The following information was passed on
to me some time ago by a great aunt who had done family research
in the 1930's. I am taking the time to send it in detail - hope
it is of interest. I don't know the source of her information. Her
brother, my grandfather, married a Coeyman, my grandmother.
On a gentle slope overlooking the Passaic River just north of Grafton
Ave, North Newark, NJ, there is a wilderness of wild cherry trees
and knee deep underbrush. Near this place employees of a chemical
company will tell you a man unknown to them comes each year around
Independence Day and pays silent tribute maybe a tribute to ancestors
dead there several centuries. On this knoll is the private burial
ground of the Coeyman's which once owned practically the entire
section known then as Woodside, now North Newark and after which
was named a street in that section of the city - Coeymans pronounced
it then Kweeman. Now there are some who pronounce it Coeyman and
Queeman.
In the high weeds, you can't see them from the broad paved Riverside,
are the ancient tombstones some fading and crumbling others still
standing to mark the resting place of the members of the old Newark
family. It takes good eyesight to read some of the dates, look closely
and you will see inscribed on one:
Christania wife of Aurion King who died December 10, 1791 in the
21 year of age, the older have crumbled is inscribed;
Come all my friend as you pass by
As I am now so you must be
Prepare yourself to follow me.
On the stone of Thomas Holden born September 5, 1779 died May
20, 1820 inscribed:
His heart is no longer the seat of trouble is torturing pain
It ceases to flutter and beat
It shall never flutter again
The lids that he seldom could close by anguish forbidden to sleep
Sealed up in the sweetest repose have strangely forgotten to wap
His soul has now taken to flight to mansions of glory about to mingle
with angel of light and dwell in the kingdom of love
The burial ground dates back to the seventeenth century, musty old
records will show that three Coeyman brothers came to this country
from Holland late in the sixteenth century, two of them settled
in what if now Jersey City and the third journeyed up the Hudson
River the place where he landed was named after him - Coeyman's
Point, New York. The two in Jersey City decided to look elsewhere
for land. One day one brother set out in a rowboat for Newark to
visit the Indians. He struck a bargain with them and returned to
Jersey City to get his brother. Both came here and bought all of
what is now North Newark at $1.00 per acres.
They settled and erected a brown stone house on Riverside Ave,
then they explored the country side selected site and prepared the
land for planting.
A pond know then as Nylors Pond was used to wash their cloths.
The Coeyman records show they had several slaves, when one of them
died it was necessary to have a place to bury them so the Coeyman
brothers selected a plot of ground several hundred feet from the
house and there the slaves were buried, as the years passed by,
members of the Coeyman family and their offspring were laid to rest
on the knoll. The number of persons buried there range from 75 to
150. It is said some soldiers of the Revolutionary War are among
those buried in the little graveyard.
The old graveyard belongs to all the Coeyman descendants. There
were deeds to show that they bought land in January 17. 1699. It
will be ninety five years July 1936 since Catherine Coeyman died
and was laid to rest on the hillside along the Passaic River. Over
her tombstone was carved:
Lean not on earth it will
Pierce thee to the heart
Hope this is interesting. I am starting to learn more about the
Coeymans. Any info would be helpful.
|
