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1. South Haven Presbyterian Cemetery2. Sineus Miller 3. Carman4. Homan (removed)5. David Hawkins6. Nathaniel Hawkins7. Barteau/Snow8. Richard Corwin9. Nathaniel Miller10. Azel Hawkins11. Rose (removed)12. Conklin13. Ryder14. Mott15. Thomas Rose16. King David Hulse17. Greenfield18. Rowland19. Former Methodist Cemetery20. Rev. Charles Kellogg21. Oaklawn Cemetery22. Ketcham (removed)

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1939

75 years later, same viewpoint as picture on left

During the winter of 1994, we began cleaning up the cemetery and looking for Priest Rose’s and other headstones. Failing to find Rose’s headstone, we asked Town Historian Dave Overton to order a new one.

January, 1994,Faith McCutcheonlocated Priest Rose’s headstone.

Early in the Spring of 1994, Brookhaven Town Historian David Overton had the Parks Department install a split-rail fence around the cemetery and do a major cleanup. Priest Rose’s newheadstone would arrive later in the year.

Now Reverend David “Priest” Rose has two headstones

Esther Rose, Priest Rose’s daughter,died at the age of 18 in 1789.

Bershua Rose, Priest Rose’s wife, died in 1784, a year after the American Revolution ended. The family had just returned from exile in Connecticut.

Because headstones were not readily available during the early colonial period, some of the earliest burials used common field stones to mark the grave sites.

Photo 1980Photo 1994

Justice Nathaniel Brewster, who was Brookhaven Town Supervisor circa 1760s, was one of the most influential men in Brookhaven Town during the middle part of the 18th century. His first marriage was to Gloryana “Tangier” Smith and his second marriage to Ruth “Bull” Smith, the two most prominent families in the Town. Justice Brewster was killed by one of his slaves.

It did not take long for the Town to forget its obligations. This is how the Southaven Presbyterian Church Cemetery looked in 2006.

Joseph Conklin may have been the man who built the mill at South Haven in 1740.

On Nov 5, 1813, the greatest tragedy in Fire Place’s history occurred with the drowning of 11 men at Smith’s, or New Inlet, today’s Old Inlet. Nehemiah Hand was one of the victims.

(Mary)

Carman Cemetery, 1999

Carman’s Tavern, Inn and General Store, built late 1700s

Carmans Mill before 1875

Sam Carman, Sr., arrived during the Revolution in 1780 and appears to have been a Loyalist. He and his descendents ran the mill, Inn and general store for the next 100 years.

Samuel, Jr., was a Town trustee, circa 1828-1849, and the President of the Board in 1849. He was also a Trustee Overseer of the Poor and referred to as Capt. Sam Carman because he was a coastal inspector for several years. Samuel Carman, Jr., and his wife Kathy had 12 children together.

Just a few feet north of the Carman cemetery is the Miller cemetery. It’s possible that there are other headstones in this plot that we have not uncovered yet. Gilbert Miller, possibly a son, died in 1870, and the Miller estate was sold to the Suffolk Club.

John Deitz using the Global Positioning System to record the Miller cemetery location

(from Osborne Shaw’s 1939 cemetery survey)

(1939 description) "Former Homan private graveyard, about 500 feet south of Montauk Highway, (Route 27), on the east side of an old hedgerow, and about opposite the old homestead of William Osborn, now (1939) owned by Charles Engelhaupt, South Haven….” This cemetery was about 100’ easterly and opposite of the east end of today’s Old South Country Road, directly south of telephone pole 122, in Wertheim Refuge. The headstones were moved sometime between 1902 and 1939 to the Oaklawn Cemetery, picture above, except for William and Philothea Corwin, whose headstones were moved to the South Haven Presbyterian Cemetery. It is said that the bodies were not disinterred.

Although only 14 headstones are still visible, 23 were visible in 1939. Most of the others, if not all, are believed to still exist, but have fallen and become buried. Revolutionary War veterans Thomas Rose and Captain Nathan Rose are buried here.

Home of William Rose, born 1807. He sold the old Rose homestead and much property to J. L. Ireland in 1841.

Senator John Rose home

Brewster Rose family, 339 Beaver Dam Road

Will Rose Home, built late 1700s

Thomas Rose, believed to be the first permanent white settler in Fire Place Neck, was perhaps buried here in 1729, probably using a field stone marker (headstones were not readily available in Brookhaven at the time). Ear mark for his cattle at Fire Place was recorded on Oct 12, 1700. Two of first-settler Thomas Rose’s grandsons (above) fought in the American Revolution. Its possible that Lieutenant Thomas Rose was killed in action, given the 1780 date of his death.

One source, Huson, lists Scudder Ketcham as a Revolutionary War veteran. However, on file at the Town Historian’s Office is a note saying that the DAR has no record of Scudder Ketcham as having served.

This is the second Rose family cemetery site, begun in the early part of the 19th century, belonging to “Senator” John Rose and his descendants. James Post bought this property in the 1920s to donate for our library, and had the graves and headstones moved to Oaklawn.

Pictured are some of the headstones that were moved from the library gravesite to Oaklawn Cemetery.

King David Hulse Cemetery is located on Fire Place Neck Road opposite the Brookhaven Elementary School. The name “King” David is said to come from the fact that David O. Hulse was known for constantly quoting from the Old Testament.

Little is known about our most visible cemetery, the Hulse cemetery.

From a 1735 petition to have Beaver Dam Road built, we know who the owners of the 12 Long Lots were, including three members of the Hulse family: Thomas, Richard and John Hulse. They may not have lived here but only used the meadow lots for their cattle. The Nehemiah Hulse family, including son David, may have been the first of the Hulses to live at The Fire Place.

However, in this 1858 map, no house is shown on the property where the cemetery is located. David H. Hulse was the last to be buried here in 1914. He is said to have lived in Bellport.

This is from George P. Morse’s circa 1945 scrapbook. It is the only reference to the Hulse family having lived here at today’s 255 Beaver Dam Road. Nehemiah Hulse was David O. Hulse’s father.

Nathaniel Miller Cemetery, located off Fire Place Neck Road

 

In 1849, Dr Miller was a member of the New York State Assembly.

Dr Miller’s medical chest

The first of Dr Miller’s nine children was Nathaniel, born in 1815 at the Brook Store (Dr. Miller’s house was still being built). Nathaniel became a 49er during the California gold rush and made a fortune operating a merchandise store. During his time in California, he was shot with an arrow by Geronimo. He returned in 1853, married Ellen Carman, took over the operation of the Miller farm and became Town Supervisor during the Civil War. Of their nine children, only three would survive him, with Clinton and George continuing to run the farm until the mid-20th century.

Ellen and Nathaniel Miller, Jr., with their son, N. Clinton, circa 1890

Pictured are Nathaniel Miller, Jr.’s, two sons, George and N. Clinton. George ran the farm for more than 50 years while his brother Clinton, who had his own home on a section of the farm entered via today’s Library Lane, was the elected Town Receiver of Taxes, though for many years he listed his occupation as “none” – except once, when he said that he sold bait at Smith’s Point.

Richard Corwin cemetery, located between Chapel Ave. and Beaver Brook Drive

Richard Corwin was a Revolutionary War veteran who was present at the battle of Yorktown, and at the surrender of Cornwallis. Washington once tested his fidelity as a guard by attempting to pass him in the night, but Corwin would not allow Washington to pass, and afterward received commendations for his fidelity.

(A page from George Morse’s scrapbook)

Like his neighbors the Millers, Richard Corwin appears to have owned two adjoining cross lots. These lots extended all the way from Beaver Dam Creek to Little Neck Run, the creek that runs parallel along the east side of Old Stump Road.

Corwincemetery

The Nathaniel Hawkins Cemetery, lying on the east side of Little Neck Run about 500 feet south of Montauk Highway, has been totally vandalized. There were at least 11 interments here, including two that are Revolutionary War veterans, Richard Terry and Nathaniel Hawkins. One source records that Nathaniel Hawkins’ father, Zachariah Hawkins, also a Revolutionary War veteran, is also buried here.

The Nathaniel Hawkins cemetery is the oldest of the three Hawkins cemeteries at Fire Place. Fortunately, David Carter's stone was moved to the old Brookfield Cemetery in Manorville by his family, and the three headstones of Samuel, Mehitable and their son David Hawkins were moved to Baiting Hollow by family members.

Picture:David Hawkins cemetery, 1994. David Hawkins was the son of Revolutionary War veteran Nathaniel Hawkins. They had adjoining farms; this cemetery is about a 1/4-mile east of the Nathaniel Hawkins cemetery.

It took Faith and I two years to locate the David Hawkins cemetery, deep in the woods of the 2,600-acre Wertheim Refuge.

The arrows show location of the unmarked gave of one of America’s greatest civil engineers, Erastus Corning Hawkins. His greatest achievement was the building of the White Pass and Yukon Railway in 1898, which has been designated a national Historic Engineering Site by both the Canadian and the American Civil Engineering Societies.

Mattie Hawkins was the last of this branch of the family to live and to be buried here. She had many of the badly deteriorated headstones replaced sometime after her husband Emmett died in 1922. They had no children and, unfortunately, no one to put the date of her death on her gravestone.

The Barteau, or Fire Place, Cemetery is the largest of the private family cemeteries in TheFire Place, with 38 known gravesites, the oldest headstone being 1805 and the newest 1974. There are eight other families besides Barteau in this cemetery; only 16 of the graves are Barteaus. Francis Barteau was one of the earliest settlers at Fire Place, arriving in 1741, but his gravesite, as well as that of his wife and nine children, is unknown. The cemetery seems to have begun with one of his grandchildren, Nathan Rose Barteau.

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Francis Barteau’s daughter Temperance had a child, apparently out of wedlock, with Nathan Rose, of Revolutionary War fame, and their son, Nathan Rose Jr, took the surname Bartow (Barteau). Nathan Rose Barteau, his wife Abigail, four of their seven children and many grandchildren are buried here under the name Barteau.

John Deitz has found that at least three of the original interments at the Barteau Cemetery were verifiably Revolutionary War veterans – Isaac Homan (since removed to the Yaphank, NY, cemetery), David Hulse (since removed to the Cedar Hill Cemetery, Port Jefferson, NY), and Barnabas F. Rider, gravestone at left. Harry W. Huson in Revolutionary War Patriots Buried in the Town Of Brookhaven (Brookhaven Town Bicentennial Committee, 1976) records that Revolutionary War soldier Daniel Terry was also interred in this cemetery, but a record of his gravestone has not been found.

Based on a Chase 1858 map, this is the house (2635 Montauk Highway) where several generations of Barteaus lived, beginning with Nathan Rose Barteau. The Barteau family owned land on both sides of South Country Road, mostly on the east side of Little Neck west of Yaphank Creek. The cemetery is northwest of this house.

Hawkins

Although the last of William Snow’s family was buried here in 1878, many Brookhaven Hamlet old-timers still refer to the intersection of Yaphank Ave. and Montauk Highway as “Snow’s Corner.”

This is the “Senator” John Rose family plot at Oaklawn that had been moved from the Brookhaven Library site. There are 11 verifiable headstones in this section, but others may be missing. The John Smith Rose family plot, which most likely was also moved from the library site, lies across the away from this.

Conklin Cemetery, 179 Old Stump Road

Ryder/Osborne Cemetery, Meadow Lane

Woodruff Cemetery, three graves, located between Bellhaven Road and Mott Creek, north of South Country Road.

Mott Cemetery, located between the southern ends of Mott and Hawkins Lanes.

In 1939, Town Historian Osborne Shaw reported that there were eight other unmarked graves besides Greenfield’s headstone.

The Greenfield Cemetery is located near the Beaver Dam Creek, behind 338 South Country Country Road.

The Rowland Grave is located next to Bruce and Dory Tooker’s house at 314 South Country Road. It is said that another stone was here but can no longer be found.

"In Memory of Betsey, Wife of Davis Rowland, Died 23 Feby 1846, Aged 44 yrs 7 mos 23 days." 

Azel Hawkins Cemetery, which we will visit in a few minutes. Faith McCutcheon and I counted 16 headstones here in 2002. Azel Hawkins is said to have built many of the houses along Beaver Dam Road during the early part of the nineteenth century.