Stillwater Cemetery is a burial ground located in the village of Stillwater in Stillwater Township, Sussex County, New Jersey in the United States. The cemetery has been in use for over 260 years.
The earliest burials are recorded to have taken place in the 1740s following shortly after the first settlement of this area by Palatine Germans in the middle of the 18th century. These early German graves are noted for their intricately carved headstones and footstones which feature unique German funerary symbolism and in many instances, archaic German text. [1]
The cemetery was also the location of the first two buildings to house the Stillwater Presbyterian Church which in its early years was first a union church serving both the Lutheran and German Reformed faiths. [2] [3] During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it was known as the "Dutch Meeting House". It is presumed that the first structure used by this congregation was a rudimentary church made of logs, dating from as early as 1745 to 1750. Subsequently, a second structure built from local fieldstone was erected 1769–1771. This stone church structure was used by the congregations from 1771 to 1837 when it was abandoned for a Greek Revival frame structure built a quarter mile north from this site. The fieldstone structure was razed in 1847 and according to local tradition the stones from the building's walls were used to construct a stone wall along the cemetery's southern and western perimeter. A stone carved with the year "1771"—believed to be the original cornerstone for the church—was incorporated into the cemetery's gate.
Located within the cemetery are several dozen veterans of the French & Indian War, American Revolution, War of 1812, and American Civil War.
Stillwater Township is a township located in Sussex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated in the Kittatinny Valley, Stillwater is a rural farming community with a long history of dairy farming. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 4,004, a decrease of 95 (−2.3%) from the 2010 census count of 4,099, which in turn reflected a decrease of 168 (−3.9%) from the 4,267 counted in the 2000 census.
A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a stele or marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. It is traditional for burials in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions, among others. In most cases, it has the deceased's name, date of birth, and date of death inscribed on it, along with a personal message, or prayer, but may contain pieces of funerary art, especially details in stone relief. In many parts of Europe, insetting a photograph of the deceased in a frame is very common.
God's Acre is a churchyard, specifically the burial ground. The word comes from the German Gottesacker, an ancient designation for a burial ground. The use of "Acre" is related to, but not derived from the unit of measurement and can be of any size. In the early 17th century the term was used as a translation of the German, but by the end of the century it was accepted as an English term.
The Paulins Kill is a 41.6-mile (66.9 km) tributary of the Delaware River in northwestern New Jersey in the United States. With a long-term median flow rate of 76 cubic feet of water per second (2.15 m³/s), it is New Jersey's third-largest contributor to the Delaware River, behind the Musconetcong River and Maurice River. The river drains an area of 176.85 square miles (458.0 km2) across portions of Sussex and Warren counties and 11 municipalities. It flows north from its source near Newton, and then turns southwest. The river sits in the Ridge and Valley geophysical province.
Elm Ridge Cemetery is on Route 27 in North Brunswick, New Jersey. It is a historic cemetery of both the Colonial period (18th-century) and the Victorian period (19th-century). Although located in Middlesex County, the majority of the burials are from Somerset County, which directly borders the cemetery.
Ye Antientist Burial Ground is a cemetery in New London, Connecticut, bounded by Hempstead Street on the west and Huntington Street on the east, running from Granite Street to approximately Bristol Street. It has been known by several names over the years, many spelling variations on Ancient Burial Ground. It is one of the earliest graveyards in New England and the oldest colonial cemetery in New London County. The hillside lot of 1.5 acres and adjoins the site of New London's first meeting house. The settlement at the time was called "Pequot Plantation" until the name changed in 1658. From the burial grounds, the visitor has a broad view to the east of the Thames River and, on the far shore, the heights of Groton, Connecticut.
The Stillwater Presbyterian Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA) located in the village of Stillwater in Stillwater Township, Sussex County, New Jersey in the United States. It is one of fifty-nine churches that constitute the Presbytery of Newton. Founded in 1769 as a union church shared by members of the Reformed and Lutheran faiths, the parish, now Presbyterian, boasts a small congregation of roughly 100-120 active parishioners.
Newton Cemetery is a cemetery in Newton, in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1860, the 24.05 acres (9.73 ha) cemetery is in current use and is owned and operated by the Newton Cemetery Company.
Trinity-St. Paul's Episcopal Church in New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. It is located at the northwest corner of Huguenot Street and Division Street. This church represents the body of the majority group of New Rochelle's founding Huguenot French Calvinistic congregation that conformed to the liturgy of the established Church of England in June 1709. King George III gave Trinity its first charter in 1762. After the American Revolutionary War, Trinity became a parish of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America.
Camperdown Cemetery is an historic cemetery located on Church Street in Newtown, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The cemetery was founded in 1848 and was for twenty years the main general cemetery for Sydney, with the total number of burials being about 18,000. Many people who were important to the early history of colonial Australia are buried there. It is the only one of Sydney's three main early cemeteries that still exists.
The Myles Standish Burial Ground in Duxbury, Massachusetts is, according to the American Cemetery Association, the oldest maintained cemetery in the United States.
Kinne Cemetery, also known as the Glasgo Cemetery and Old Kinne Burying Ground, is a historic cemetery in Jarvis Road in Griswold, Connecticut. The earliest marked stone is for Daniel Kinne who died in 1713. In the 1930s, the inscriptions of 79 stones in the Kinne Cemetery were recorded for the Hale Index. There are around 80 fieldstones with no carving or identification, but it is unknown if this stems from wearing of the gneiss stone or that there were no skilled carvers locally available. The seven carvers that have been identified are Lebbeus Kimball, Jotham Warren, Josiah Manning, Peter Barker, Mr. Huntington of Lebanon, E. Marston of Mystic Bridge and O. Doty of Stonington. The National Historic Register of Places nomination notes, "the cemetery is significant artistically because the carving on the stones gives many good examples of the funerary art that was characteristic of the 18th and 19th centuries in New England." The cemetery is notable because of the burial of Isaac C. Glasko, the namesake of the village of Glasgo, and a prominent African American land-holding man who ran a blacksmith shop that was important to the marine industry of the area. The cemetery was made a part of the Connecticut Freedom Trail in 1995 and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 12, 2001.
Harmony Hill Methodist Church is a Methodist Episcopal house of worship affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located about one mile north of the village of Stillwater in Stillwater Township, in the Sussex County, New Jersey.
Mansfield Center Cemetery is a small cemetery in the Mansfield Center section of Mansfield, Connecticut. Established in 1693, it is one of the few surviving elements of Mansfield's early colonial settlement history. It also has a distinguished array of funerary markers carved by acknowledged masters across eastern Connecticut. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
Casper Shafer was among the first settlers of the village of Stillwater along the Paulins Kill in Sussex County, New Jersey in the United States. A successful miller and early tavern owner, Shafer later served in the first sessions of the New Jersey Legislature during the American Revolution. During these sessions, New Jersey had become a newly independent state, established the first state constitution, ordered the state's last Royal Governor deposed and arrested, and actively supported and financed the Continental Army.
Old Pine Church, also historically known as Mill Church, Nicholas Church, and Pine Church, is a mid-19th century church located near to Purgitsville, West Virginia, United States. It is among the earliest extant log churches in Hampshire County, along with Capon Chapel and Mount Bethel Church.
The Old Scots Burying Ground is a historic cemetery located on Gordon's Corner Road in the Wickatunk section of Marlboro Township, in Monmouth County, New Jersey. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 15, 2001, for its significance in history and religion. The Old Scots Burying Ground is about an acre in size, about 195 feet above sea level and dates back to 1685. The total number of burials at the cemetery is not precisely known, suggested by Symms, "There are a large number of graves in Old Scots yard without any inscribed stones". Some reports place the number as at least 100 known graves with most headstones of brown sandstone. However, more recent research using ground penetrating radar reported by the Old Tennent Church in 2001 has put the number of confirmed sites at about 122 graves with a possible 140 more unmarked; placing the number at about 262 total graves in the cemetery. In 1945, in an attempt to clean out the site of vegetation and over-growth, a bulldozer was used on the property and as a result some headstones were dislodged and broken stones removed. The defining structure in the cemetery is a tall monument to Rev. John Boyd, created by the J&R Lamb Company. Built to commemorate the first recorded Presbyterian ordination of Rev. John Boyd. The monument is currently owned by the Synod of the Northeast who holds the property deed but it is maintained by the Old Tennent Church. The last identified burial was in 1977.
The Mt. Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church and Cemetery, popularly known as the Swack Church or Old Swack Church, was a Lutheran church located in Lebanon Township, New Jersey. Abandoned by its congregation in 1896, it has since become a historical curiosity and the subject of a yet-unsolved ownership issue.
St. James Lutheran Church, also known as Straw Church, is a historic church built in 1834 and located at 1213 U.S. Route 22 in Pohatcong Township, Warren County, New Jersey. St. James Lutheran Cemetery is located across the street in Greenwich Township. The church and cemetery were added as a historic district to the National Register of Historic Places on October 24, 2016 for their significance in architecture and exploration/settlement. The adjoining building, Fellowship Hall, and the schoolhouse by the cemetery entrance are not part of this listing. The one-room brick schoolhouse, built 1858, is listed separately on the state register.
'The Wethersfield Village Cemetery is a historic burying ground in Wethersfield Connecticut that was started in 1638, and is the second oldest burial ground in Connecticut.