This is one of the two oldest
burial grounds in Clarkstown. It has 66 graves
of some of the earliest families and includes six Revolutionary War
soldiers.
Old Mountain Road was used by
the Indians and early settlers who traveled from Nyack to Rockland Lake and
the West Nyack area by way of Christian Herald Hill and Storms Road. It was
called “the road to the pond” in early deeds.
In a history of Rockland County
published in City and Country during the year 1882, appears the
following: “The old burying ground at Upper Nyack was started in about the
year 1730 and the names of Snedeker, Smith and
Perry are most abundant….
“All Upper Nyack at one time
belonged to Cornelius Claessen
Cuyper who, with his “huisvrouw,”
Aeltje Teunis (Bogert)
and their family of little ones, settled somewhere along the river shore
between 1685 and 1687. Frontier hardships apparently agreed with the young
couple, for by 1708 their progeny had increased to fifteen; thirteen of whom
reached maturity. Cuyper became a wealthy,
prominent and influential man in the County of Orange…On his farm and near
his house he laid out this family burial place before 1730….”
“Cornelius died in 1731 and his
wife died four years later, both are interred in
the family plot. Their graves wee marked by low, heavy slabs of red
sandstone undressed except for the crude lettering. These probably had been
quarried from the five stone beds near the river shore.
“Aury
Smith bought 320 acres and Capt. Jacob Vanderbilt and his step-son,
Andries Onderdonk,
also became residents of the locality. A homemade headstone containing the
initials “V.D.” and the date “1739” is supposed to mark the Captain’s grave.
“If
Aury Smith is buried here, he lies in an
unmarked grave.
The last burial marked by an inscribed stone was that of Garret S. Smith in
1857.”
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