Essex County to seek return of graveyard

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December 14, 2009

By LOHR McKINSTRY The Press Republican Mon Dec 14, 2009, 04:43 PM EST

ELIZABETHTOWN — Essex County lawmakers are about to seek the return of the “potter’s field” where impoverished Essex County residents were once buried.

Accurate records were not kept of how many people are in the county graveyard, but the site on Route 22 in Essex’s Whallonsburg hamlet is now privately owned.

Supervisor Ronald Jackson (R-Essex) said today that the county should take steps to get its potter’s field back.

“I think that whole field should be back in county hands and maintained. People (buried there) should be shown the respect they are due.”

The Bible has what is believed to be the first reference to a potter’s field, as “a burying place for strangers.” That burial ground was in the valley of Hinnom, which was a source of potter’s clay.

Jackson successfully had the County Board of Supervisors Human Services Committee vote this morning to have County Attorney Daniel Manning III try to get the property back.

A previous attempt to get the field back in 2006 was unsuccessful.

The paupers’ cemetery was associated with the old County Home across the road. The Essex County Home was built in 1832 and ceased operation as a county facility in 1981. The potter’s field was sold with the home in 1998.

“It (the cemetery) was sold, and I don’t even know if it was legal to sell it, but it was done,” Jackson said.

“It is now in disrepair. It was sold because the septic system for the County Home was there, but that’s not the case anymore. The system was moved.”

Jackson said the county is responsible for people who die in poverty and have no place to be buried, and there could be plots created for them in the old cemetery.

He said if the present owner won’t sell the burial site, the county should explore other means to secure its return. A state law makes municipalities responsible for abandoned cemeteries within their borders.

Jackson said the sale of the potter’s field may have been an error, since only the septic area could have been included.

“It slipped through. No one noticed it until it was signed, sealed and delivered.”

Supervisor Noel Merrihew III (R-Elizabethtown) said Manning will investigate and report back to the Board of Supervisors.

“We will initiate that review with the owner,” Merrihew said.

E-mail Lohr McKinstry at:

lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com