Williamsburg Cemetery - Groveland, New York - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The Williamsburg Cemetery is located on a .66-acre parcel on the north side of Abel Road, approximately ¼ mile east of Geneseo-Mt. Morris Rd (NY Rt 36) in the Town of Groveland, Livingston County, in an area that is typified by agricultural fields and second-growth forest. The cemetery is circled by a fence of iron pickets that appears to date from the early twentieth century; its original gate at the southwest corner has been replaced by a modern farm road gate. The land slopes upward from west to east. The graves in the cemetery are arranged in rows running north-south, or perpendicular to the slope. The surviving stones are concentrated in the northeastern corner and in the westernmost rows of the cemetery. A wide swath of grass with no stones bisects the cemetery into eastern and western halves. A handful of mature conifer and hardwood trees are distributed through the cemetery, primarily at the edges of the property.

The stones bear dates that range from the 1814 to ca. 1910 and illustrate a wide range of styles from this period. The simplest stone, with no date, marks the grave of a former slave and is simply carved with the name “Mamma Rachael”; local tradition states that there are other African-American burials in the same vicinity, but their markers have been lost. Many of the graves retain foot- as well as head stones; these burials suggest that these graves, at least, are orientated “facing” east, up the hill. The cemetery contains a variety of styles and decorative motifs in its stones, including: a life-sized cut sheaf of wheat atop the granite stone of Daniel Fitzhugh that dates from ca. 1881; obelisks, most notably the Birney-Fitzhugh and Abel monuments; marble tablet stones with simple bas-relieve marginal decorations; a reliquary coffin shaped stone of granite; and faceted shafts (missing final urns or other decorative finials). The cemetery also contains an arched slate stone, dating from 1814, with a central incised figure of an urn holding a weeping tree at the top, flanked on the upper corners of the stone by stylized rising suns.

Established in 1792, the Williamsburg Cemetery is historically significant as one of the earliest European-American settlement-period community cemeteries in all of western New York State and as the last surviving above-ground remnant of the vanished village of Williamsburg. Williamsburg was the first village established in the region by Captain Charles Williamson acting in his capacity as land agent for a group of British investors who bought land in the Phelps and Gorham Purchase in the late eighteenth century through financier Robert Morris. The cemetery is also the final resting place of several individuals of transcendent importance in the history of the Genesee Valley, including Charles Carrol and William Fitzhugh, early investors, settlers and community leaders in what is today Livingston County and business partners of Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, founder of the city that still bears his name. Included with the Fitzhugh burials is the grave of James Birney, son-in-law of William Fitzhugh and the first candidate for the U.S. Presidency nominated by the Liberty Party in 1840 and 1844 on a abolitionist platform.

Source: NRHP Archive

Street address: Abel Rd., Hampton Corners Groveland, NY USA 00000 County / Borough / Parish: Livingston Year listed: 2002 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Person, Social History, Exploration/Settlement Periods of significance: 1750-1799, 1800-1824, 1825-1849, 1850-1874, 1875-1899, 1900-1924 Historic function: Funerary/Cemetery Current function: Funerary/Cemetery Hours of operation: From: 8:00 AM To: 6:00 PM Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Privately owned?: Not Listed Season start / Season finish: Not listed Secondary Website 1: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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