel Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson Martin Charles Ansorge
Born January 1, 1882; died February 4, 1967
Served in the United States Army during World War I. He was elected to represent New York's 21st District in the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1921 to 1923.

Sol Hurok
Born April 9, 1888; died March 5, 1974
Impresario.

Adolph Ochs
Born March 12, 1858; died April 8, 1935
Publisher of New York Times/Board of Directors of The Associated Press.

Zuker, Adolph
Born January 7, 1873; died June 10, 1976
Film producer and executive.

Mount Hope Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson
Clarence Adler
Born March 10, 1886; died December 24, 1969
Concert Pianist. Soloist for many leading orchestras in the U.S. and abroad. Private music instructor for Aaron Copland.
Sam Bernard
Born June 5, 1863; died May 16, 1927
Stage, film and vaudeville star.

Harry Thacker Burleigh
Born December 2, 1866; died September 12, 1949
Internationally known African-American baritone, composer, and arranger of spirituals.

Ernie Bushmiller
Born 1905; died August 15, 1982
Cartoonist. Created the "Nancy" comic strip in 1925.

Frederic Dannay
Born 1905; died September 3, 1982
Author. Co-creator with his cousin, Manfred B. Lee, of the very popular detective series, "Ellery Queen."

Thomas Jordan
Born September 30, 1819; died November 27, 1895
US Civil War Confederate Brigadier General and Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Liberation Army.

Herman Tarnower
Born March 18, 1910; died March 10, 1980
"Scarsdale Diet" doctor who was murdered by a jilted lover, Jean Harris.

William 'Bill' Todman
Born July 31, 1916; died July 29, 1979
Television personality and producer for shows such as "Beat The Clock" and "What's My Line?"

Lucille Watson
Born May 27, 1879; died June 24, 1962
Canadian-born actress known as the "Queen of the Dowagers."

Westchester Hills Cemetery - Hastings-on-Hastings John Garfield
Born March 4, 1913; died May 21, 1952
Acclaimed actor.

George Gershwin
Born September 26, 1898; died July 11, 1937
Composer.

Ira Gershwin
Born December 6, 1896; died 1983
Composer.

Ben Grauer
Born June 2, 1908; died May 31, 1977
Television and radio personality.

Sidney Hillman
Born March 23, 1887; died July 10, 1946
First President of Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.

Judy Holliday
Born June 21, 1922; died June 7, 1965
Actress. Most famous for her role in "Born Yesterday."

Max Reinhardt
Born September 8, 1873; died October 31, 1943
Producer/Director.

Billy Rose
Born September 6, 1899; died February 10, 1966
Broadway producer.

Robert Rossen
Born 1908; died 1966
Motion picture director, screenwriter.

Lee Strasberg
Born November 17, 1901; died February 17, 1982
Actor/Teacher.

Paula Strasberg
Born 1909; died 1966
Co-founder of the Actors Studio and Marilyn Monroe's coach and off-screen advisor.

David Susskind
Born December 19, 1920; died February 22, 1987
Executive producer of two television docu-dramas on the lives of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and Emmy Award winning producer for "The Ages of Man" (1966).

Cooke Property, Hastings-on-Hudson St. Joseph's Cemetery Located three or four miles north of Getty Square on land bought from Ethan Flagg in August, 1877.

St. John's Cemetery, adjoins the Oakland Cemetery Oakland Cemetery 2 Saw Mill River Road, Yonkers
Part of the glebe devised by the second Lord Philipse, in 1751, to St. John's church.

Thomas Ewing Jr.
Born August 7, 1829; died January 21, 1896
Civil War Union Brigadier General, famous for issuing order number 11, requiring residents to swear allegiance to the Union or be imprisoned.

William Laing Heermance
Born February 28, 1837; died February 25, 1903
Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient.

Charles Augustus Leale
Born March 26, 1842; died June 13, 1932
He was an Union Army surgeon fresh out of medical school when he was the first medical man on the scene after President Abraham Lincoln was shot. His quick efforts are credited with temporarily saving Lincoln's life, enabling him to live until the next morning.

Elisha Graves Otis
Born August 3, 1811; died April 8, 1861
Invented the safety brake for elevators that prevented the car from falling, in the event the cables broke, making it possible to build sky-scrapers.

William W. Woodworth
Born 1807; died 1873
Elected to represent New York's 8th District in the United States House of Representatives, from 1845 to 1847. Also served as a State Court Judge, and Mayor of Yonkers.

St. Mary's Cemetery, Sprain Road, Yonkers Part of it was a gift, in 1855, from John Murtha from a section of his farm. Mr. Murtha already had his own family burial plot on the farm.