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The Bayonne Constable Hook Cemetery
Many
myths and fictitious facts as well as inaccuracies in
history books have accumulated over the years since James
Van Boskerck founded The Bayonne Constable Hook Cemetery in
1854. The cemetery is often confused and intermingled by
stories with the older Van Boskerck Family Burial Grounds
that was once located at another section of Constable Hook.
Ask anyone who knows the cemetery, which is
surrounded by property owned by IMTT and its large storage
tanks, how many people are interred there, and the reply is
generally “a couple hundred”. The at best answers would be
“a few hundred”, and actually there has never been a true
number associated with the burials at the cemetery until
recent.
An ongoing research project to determine not
only how many interments were made at The Bayonne Constable
Hook Cemetery, but who these people are, has revealed over
1,500 individuals, of which many were Bayonne residents.
This research project only covers the time period 1878; when
last place of disposition was recorded on death records, to
1907; the year of the last recorded burial, a mere one
hundred years ago. A list of interments for the cemetery is
available on the web site GraveInfo.com
Previous research done on the now
153-year-old cemetery has not been as in-depth as the
current research. It was believed to be a purchase of
burial rights cemetery only, but recently found land deeds
are the evidence that show who the original owners of many
of the 210 plots are. Tracing through the generations to
know the current owners of the plots is a much more
difficult undertaking.
 After the industrialization
of The Hook and the opening of cemeteries in surrounding
towns, interest in family plots at The Bayonne Constable
Hook Cemetery was lost. Up to eight graves occupied each of
the 196 family plots that measured 12 x 18 feet in size. The
then owner of the cemetery, Sarah Van Horn, who was one of
three daughters of James Van Boskerck, decided to sell
portions of the many plots she owned in the cemetery as
individual graves for right of burial only. No ownership
transfer deeds have been found for these select plots, which
Sarah still owned at her death in 1889, many of which she
inherited when her sister Ellen Van Boskerck willed to her
in 1878.
Single grave sales may have happened as early
as 1883 when it appears that Sarah teamed up with Nathanial
B. Lockwood, a local undertaker in Bayonne, to rejuvenate
interest and business at the cemetery. This may have been
the first attempt to restore the cemetery as a newspaper
clipping of that year states, “[Lockwood]….who had a gang of
men at work, and did a great deal toward making the cemetery
more attractive. A large number of old trees have been cut
down, the walks graded, and flower beds made and filled with
flowers.”
 The local Veterans Group visits the
cemetery but once a year the Wednesday prior to Memorial Day
at 9:30 am for the annual services they perform at the
Bayonne Constable Hook Cemetery. A few members of the
public, some of which have ancestors buried at the cemetery,
accompany them. American flags are placed at each location
that is marked by a grave marker, usually the remnants of
what used to be part of a headstone. The locations are not
of the original graves due to the deterioration of the
cemetery, and a so-called “restoration” of the cemetery in
the mid 80s.
Four walking paths were made during the 80s,
but none resembles any of the original eight paths that were
named Myrtle, Cypress, Linden, Evergreen, Laurel, Willow,
Acacia and Cedar, all names of trees. In fact, only about
half of the cemeteries original 1.3-acre size is located in
the “restored” section, encompassed by a white picketed
fence marking what someone wanted us to believe is the whole
cemetery. The entire rear portion of the cemetery left in
ruins contains a large pit of run off water from the slopes
of earth that surround it.
It has not been concluded as to who is the
legal owner of the cemetery as an entity. The last mention
of any ownership was in a newspaper “letters to the editor”
of 1956 in which author Michael De Beck wrote, “This
cemetery was finally turned over and managed by St. Paul’s
Lutheran Church, which was only a stone’s throw form the
Cemetery. When St. Paul’s left the Hook, the building was
used as a church by the parish of St. Joseph’s R. C.
Church.”
Although many towns and cities take
great pride in keeping their old cemeteries alive and well
kept, some even claim historical status for them; the City
of Bayonne seems to have done nothing for its only remaining
cemetery. Until someone steps in to provide a true
restoration and upkeep to a place that should be in Bayonne
History, Father Time and Mother Nature will be the
caretakers of this cemetery.
For additional information, to submit
information or if you believe you have and ancestor interred
at the cemetery please contact the chief researcher of The
Bayonne Constable Hook Cemetery, Bill Hastings at
201-360-1537. |
