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Cemeteries
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*New Biographies added for Fall 2024
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St. John the Evangelist is a picturesque Carpenter Gothic church. Designed by noted architect William Potter, it was erected in memory of John L Aspinwall by his wife and was affiliated with St Stephen's College, now Bard College. Read more.
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Located in the Northwestern part of Red Hook in the village of Tivoli is the oldest known church in what is now Red Hook, the Red Church. Church records suggest it was established in 1766 although a plaque over the door of the church reads 1751. Read more.
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The Red Church on Route 9G in Tivoli was the first “Low Dutch Reformed Church” in Red Hook, built by 1766. Around 1788, a new Dutch Reformed congregation was formed to accommodate the growing population in Upper Red Hook, and a new church, called the “Church at the Road,” was built at the corner of the Old Post Road and what is now Starbarrack Road. Read more.
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The origin of this Romanesque Revival red brick church on South Broadway dates to 1715 when Palatine Lutheran and German Reformed congregations combined and built a church south of what is now Red Hook. Read more.
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St. Paul’s and Trinity Parish in Tivoli can date its history back to the 1780s when members of the Livingston family asked the Episcopal church to send ministers up the Hudson River to preach for them. St. Paul’s itself was incorporated as a church in 1817. Read more.
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According to church publications, the origins of the local Red Hook Methodist Church, now the United Methodist Church of Red Hook, reach back to the late 18th Century. At a 1788 Methodist conference in New York City, Bishop Francis Asbury appointed nine young men “to extend the march of the Church up the Hudson River.” Read more.
Church of St. John the Evangelist, Barrytown
St. John the Evangelist is a picturesque Carpenter Gothic church. Designed by noted architect William Potter, it was erected in memory of John L Aspinwall by his wife and was affiliated with St Stephen's College, now Bard College. The cornerstone was laid May 9, 1874, completed over the summer and consecrated on October 4th by the Right Rev. Horatio Potter, Bishop of New York. The cemetery encloses the church on two sides and is believed to have existed prior to its construction.
George & Eliza Bickerstaff
George Born 1828 Died 1902
Eliza Born 1821 Died 1897
George and his wife Elizabeth Hallon (who was referred to as “Eliza” when her death was announced in the local paper) were born in Ireland. He came to this country in 1874, possibly aboard the SS Elysia which departed Glasgow, arriving in New York on April 14 of that year. His wife followed a year later...
Clare O’Neill Carr
Born Sep 13, 1942 Died Apr 6, 2003
Anyone who wants to know more about Red Hook’s history will find themselves referring to A Brief History of Red Hook. Its author, Clare O’Neill Carr, knew and loved this area extremely well...
Frederick W. Feller
Born Sep 13, 1878 Died Jan 19, 1954
Sometimes we overlook little stones and gravitate to the more soaring and majestic. That would be a mistake with the small military tombstone of Frederick W. Feller who was born on September 13, 1878 and died on January 19, 1954. During the years of his life, Feller was a farmer, a carpenter, a driver, and a soldier in the Spanish American War...
Rev. Frederick Fairweather Flewelling
Born 1872 Died 1914
As his tombstone tells us, Rev. Flewelling was the rector of St. John the Evangelist from 1912-1914. He died at 42 of pneumonia while recovering from an emergency appendectomy at St. Luke’s in New York City on April 13th of 1914, cutting short what would probably have been a long and memorable service to the Barrytown community. His life before he came to Barrytown was busy and remarkable…
Grayson Hall
Born 1923 Died 1985
There are roles that actors play that come to define them. For Grayson Hall, whose career spanned parts on main stages, movie sets, and television studios and resulted in an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, that role was probably Dr. Julia Hoffman on the ABC series Dark Shadows...
Sam Hall
Born 1921 Died 2014
Sam Hall, a television screenwriter and most renowned for his work on soap operas, shares a memorial stone with his wife Grayson Hall, an actress. According to FindaGrave.com, Hall “will be best remembered for penning stories for the popular TV series Dark Shadows (1967 to 1971). ..
Jeffrey Arnold Moss
Born 1942 Died 1998
We have many touchstones from our childhoods. Children raised during the Sesame Street era can thank composer, author, and lyricist Jeffrey Arnold Moss for many happy memories directly connected to such characters as Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch, both of which Moss created, and to Ernie’s song “Rubber Duckie"...
The Rollins Family
Multiple dates.
John Rollins was the son of farmers Richard and Catherine Rollins of Ireland and grew up in the Town of Milan. In 1880, he was recorded living in the home of his father-in-law, Charles Gibson with his new wife, Catherine and her brother, James. Catherine’s mother was Mary Rollins, but it is unknown how closely related her mother and husband were, if at all...
Robert "Theis Siefke" Smith
Born Mar 20, 1841 Died Jul 11, 1928
Robert Smith changed his name after he arrived in this country in 1861 from Europe. He was born Theis Siefke, supposedly a descendant of nobility. His obituary says that he was born in “Crempe, Denmark,” but there is no such place. There is a Krempe in Northern Germany, but even in the 1840s this town was not over the Danish border...
Robert T. Bishop
Born May 14, 1866 Died Feb 6, 1930
This military-issued gravestone and its accompanying bronze marker lets us know that Robert Thomas Bishop served in Company K of the 9th New York Infantry Regiment in the Spanish American War (a brief conflict that erupted and concluded in 1898) and nothing else. Records of those who served indicate that he enlisted in New York City near the start of the war in May...
Viola Kilmer
Born Jan 1886 Died Feb 21, 1956
Viola’s mother Julia Alice Moore of Madalin was Webster Kilmer’s second wife whom he married after his first wife had died, so Viola had many siblings: three half siblings, Georgiana (married Joseph Watson), Webster Jr., and Florence (married William Munro), and three full ones, Bertha (married Clayton Hermans), Percy, and Walter. Both of Viola’s parents were of German Palatine descent...
Red Church, Tivoli
Located in the Northwestern part of Red Hook in the village of Tivoli is the oldest known church in what is now Red Hook, the Red Church. Church records suggest it was established in 1766 although a plaque over the door of the church reads 1751. The church and the accompanying cemetery were built on land donated by Zacharias Hoffman, a large landowner and wealthy merchant.
James B. Ashdown Jr.
Born 1874 Died 1910
In the 1880 census, enumerators picked up six-year-old James B. Ashdown, Jr. living with his grandmother Anna Hopton and uncles Charles and Clarence Hopton in Tivoli, and also with his parents James and Mary Ashdown in Germantown, splitting his time between the houses for some reason or another...
John Sylvester Boyce & Matilde Marshall Boyce
John Born 1841 Died 1917
Matilde Born 1841 Died unknown
Driving along the road to the southern part of the Old Red Church Cemetery, one notices a mausoleum that stands out. This is the resting place of the Boyce family. While Boyce and his wife spent most of their adult lives in Brooklyn, NY, they were natives of Clermont and Tivoli respectively and chose to be buried in Tivoli...
Lewis W. Cashdollar
Born Jan 22, 1843 Died Jul 24, 1905
The Red Hook Journal of October 15, 1897, reported that Tivoli was home to “probably the largest man in Dutchess county...the one-legged veteran soldier, Lewis Cashdollar…” His measurements are truly impressive. According to the paper, Lewis stood 6’7” tall (on one leg), weighed 310 pounds, and his waist, chest, and neck were 66,” 63,” and 22” around, respectively...
Giles C. Cooke
Born Aug 22, 1819 Died Aug 27, 1890
Gile’s Cooke’s father Palmer Cook was born December 24, 1787, to Isaiah Cook and Mary Palmer. His mother was Mary “Polly” Halsey, daughter of Jeremiah Halsey and Esther Park. Both of his parents were both born in Preston, CT, but were recorded in the census living in Red Hook as early as 1820...
George H. and Letitia Ellsworth
George Born 1830 Died 1928
Letitia Born 1840 Died 1917
Armistice Day on November 11, 1921, was a special holiday nationwide. Community members gathered at the Red Church of Tivoli, and a distinguished personage was chosen to mark the occasion, as reported by The Rhinebeck Gazette…
William Lascher
Born Nov 12, 1837 Died Aug 20,1875
The inscription on this young man’s tall, beautifully sculpted tombstone reads: IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM LASCHER/ DIED AUG. 20 1875/ AGED 37 YEARS, 9 MO’S, 8 DAYS./ ERECTED BY HIS FRIENDS/ H.R.R.R./ C.D...
Alexander & Catherine Minkler
Alexander Born 1814 Died 1891
Catherine Born 1809 Died 1903
The Four Corners in Red Hook look much like they used to, except for the gas station’s location. The Red Hook Hotel had been on that spot from the 1700s until a 1963 kitchen fire led to its demise when it was sold to and torn down by the Valley Oil Company and a gas station and convenience store were built instead…
George W. Minkler
Born 1843 Died 1928
Walking onto the grounds of a cemetery, one of the first things we notice are the gravestones—oftentimes many stones with the same last name when we come upon a family plot. Once May comes, small American flags flutter next to the tombstones of our neighbors who served in the military...
Clara & Clarissa Pritchard, L.L.D.
Clara Born Aug 1892 Died Jul 2, 1916
Clarissa Born 1892 Died Oct 8, 1969
Twin Lawyers | Clara and Clarissa Pritchard were born in August of 1892, fraternal twin daughters of Mary E.H. and Dr. Churchill Pritchard of Ontario, Canada, who resided in Tivoli. Their father was a doctor, and their mother was one of the first (if not perhaps the first) female lawyer to be admitted to the Dutchess County bar...
Mary B. & Hugh Toler
Mary Born 1840 Died 1880
Hugh Born 1845 Died 1866
Encompassed by a sturdy rail are three monuments; two grave markers and a cenotaph which remember three members of the Toler family. A cenotaph is a marker that recalls the life of someone who has died, but is not buried at the marker’s location…
William Witherwax
Born 1835 Died 1907
William Witherwax was a steamboat pilot. Strangely, so was William A. Witherwax c.1822-1882, also buried in this cemetery! William A. married Eliza C. Harris (c.1825- 1894) and they had at least three children together, William E., Mary I. (married Abram Kerley), and Emma L…
Robert Worthington
Born Jun 7, 1841 Died Mar 23, 1934
It’s unclear how or why Robert moved south from Canada. He can be found enumerated in the 1870 census in New York City with his first wife, Catherine Cornelia Redder and the first three of their children (presumably his connection to Tivoli). They resided in Red Hook and appeared in that census in 1875, 1880 and 1892…
George W. Cole
Born Dec 3, 1840 Died Sep 28, 1914
The son of Jacob Cole, George W. Cole was born on Dec 3, 1840, but by age nine, he and Emeline Cole, who we infer was his younger sister, were living in the household of John and Jane Brown of Red Hook. Before George was 20, he worked as a farm laborer at the William Feller household in Clermont in 1860…
John Emory Cole
Born Apr 1839 Died Jan 29, 1923
Cole was well known not only in the Tivoli area but along the New York Central Railroad, beginning as a water boy on the passenger trains when he was only ten years old. “Since that time he has filled various positions until 1882 when he was appointed at Tivoli crossing, where he is still employed,” stated his wedding announcement to third wife...
Montgomery Marshall
Born Feb 9, 1838 Died Sep 2, 1918
When a group of Union soldiers reunited in 1908 for a photograph, the accompanying article noted that Montgomery Marshall “was a steamboat pilot, and before 1890 was a baggage master on the steamer Kaaterskill of the Catskill Evening line that ran from Coxsackie. His son, Clarence Marshall, who now lives in Spring street, Tivoli, worked with his father…
Henry Miller
Born Aug 16, 1844 Died Feb 26, 1915
Henry Miller died at the home of his son, William H. Miller, in Madalin in the village of Tivoli on February 26, 1915, aged 71 years. He had been feeling rather better than usual during the present winter, and on the above date went up to the street a short distance after his newspaper, as was his custom, returning about 4:10 p.m…
Wallace Moore
Born Sep 11, 1845 Died Feb 24, 1916
Of all the things that matter in life, we tend to focus on professions, homes, families, and lessons learned. If all goes well, we will leave this world with reputations intact, varied opportunities, many children, and the knowledge we have made a difference not only in our daily lives. Some even contribute to the survival of a united country and freedoms for all...
James Outwater
Born 1846 Died 1924
For someone who spent most of his life as a farmer, carpenter, and family man, James Edmund Outwater’s life may look like a simple one at first glance. Service in the New York Volunteers 128th Co. C when he was 18 may have caused him to desire a less chaotic future if he survived. When he mustered out, he moved back...
Andrew Rockefeller
Born Nov 30, 1838 Died May 1915
When Andrew Rockefeller, son of David (1809-1844) and Catherine Fingar Rockefeller (1810-1887), was six, his father died. From that point until he reached adulthood, Andrew resided with aunts and uncles.¹ It’s fitting then, as one follows Andrew’s family through Census information, we see him living with his wife Mary Francis (1846-1901), their son Frederick who was 28, an adopted daughter 20-year-old Mary...
Lewis C. Moore
Born Jul 1849 Died Dec 15, 1929
The Moore monument stands as tall as a man, carved of limestone in the shape of a limbless tree trunk—a symbol of life cut short. First appearing in America in the middle of the nineteenth century, and popularized by the Arts and Crafts design movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tree-shaped memorials can be found in many local cemeteries...
St. John’s Reformed Church, Upper Red Hook
The Red Church on Route 9G in Tivoli was the first “Low Dutch Reformed Church” in Red Hook, built by 1766. Around 1788, a new Dutch Reformed congregation was formed to accommodate the growing population in Upper Red Hook, and a new church, called the “Church at the Road,” was built at the corner of the Old Post Road and what is now Starbarrack Road. It was officially named St. John’s Low Dutch Reformed Church when incorporated in 1799 and remained affiliated with the Red Church.
Margaret Miller Coon
Born 1800 Died 1868
If children are blessings, Margaret Miller Coon and her husband John were blessed again and again. Margaret gave birth from the ages of 19 to 46, according to census records and Koon & Coons Families of Eastern New York...
The Coopernail and Prentice Children
Mulitple dates.
The Sadness of the Loss of Children There can be nothing sadder when one walks in a cemetery than coming across the gravestones of children. We can only imagine the heartbreak and grief their families, especially their parents, endured. Some plots and their monuments point to fathomless mourning as we see the markers of young siblings who were laid to rest before they could experience life…
Col. Dr. Pierre Louis Armand De Potter D’Elseghem & Aimee S. Beckwith
Armand Born Jun 4, 1852 Died 1905
Aimee Born 1857 Died 1938
To make things easier on the Americans he did business with, this globe-trotting French man went by Armand de Potter. Armand’s passport application from 1885 when he was 36 years old described him as being 5’8” tall with a high forehead, blue eyes, aquiline nose, medium mouth, round chin, chestnut hair, fair complexion, and a round face...
Susie & Jennie Fulton
Susie Born 1861 Died 1913
Jennie Born 1864 Died 1932
Susie and Jennie shared many things. Both were daughters whose names appear on their own side of a smaller monument as well as engraved on the big Fulton monument. Susie and Jennie were the daughters of Ephraim Elisha Fulton and Margaret Smith Fulton. Both grew up on the Fulton Farm on Turkey Hill Road in the Town of Milan. Both never married…
Clara W. Losee
Born 1917 Died 1997
Clara Rosella Weller was born in Franklin County, NY to Maude Kelly and Clement Weller. Clara’s mother and five of her nine siblings died young. In her 20s, Clara traveled south and found an opportunity for employment in Dutchess County working as an assistant to Gordon Voorhis in his Voorhis-Tiebout soap dispenser factory…
John E. Losee
Born 1826 Died 1900
John Eckert Losee was born in the Town of Washington to Simeon Losee from that town and Sarah Eckert from Stanford. Simeon was of “Dutch” descent (which was probably Waloon) and the Losee family was among the first white settlers of Bushwick. Sarah’s Eckert line was West-Camp Palatine German and both of them had a father or grandfathers that fought in the Revolutionary War…
Edward Ludlow Mooney
Born Mar 25, 1813 Died Jul 10, 1887
The bucolic and less frenzied pace of life in Red Hook appeals to urbanites choosing to live in the Hudson Valley rather than the City. Renowned painter and portraitist Edward Ludlow Mooney was no exception. “Some years ago he left his home in this city, and his fine studio,” reported the New-York Tribune…”
Ella A. Mooney
Born Aug 27, 1850 Died Dec 4, 1909
“Make her to be numbered with Thy saints in glory everlasting” are the words carved onto the tombstone of Ella A. Mooney, daughter of Edward Ludlow and Laura Blanchard Mooney. Adorned with a cross atop, the monument symbolizes Ella’s devout faith. Although she and her father are buried next to the Piers, her paternal aunt and uncle, in St. John’s Reformed Church cemetery in Upper Red Hook, she was an Episcopalian…
Benjamin Seymour Pier & Anna Marie Mooney Pier
Benjamin Born 1811 Died 1863
Anna Born 1815 Died May 13, 1861
Two portraits painted by Edward Ludlow Mooney flank the fireplace in the South Room of the Elmendorph Inn. The subjects are Benjamin Seymour Pier and his wife Anna (Mooney) Pier who was the sister of Edward…
Jacob & Martha Stahl
Jacob Born 1857 Died 1918
Martha Born 1856 Died 1921
Many monuments have images inspired by nature: flowers, willow trees, acorns and oak leaves. The Stahl memorial is interesting because it shows a tree trunk with the limbs cut off, probably emphasizing the tree of life or a family tree, and yet it also resembles a cross and symbolizing death overcome and everlasting life via salvation…
Ryer Hermance
Born Aug 7, 1749 Died Nov 1, 1804
Ryer Hermance was baptized in Rhinebeck to Gerret Heermanse and Gerretje Schermerhoren in August of 1749. Gerret was born in Kingston where the Heermans family had made their home for a few generations and Gerretje was from “The Manor Livingston” in Dutchess County when they were married at the Dutch Church in Kingston in 1748. His family had arrived in New Netherlands...
Nathan Beckwith
Born 1778 Died 1865
The Beckwith family traces its lineage back to Charlemagne (as to many, many…many others) and to a noble who appears in the Doomsday Book and fought under William the Conqueror in 1066. They believe this ancestor, Sir Hugh de Malebisse, is pictured with his fellow combatants in the Bayeux tapestry that depicts the Norman invasion of England…
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Village of Red Hook
The origin of this Romanesque Revival red brick church on South Broadway dates to 1715 when Palatine Lutheran and German Reformed congregations combined and built a church south of what is now Red Hook. The two congregations later split -- the Lutheran group built a new church, St. Peter’s, or the “Old Stone Church” south of Red Hook, and the German group, having incorporated under the name German Reformed Zion’s Church, purchased five acres in Red Hook from General John Armstrong in 1796.
Edward N. Barringer
Born 1811 Died 1857
The thing that draws attention to Edward N. Barringer in the cemetery is the row of tall, identical marble slab-style tombstones with rounded tops. Their engravings as of this writing are weathered but clear for the most part. His large family (he and his first wife had ten children) is evident here, though not all of his children are buried together…
Anna Bishop
Born 1810 Died 1884
In the 1840s and through the 1880s, “Madame” Anna Bishop was one of the most famous opera singers in the world. Born in London, Anna Riviere married her former teacher, composer Henry R. Bishop…
Dr. Richard Caldwell Brewster
Born 1844 Died 1907
Brooklyn Dentist | The reason this man is buried in this cemetery is simple: he married a local gal. Dr. Richard Brewster shares a tombstone with his wife Caroline “Carrie” C. Lasher (30 June 1842 – 23 January 1920) who was the daughter of merchant Philip Henry Lasher and Catharine Milham...
Jacob W. Elseffer
Born 1822 Died 1907
Some names in Red Hook are instantly recognizable given the fame or reputation of the person. During his lifetime, Jacob W. Elseffer’s name certainly was known in Red Hook and beyond. The son of John Elseffer and Katherine Whiteman Elseffer, he was an attorney and the organizer and president of the First National Bank of Red Hook…
George A. Elwood
Born 1840 Died 1910
While it may remain a mystery as to why the Right Worthy George A. Elwood and his wife Elizabeth (Steinert) of New York City are buried in the Village of Red Hook, it is certain that the Masons were important to George Elwood and he to them. A memorial to him, which dominates the monuments surrounding it, testifies to the connection...
Zachariah & Hannah Feller
Zachariah Born 1800 Died 1870; Hannah Born 1802 Died 1870
Symmetry surrounds the double monument and in turn the lives of Hannah Stickle Feller and her husband Zecr (Zachariah) D. Feller. Both were born in November, he two years earlier. Both died in 1870, she a few months after he did…
Sheridan S. Fraleigh
Born 1868 Died 1876
Sheridan Shook Fraleigh was named for his uncle, Sheridan Shook, a wealthy New York City developer originally from Red Hook. He was the first son of Irving Fraleigh and Almina Cookingham. Irving shipped freight out of Barrytown with Phineas L. Tyler and Captain John P. Carnwright of the steamer Sarah Smith…
Allan B. Hendricks
Born 1839 Died 1933
Allan Barringer Hendricks was the son of Jeremiah Hendricks and Eliza C. Barringer (whose monument he and his wife Anna share). He married Anna Rodgers (1840–1907) and had four children, Allan B. Jr., Anna R (married Frederick W. Lee), Louise R. (married Franklin Shook), and Lawrence H. Hendricks. Allan Jr. became an electrical engineer and held patents for such things as transformers, cable testing apparatus, and vacuum tube rectifiers…
Robert Neher Lewis & Helen Shook Lewis
Robert Born 1838 Died 1915
Helen Born 1835 Died 1901
The blue hue of the Lewis monument draws one’s eye, as does the lettering of the last name Lewis shaped like wooden twigs. Knocking lightly on the surface will reveal this monument is made of zinc (also known as “white bronze”). In 1902, this option was advertised in the local paper as “practically indestructible” and “cheaper than granite…”
The Lown Children
Multiple dates.
A memorial stone in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church cemetery identifies William and Olina Lown’s six children who passed away in childhood. Their youngest daughter Nancy R. Lown’s name is at the top of the marker which is next to the marker of the children’s grandfather David D. Lown who died on June 25, 1862 at the age of 83. Five of William and Olina’s other children are noted as having been “lost on Lake Erie June 6, 1838…”
Frederick Martin
Born 1837 Died 1911
Frederick A. Martin’s monument draws our attention due to its size and the Civil War soldier standing atop, commemorating Martin’s military service. The inscription mentions his affiliation with the fraternal organization of Masons before it notes this location is also the burial site of his wife Susan (Near) Martin who predeceased him in 1899...
Robert Massonneau
Five Times Over | The Massonneau family was an important one in Red Hook, especially in the 1800s. The family marker—a large stone with a scroll and the name Massonneau written in flowing script—is surrounded by footstones of Massonneaus, family through birth or marriage. Five of them are for five different men named Robert Massonneau...
Maria Ryphenburgh
Born Mar 7, 1790 Died Jan 6, 1883
From the parking lot of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, the Ryphenburgh monument beckons. Who were the Ryphenburghs? To which prominent family are they related? What business did the patriarch establish? It’s marvelous, then, when we realize that the monument belongs to one person, a woman who was a servant most of her life...
Edward Saulpaugh
Born 1821 Died 1867
There are three people’s names engraved on one of the tallest monuments in the cemetery. The monument is notable for its height, its design, and for the tragic beauty that erosion has inscribed on it over the last 150 years. It is also mysterious at first glance because two of the sides are blank and those engraved on it are a bit unusual…
John I. Stickle & Hannah Fraleigh
John Born 1774 Died 1871
Hannah Born 1776 Died 1850
“The old cemetery in Red Hook village in which lies the dust of so many of the aged, contains no lifeless form that will be longer remembered than that of the late venerable John I. Stickle.” John was born in Red Hook under English rule in 1774. His parents, Johannes Stickle and Elisabeth Böhm (who are also buried in this cemetery) baptized him as “Johannes” in the predecessor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, the German Reformed Church…
John W. Hoffman
Born 1822 Died 1883
Attesting to the prominence of this businessman of Red Hook, John William Hoffman’s impressive granite memorial stands proudly in the cemetery. Born in Red Hook, John was one of twelve children of farmer and butcher George “Dutch” Hoffman and his second wife, Maria Waldorf. The Hoffmans, Palatine German by heritage, were one of the “very oldest and most substantial [families] in the locality..."
Daniel Van De Bogart
Born Dec 25, 1849 Died Apr 8, 1909
“They rest from their labors and their works do follow them” reads the epitaph for a man whose labor is yet evident throughout the Town of Red Hook. Daniel Van Der Bogart was a contractor by trade and brought many local structures, including three churches, into being. He built the Methodist church on Church Street...
St. Paul’s and Trinity Parish, Tivoli
St. Paul’s and Trinity Parish in Tivoli can date its history back to the 1780s when members of the Livingston family asked the Episcopal church to send ministers up the Hudson River to preach for them. St. Paul’s itself was incorporated as a church in 1817. The first church building (a wooden one at the intersection of what is now Rt 78 and 9G called the “White Church” to distinguish it from its Red neighbor to the north) was consecrated by Bishop Hobart of New York City two years later.
Mary H. Chase
Born 1788 Died 1863
Mary Chase’s home was at the end of the street near what was the “lower dock” in Tivoli. After her death, Giles Cooke (see the Old Red Church Cemetery for more about him) recalled that before the train tracks were laid, Mary’s front lawn ended with the bank of the Hudson River.
Rev. E.V. Evans
Born 1860 Died 1911
Rev. Evans was the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal church in Tivoli from 1897-1903. Evans (40) and his wife Margaret (35) resided at 148 Broadway in Red Hook in 1900. They were both originally from England (though he was most likely from Wales). They did not have any children…
Col. Frederic de Peyster Jr.
Born Dec 13, 1842 Died Oct 30, 1874
We read about the sacrifices made by our military and rightly laud our veterans. The de Peyster family intimately knew about the paradox of service—the glory and subsequent loss. Three de Peyster brothers, all in their teens when they volunteered for the Union cause, returned to their lives in New York State…
Estelle de Peyster, James B. Toler, & John Watts de Peyster Toler
Estelle Born 1844 Died 1889; James Born 1841 Died 1889; John Born 1871 Died 1911
With two older brothers and a younger brother and sister, Estelle Elizabeth de Peyster Toler was born into the middle of the family of Gen. John Watts de Peyster and Estelle Livingston de Peyster. She married James Boorman Toler, Esq. and they had a son John Watts de Peyster Toler who died in May of 1911…
Estelle Livingston de Peyster
Born 1819 Died 1898
The marriage of Estelle Livingston to John Watts de Peyster, who preferred to be known by his honorific “the General, “looked good on paper, uniting two founding colonial families of New York. Thus, when Estelle petitioned to separate from her husband of over 50 years, claiming cruel treatment that was confirmed by family members, the papers swooped in…
Col. John Watts de Peyster Jr.
Born 1814 Died 1873
When the Civil War erupted, many residents of Tivoli enlisted in the Union cause. Three sons of Gen. John Watts de Peyster and Estelle Livingston de Peyster served. (Patriotism ran in the family with de Peyster, Sr., volunteering to serve, but because he was in his 40s, his offer was not accepted…
Maria Livingston de Peyster
Born 1852 Died 1857
We often quote William Shakespeare as allusions to people or events. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Helena says of her rival Hermia, “And though she be but little, she is fierce” (Act III, Scene 2, Line 337), which in our times would be a compliment, not the slur Helena intended…
Col. Johnston Livingston de Peyster
Born 1846 Died 1903
When Johnston Livingston de Peyster was 15, he left the Highland Military College in Newburgh to enlist in the Union Army during the Civil War, according to an account of the de Peyster family history written by his father Gen. John Watts de Peyster “he was a pretty hard colt to manage…
The Hall & Roosevelt Vault
Multiple dates.
The vault at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Cemetery in Tivoli—fittingly near the small neighboring park containing a bust of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt—is inscribed at the back V. G. Hall 1894. On its front is carved: “ERECTED BY HIS WIFE/ AND CHILDREN/ 1894/ MARY L. HALL/ ELIZABETH H. MORTIMER/ VALENTINE G. HALL/ EDITH L. HALL/ MAUDE L. HALL.” Those who know the history of our nation will understand that people interred in the vault are related to First Lady Anna Eleanor (Roosevelt) Roosevelt and President Theodore Roosevelt…
“Chancellor” Robert R. Livingston
Born Nov 27, 1746 Died Feb 26, 1813
Robert Livingston was born in 1746, the son of Robert Robert Livingston known as “Robert the Judge” to researchers, who was a son of Robert Livingston known as “Robert of Clermont” who was (you guessed it) son of Robert Livingston of Scotland, known as “Lord of the Manor”. In 1715, the Chancellor’s great-grandfather was granted the 160,000 acre patent known as Livingston Manor and his grandfather built the first mansion known as Clermont where the Chancellor grew up…
James L. Freeborn
Born Feb 8, 1871 Died Oct 17, 1950
James Livingston Freeborn was born into wealth and privilege, the son of businessman William Freeborn who immigrated from Canada in 1835 and Eliza Crawford Livingston, a descendant of Robert Livingston, first lord of Livingston Manor. He had only one sibling, Wilhelmina, who never married, but was heavily involved in the Tivoli community and in many lineage societies...
United Methodist Church, Village of Red Hook
According to church publications, the origins of the local Red Hook Methodist Church, now the United Methodist Church of Red Hook, reach back to the late 18th Century. At a 1788 Methodist conference in New York City, Bishop Francis Asbury appointed nine young men “to extend the march of the Church up the Hudson River.”
Martha Ann Beaumont
Born Feb 18, 1818 Died Jun 24, 1878
Martha Ann was the daughter of Abraham Beaumont and Mattie Carter who came from Yorkshire, England, and the sister of Jane (who married John Curtis) and Eliza Beaumont. She never married. In the 1860 census she is recorded as living in Poughkeepsie in the home of Lucy Hedding, age 77…
The Croft Children
Multiple dates.
Here lie children of Abram and Anna Croft - four children without their parents. Abram Croft, born in 1836, and his wife Anna were from England. He worked in a woolen mill in Red Hook when he and his family were enumerated in the census on July 17th, 1860. They lived in the hamlet of Cedar Hill, south of Annandale and had many children, Rachel (1848), Seth (1850), Olive (1851), Field (1853), Arthur (1855), Asa (1858), and more would come in later years…
Jane Cross
Born 1819 Died Jun 24, 1878
Born into slavery in Maryland in 1819, Jane Cross was employed by John Winthrop Chanler “...my great-grandfather Chanler,” says local historian J. Winthrop Aldrich, who adds this about Jane: “[He] hired [Jane] to help care for his innumerable young children”...
John Curtis
Born 1818 Died 1879
John Curtis was the son of Legrand Curtis and Rachel Canfield. He married Jane Carter Beaumont, an immigrant from Yorkshire, England. He was “a man among men because he possessed all the noble qualities of a man” according to an obituary from an advertisement flier and newsletter called the Aurora Borealis, self-published by Massonneau Brothers Dry Goods and Groceries….
Sylvester Feller
Born 1853 Died 1902
Sylvester was the son of Henry Augustus Feller and Catherine Snyder. He was a farmer and resided in Red Hook. On Sunday, March 22nd, 1902 his oldest son, Fred, came home after serving three years in the army in the Philippines. Two hours later that night, Sylvester headed out to the post office at Barrytown…
Alexander A. Gilson
Born 1824 Died Apr 25, 1889
Alexander Gilson was born in 1824. He became head gardener at Montgomery Place for about 50 years. He also bought land in Rhinebeck and in Red Hook where he had a nursery business. He retired from business in 1885 when he became “disabled by paralysis” and bought a home in Red Hook...
Cordelia A. Jackson
Born 1825 Died Mar 10, 1905
Miss “Delia” Jackson was born around 1825, but her parentage is elusive. In 1833 when she was about eight years old, Ephriam Jackson allowed William Waldorf to be given her guardianship until she turned 14. John Curtis makes reference to her “going home” for a while to Mr. Waldorf’s after receiving some stressful news regarding her cousin...
Mrs. Anna Maria Andrews Kent
Born c.1802 Died May 8,1875
Anna Maria’s maiden name is unknown but she was born c.1802 in New York State. She married George Andrews and had three daughters with him. Georgiana Andrews (1842–1905) was an organist at the Methodist church in 1866 and for many years after and taught school at the two-room schoolhouse in the village...
Mary Bevans Meroney
Born Nov 1832 Died 1904
Born in November of 1832 in England, Mary emigrated to the US at two years of age in 1835. She was the “head nurse” in the Chanler home for decades. In the 1880 census, it shows her and 11 of her co-workers with the so-called “Astor Orphans”...
Warren Miller
Born 1881 Died 1941
Warren C. Miller was the son of Reuben Miller and Mary Paulmier (daughter of James and Sophia, also buried in this cemetery) of Red Hook, and in the 1900 census he was enumerated in his parents’ house on Prince Street as a 30 year-old “ice-man” (working to harvest ice)…
Lewis C. Near & Rebecca Maria Hoffman Near
Lewis Born 1806 Died Dec 19, 1844
Rebecca Born 1812 Died Mar 8, 1872
Lewis Near’s was one of the first burials in the cemetery, but it is possible that he rests elsewhere. There is also a marker in the Red Hook Lutheran Cemetery for him in the Frederick A. Martin plot that reads “Lewis C. Near 1806–1844 also son Charles ae 6 months”...
Augusta Nord
Born 1849 Died 1927
Augusta was a servant who emigrated from Sweden to the U.S. c.1890. She worked and lived at Rokeby at the same time as Mary Ellen Dalton who is buried beside her, and in 1920 her position in the house was “Maid.”…
D.C. Hunt & Cora Pulver
D.C. Born 1841 Died 1881
Cora Born 1852 Died 1924
Daniel Clifford Hunt was the son of Daniel Hunt and Mary Rowley of Greene Co., NY. He was presumably raised by his significantly older brother Hiland Hill Hunt (born 1818) after the death of his parents. Hiland took in his younger brother as well as three other younger family members in need of a home as he and his wife Mary Blanchard did not have children of their own…
Horatio Schowerman
Born 1840 Died 1935
Also known as Horatio Sherman, this veteran of the Civil War lived to 95 years of age. He was interviewed for an article in the Rhinebeck Gazette published on the 16th of August 1920, which frustratingly leaves out many details that a modern researcher would love to know; however, what was recorded is a profile of an aged, local veteran who...
Zachariah See
Born 1836 Died Feb 9, 1902
Zachariah was the son of Jacob See and Anna Mariah Shufelt. He enlisted to fight in the Civil War on January 1st, 1864 at Albany. He ultimately attained the rank of corporal in Company H of the 91st NY Infantry, and was discharged on August 12th, 1865, disabled by a gunshot to the ankle he received in battle…
William Shook
Born 1875 Died Dec 2, 1908
William Shook’s birth date of 1871 on the tombstone he shares with his parents is probably incorrect. A baby named William appears as a newborn in the 1865 New York State Census of Red Hook with Charles and Hannah Shook. It is possible that this baby died and they had another named William in 1871, but subsequent records confirm that he was born before 1870…
George “Little Georgie” Waldorf
Born unknown Died Dec 15, unknown year
This infant boy’s tombstone is becoming more eroded by the decade. The very top reads “Little Georgie” and below that perhaps “infant son of Wm. & Martha Waldorf” but the dates have been lost to time. William Waldorf, son of William and Anna Martin, married Catherine VanDeusen, so this “Wm.” is probably...
Dr. A.G. Benedict
Born Nov 13, 1790 Died Oct 4, 1862
First it’s important to note (so visitors are not confused) that Dr. Abijah Gilbert Benedict had a son, Dr. Abijah Gilbert Benedict born in 1832 who has his own slightly shorter obelisk on the western side of the cemetery. Dr. Benedict (born 1790) was the son of Benjamin (a farmer) and Elizabeth (Gilbert) Benedict from South Salem, Westchester County, NY...
Ed & Minnie Webber
Ed Born Aug 1871 Died Apr 26, 1932
Minnie Born Nov 1874 Died Jan 1955
Ed (as Edmund Basset knew him) was the son of Myra (or Almira) Webber (1844–1911, probably the daughter of Ezra Webber) and they were originally from the hamlet of New Woodstock, south of Cazenovia, NY. Myra died in Red Hook, but her remains were returned to New Woodstock for burial. He was at one time the station agent...