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"The Lost Cemeteries of Hudson County" Bus Tour
On Saturday, May 9, 2009 the Hudson County Genealogical Society and the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy co-sponsored a lecture and bus tour titled, “The Lost Cemeteries of Hudson County”. The event began with a lecture by historians, Richard Veit and Mark Nonestied, titled “Stranger Stop and Cast an Eye,” an informative lecture on the last four hundred years of New Jersey cemetery and tombstone design. Richard and Mark discussed the evolution of burial sites and grave markers from the seventeenth century to the dawn of the twenty-first century. Such topics as colonial gravestones, stone carvers, Victorian cemeteries, monuments, mausoleums, and ethnic and cultural burial grounds were discussed. The lecture was held in the Panasonic Room of the Secaucus Public Library, at 1379 Paterson Plank Road at 10 AM.
The meeting was followed by a bus tour of four Hudson County cemeteries in different stages of their histories:
- The Hudson County Cemetery, or Snake Hill cemetery, which has ceased to exist and been replaced by a New Jersey Turnpike exit;
- Speer Cemetery, which has been abandoned for over one hundred years and sits forlornly in the middle of Jersey City
- Old Bergen Reformed Church Cemetery which sits across from Speer and holds some of the earliest Hudson County residents including Jane Tuers, a heroine of the American Revolution
- And The Historic Jersey City Harsimus Cemetery which, if not for a dedicated band of local activists, would likely follow the same path as other fogotten cemeteries.
Links
- The Lost Cemeteries of Hudson County Virtual Tour (see sidebar)
- Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy Web site: www.jclandmarks.org
- Richard Veit and Mark Nonesteid's recent book "New Jersey Cemeteries and Tombstones: History in the Landscape"
Lost Cemeteries Pictorial Slideshow
A brief pictorial tour of Snake Hill Cemetery, Speer Cemetery, and the Historic Jersey City Harsimus Cemetery set to music.
