What Do You Do With Old, Abandoned Cemeteries?

There’s something spooky about old, abandoned cemeteries — which makes them perfect subjects of conversation around this time of year at Halloween. I wasn’t intentionally looking for one (either an old, abandoned cemetery, or a subject of conversation) a couple of weeks ago when I stumbled upon some new activity going on in the one pictured above.

There’s quite a few old, abandoned cemeteries out on the East End of Long Island. They’re usually found just off the road. Sometimes they’re surrounded by a white fence. Inside you’ll find old, (often) crumbling headstones with barely legible names and dates etched on them. If you can read them, many date back a couple of centuries, or so.

I never knew much about them except that families were allowed to bury their dead on land they owned. In fact, you’re still allowed to bury a loved one on your own property. However, be warned: there are local laws and regulations that govern that sort of burial. And, it could have a negative impact on your property values when you want to sell!!!

Old Cemeteries Restored

I used to drive past the one pictured above all the time. Occasionally, I walked in the area. Never really thought much about it until one day I was driving by and saw two men on the cemetery grounds.

Being just too much of a busybody ( and die-hard journo) I turned the car around and drove back to ask what they were doing. Turns out my town, Southampton, started a cemetery restoration project several years ago. It appears that according to law, if activity ceases in a cemetery for ten years or more, a municipality has the right to take over and tend to it. In this case, Southampton Town decided to go a step further “to preserve the gravestones of its early settlers and their descendants” (like this one pictured below.)

Retired Hero Cop Restores Gravestones

One of the two men I met at the cemetery got involved in the project several years ago. He’s Dennis Delaney (pictured), a former Suffolk County detective who volunteered for the job of restoring old gravestones because he was looking for something to do after he retired from the force.

He doesn’t like to talk about himself, or his past life much, but of course, as soon as I got home I googled Mr. Delaney and found out that he’s actually only one of four Suffolk County police officers to ever be awarded a Medal of Honor.

He was the recipient of the award in 2015 — forty-four years after he and a partner (who was also awarded the Medal of Honor) executed the heroic deed for which the award was presented. It happened when he was called to the scene of a domestic violence incident in Wyandanch. You can read more about the shootout in which he found himself, here.

Family Burying Grounds

Now, he is most often, in good weather, to be found working in one of the ten town-owned cemeteries on the East End. Naturally, once you stop at one of these old cemeteries, you can’t help but spend some time reading the headstones and then pondering about the lives of those buried there. For a start, in this case, I wondered why the cemetery is named the Fournier Burying Ground.

I recognized some of the other names — Fanning and Hildreth — in the cemetery. They were familiar to me from various contexts. For example, Joe and I once owned a house on Fanning Avenue, and Hildreth is a name known to anyone who has shopped on Southampton’s Main Street and has strolled into, or walked past Hildreth’s Department Store.

Fournier Brothers in Red Creek

But I had never before heard the name, Fournier which is the name of this particular burying ground. So, I had to google that name as well. It turns out the Fournier brothers, John and Francois, were French, but fought in the War of Independence, got captured by the British, and escaped. As local lore has it, they ended up shipwrecked on the shores of Peconic Bay, in an area now known as Red Creek, in the North part of Hampton Bays.

They supposedly used the wood from their shipwrecked vessel to build a house in Red Creek where they settled. According to town records and Long Island genealogy John then fathered Clarissa who married James Fanning, and had six or seven children, two or three of whom died as children, and are buried in this cemetery. Some of their young descendants are also buried here. For example, Sarah, wife of Peter Fournier is buried alongside her infant twin sons here (see photo.)

Headstone Found

As for Samuel Robinson, he was just nine years, five months and seventeen days old when he died and was buried here in Fournier Burying Ground. However, at some stage, his headstone went missing, and was not recovered till it was found in a Sag Harbor carport 166 years after he died. Mystery still surrounds how it got from its original burying ground to Sag Harbor, but after the owner of the carport contacted the town authorities, the gravestone was transported, with the help of Dennis Delaney, back to its original burying ground on Red Creek Road. And, here it is. (pictured)

I don’t know how Samuel and the Robinsons are related to the Fourniers, but I intend to find out soon.

All Souls

It’s worthwhile remembering that the commercial holiday we all know, these days, as Halloween, has its origin in various religious holy days like the Feast of All Souls — in other words a day to remember those loved ones who are no longer with us.