Stillwater Cemetery

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The headstone of Johan Peter Bernhardt (died 1748), one of the first settlers of Stillwater, New Jersey
The headstone of Johan Peter Bernhardt (died 1748), one of the first settlers of Stillwater, New Jersey

Stillwater Cemetery is a burial ground located in the village of Stillwater in Stillwater Township, Sussex County, New Jersey (USA).

Contents

[edit] History

The earliest burials are recorded to have taken place in the 1740s following shortly after the first settlement of this area by Palatine Germans in the middle of the Eighteenth Century. These graves are noted for their intricately carved headstones and footstones which feature unique German funerary symbolism and in many instances, archaic German text.

The cemetery was also the location of the first buildings to house the Stillwater Presbyterian Church which in its early years was first a union church serving both the Lutheran and German Reformed faiths. It is presumed that a rudimentary church made of logs, dating from as early as 1745 to 1750, predated a 1771 structure built from local fieldstone. That structure, which had not been used since 1838 was razed in 1847 and the local fieldstone used to construct a wall along the cemetery's southern and western perimeter. A stone carved with the year "1771"—believed to be the original cornerstone for the church—was incorporated in the cemetery's gate.

[edit] Notable burials

  • Casper Shafer
  • John George Wintermute
  • Andrew Newbaker

[edit] See also

[edit] External links