Elm Ridge Cemetery, North Brunswick

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).[1] Although located in Middlesex County, the majority of the burials are from Somerset County, which directly borders the cemetery.[2]

Elm Ridge Cemetery

Details
Established	1868 (incorporation)
Location	North Brunswick, New Jersey
Country	United States
Coordinates	40.4539°N 74.5153°W
Size	approximately 5 acres (2.0 ha)

History

Prior to 1868, the cemetery was an informal burial ground on the farm of John Van Cleef.[3] It was near where Six Mile Run, a small stream, crossed historic King's Highway (now Route 27) in the historic community of Six Mile Run. The cemetery was associated with the Church at Six Mile Run, which was located there from 1710 to 1766 when it moved to its present location approximately one mile south.[4][lower-alpha 1]

The Elm Ridge Cemetery Company was formed in 1868 by an act of the State of New Jersey authorizing the company to purchase an adjoining 5-acre (2.0 ha) tract, to improve and operate the cemetery, sell burial plots, and be exempt from taxation as long as the land was used as a cemetery. The act named the initial seven members of corporation that would manage the cemetery, specified that all future members must be owners of burial plots within the cemetery, and that a new board would be elected annually by vote proportional to the number of plots owned. The act also specified that family gravesites in the old cemetery could continue to be used for burial by the respective families.[3]

A conservation assessment was performed in 2005. A conservation project was completed in 2006 to address deterioration of the grave markers. Markers were reset, repaired, and cleaned by Cultural Heritage Research Services, a historic preservation services company.[8]

Frelinghuysen Monument

Monument of Frelinghuysen

Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (c. 1691 – c. 1747) was Dutch-Reformed minister and theologian who immigrated in 1720 to the Raritan River valley of New Jersey[9] to lead the congregations at Raritan, New Brunswick, Six-Mile Run, Three-Mile Run, North Branch and Harlingen. Upon his death, he was buried at the Six Mile Run cemetery without a tombstone.[10] When in 1884 his descendants decided to place a stone on his grave, they could not determine where his body was interred. They erected a cenotaph with the following inscription:[10]

Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen. Born at Lingen, East Freesland in 1691. In 1719, he was sent to take charge of the Reformed Churches here by the Classis of Amsterdam. He was a learned man and a successful preacher. The field of his labor still bears fruit. In contending for a Spiritual Religion his motto was, "Laudem non quaero, culpam non timeo." He died in 1747, and his descendants, humbly sharing in his faith, have erected to his memory this monument.

Notable burials

• Simon Addis (1745–1834), Captain in Revolutionary War. A new grave marker was placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1932.[11]
• Peter Pumyea II (1739–1802), Captain in Revolutionary War.[12]
• Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691–1748), immigrant from Netherlands and theologian.
• Gustavus Gunther (1844–1922), Corporal in the American Civil War.[13]
• Henry A. Lewis (1826–1900), Sergeant in the American Civil War.[13]
• Jan Van Dyke and his wife, Annetje Verkirk Van Buren, great-grandparents of Rachel Van Dyke, subject of the To Read My Heart: The Journal of Rachel Van Dyke, 1810–1811.[14]
• Bruce H. Williams (1932-2019), Radio Talk Show Host, Author, Member of the National Radio Hall of Fame

Notes

1. Some sources confuse the ancient cemetery with an ancient Three Mile Run cemetery located several miles north at 40.47664°N 74.48729°W[5][6] The Church at Three Mile Run, of the same congregation, was located there prior to the establishment of the Three Mile Run cemetery.[7]

References

1. Veit, Richard; Nonestied, Mark (September 17, 2008). New Jersey Cemeteries and Tombstones: History in the Landscape. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-4235-5.
2. "Elmridge Cemetery". Somerset County Historical Quarterly. 3: 135–137, 221–224, 298–301. 1914. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
3. Acts of the Ninety-second Legislature of the State of New Jersey. New Brunswick, NJ. 1868. pp. 426–427.
4. "Six Mile Run Reformed Church History". sixmilerun.org. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
5. "Three Mile Run Cemetery". findagrave.com. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
6. "Church of the Three Mile Run". middlesexcountynj.gov. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
7. Clayton, W. Woodford (1882). History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey. Philadelphia. p. 753.
8. "Elm Ridge Cemetery Conservation" (PDF). chrsinc.com. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
9. Cohen, David Stephen (1992). The Dutch-American Farm. New York University. pp. 171–3. ISBN 0-8147-1454-4.
10. "First of the Frelinghuysens" (PDF). The New York Times. 11 May 1884. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
11. "Capt Simon Addis". findagrave.com. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
12. "Peter Pumyea, II". findagrave.com. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
13. "New Jersey Civil War Gravestones". newjerseycivilwaregravestones.org. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
14. Schriver, Deborah; McMahon, Lucia, eds. (June 8, 2000). To Read My Heart: The Journal of Rachel Van Dyke, 1810–1811. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 383. ISBN 978-0812235494.

External links

• Elm Ridge Grave Marker Transcriptions published in 1914
• Elm Ridge Cemetery at Find A Grave
• Elm Ridge Cemetery at Billion Graves