The Jersey City & Harsimus Cemetery looked like it had been left for dead two years ago. Abandoned by its caretakers, weeds covered the tombstones and homeless men and women were camping out in tents. Today Eileen Markenstein heads a volunteer board of trustees who have chosen, as she says, to “Preserve this sacred place.”
The deterioration of the site on Newark Avenue, which has a long and varied history, caught her attention in 2008.
“There was a decline in the care of the cemetery,” she said recently. “I started wondering what’s going on. It was really sad. Small tombstones were covered [by grass and weeds] and it was dangerous.”
Today John Wilson is the full time caretaker and, he adds, “Full time security.” With the grounds secure, the cleanup of the cemetery has begun.
“We would like to be a center for history for Jersey City and Hudson County.” – Eileen Markenstein
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Markenstein would eventually like to see the cemetery become a Memorial Park and living museum.
“To build a historical center to promote the history of what we see as the birthplace of America, the ports, Jersey City” is her goal, she said. “We would like to be a center for history for Jersey City and Hudson County.”
Has long, varied history
The grounds of the cemetery once served as the encampment for General Marquis De Lafayette and his 4,000 French soldiers in 1779-1780 after a request from General George Washington to assist the Continental Army.
The cemetery was also a training ground for the U.S. Army during World War I and II. Army stamped bowls, plates and shovels have been unearthed there in the last few years.
“The cemetery rests at a strategic position, overlooking the Hudson River, and that’s why it has been used militarily over the years,” Markenstein said. She thinks there are even the remains of cannons from the War of 1812, but this is yet to be verified.
The first mayors and leaders of Jersey City, like the Van Winkles, the Edges and Sips, are buried in the cemetery. So is Albert Cloke, who fought in the Civil War and was court-martialed for sharing his local newspaper with a Confederate soldier.
The oldest headstone belongs to Andrew Gammel, who died on June 23, 1830.
The remains of America’s first balloon rider, Charles Durant, also rest there, along with veterans from various wars, from the Revolutionary War up through Desert Storm.
Trying to make it happen today
Markenstein and the board hope to raise enough money through donations and grants to survive, and then build the historical center they dream of.
“Cleaning up the cemetery takes time and money,” she said. “Up to this point, the City Council has given zero dollars. It costs about $30,000 a year to run the cemetery.”
A Facebook page for the cemetery highlights their hopes to restore 25 blue slate rock paths. The 200 year-old stones need to be re-leveled. According to Markenstein, the cemetery has received estimates from landscapers of up to $130,000 for the job. The cemetery hopes instead to raise $20,000 to purchase a Bobcat Excavator and do the job themselves.
Markenstein has also found records of a working flower shop at the cemetery that sold Forget Me Nots for 2 cents back in the late 1800s.
Whether the cemetery itself is forgotten again, or becomes the place of dignity and history its current board of trustees envision, will be largely up to the volunteers and the public. For more information visit their website at http://jerseycitycemetery.org/
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