Speer Cemetery facts for kids

Speer Cemetery is a historic burial ground located in Jersey City, New Jersey. It is found in the Bergen Square neighborhood, between Bergen Avenue and Van Reypen Street. This cemetery has a long history, dating back to the mid-1800s, and is cared for by dedicated volunteers.

Speer Cemetery: A Historic Burial Ground

Speer Cemetery is often mixed up with the nearby Bergen Cemetery. The Bergen Cemetery is owned by the Old Bergen Church. While both are on Vroom Street, they are separate and have always been managed independently.

A Look Back in Time

The land where Speer Cemetery now sits was once part of large apple orchards. These orchards belonged to the Van Waganen family, famous for their "Apple Tree House." Later, the land was transferred to Matthias DeMott. It then became the burial ground for the Bergen DeMott family. The DeMotts were early settlers who came to New Netherland (which is now parts of New York and New Jersey) in the 1770s.

The cemetery is named after Jane Speer and her husband, Abraham Speer. Abraham was a local undertaker and also worked for the Old Bergen Church in the mid-1800s. In 1857, the Speers bought the land from the DeMott family. They turned it into a public cemetery, selling burial plots for $16 each. Even though Mr. Speer was connected to a church, people from any religion or no religion could be buried there.

Who is Buried Here?

Speer Cemetery was no longer actively used in the early 1900s. For over ninety years, volunteers have worked hard to maintain it. Their motto is, "Caring For The Forgotten."

Volunteers and neighbors have collected old records, deeds, and burial information. They have also cataloged names from the headstones. To find graves that don't have markers, they even used underground sonar. If you want to know more, you can contact the Bergen Square Historical Society through their Facebook page.

Many people are buried in Speer Cemetery, not just those from specific churches. It is also the final resting place for dozens of patients from the Snake Hill (Laurel Hill) Sanitarium. These patients were buried in one of the two large underground tombs, called catacombs, in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It is believed that members of the DeMott family are in the second catacomb, though many DeMott headstones are above ground.

The oldest surviving grave marker in the cemetery dates all the way back to 1756. Headstones show that veterans from several wars are buried here. These include the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the American Civil War, and the Spanish–American War. The last burials in Speer Cemetery happened during World War I.

Protecting History

Recently, there have been plans to build a new building next to the cemetery. Many people are against this idea. They believe that the land where the building would go was once part of the cemetery. It might even contain human remains from as far back as the 1660s. Because of these concerns, the developer has been told to hire an archeologist. The archeologist will check if there are any historical remains on the site.