Early 20th century postcard showing the entrance to the Bayview - New York Bay Cemetery on the east side of Ocean Avenue at Chapel Avenue.
Courtesy, RF Smith
Photo: C. Karnoutsos 2003
Photo: C. Karnoutsos 2003
Early 20th century postcard showing an area of the Bayview Cemetery near Garfield and Cator Avenues.
Courtesy, Jersey City Free Public Library
Early 20th century postcard showing the entrance to the New York Bay Cemetery on the west side of Garfield Avenue at Chapel Avenue.
Courtesy, Jersey City Free Public Library
Early 20th century postcard showing the entrance to the New York Bay Cemetery on the west side of Garfield Avenue at Chapel Avenue.
Courtesy, RF Smith
Cemetery garages at Garfield and Chapel Avenues, former site of ornate Gothic style cemetery entrance and chapel building
Photo: C. Karnoutsos 2003
Photo: C. Karnoutsos 2013
Photo: C. Karnoutsos 2013
Photo: C. Karnoutsos 2003
Photo: C. Karnoutsos 2013
Bayview-New York Bay Cemetery is in the southeastern Greenville section of Jersey City; It fills an expansive area between Garfield and Ocean Avenues and extends to the sloped terrain from Garfield Avenue to the bottom of the hill that oversees New York City. One enters the cemetery either on Ocean Avenue or at the intersection of Garfield and Chapel Avenues.
The cemetery's name is derived from the merger of the "Bay View" and "New York Bay" cemeteries. The New York Bay Cemetery, begun ca. 1848-1850, was designed as a garden-style burial ground. It incorporates the features of the Rural Cemetery Movement of the 1830s to remove burials from churchyards and to place cemeteries in areas away from potential urban development. Landscaping and a grid-layout system were also part of this burial reform effort.
The British steamship company Cunard purchased an enclosed plot of several lots. It was reserved for its employees who lived in the Jersey City community. Formerly the Cunard White Star Line, Cunard operated its passenger line from the Jersey City waterfront. During those years, approximately 100-Cunard workers were buried in the American cemetery. An inscription on the granite monument at the center of the plot reads: "Erected by the crews of the Cunard steamships in memory of their dear shipmates." The earliest listing of the deceased was for the burial of Hugh McPherson in 1857. There is a marker for the deceased members of the HMS Hibernia. In December 1847, it became the first Cunard ship docked at the Jersey City piers begun by the Associates of the Jersey Company.
Bay View Cemetery was opened in 1884 on adjacent lands south of the New York Bay Cemetery. With its winding paths and picturesque setting, the Bay View section is easy to distinguish from the earlier grid system of the New York Bay Cemetery.
The Bayview-New York Bay Cemetery entrance on Ocean Avenue features an elaborate Romanesque Revival-style granite arch that dates back to 1902. It is composed of three rounded arches. On either side of the large central arch is a smaller pedestrian arch, each revealing the founding date for the two cemeteries. A wrought-iron gate across the center arch now closes the entrance to vehicular traffic.
Among those buried in the cemetery are many prominent individuals. They include political figures Edward I. Edwards (NJ Governor and US Senator), A. Harry Moore (NJ Governor and US Senator), William Brinkerhoff (NJ House of Assembly, NJ State Senate), William Davis Daly (US Congressman, NJ House of Assembly, and NJ Senate), George Bragg Fielder (US Congressman), and Jersey City mayors Edward Hoos, and Glenn D. Cunningham, as well as influential lawyer George L. Record, George E. Blakeslee (NJ Highway Commission), George Vreeland (Greenville Township), and Black physician and social justice leader Dr. George E. Cannon.
There are three Congressional Medal of Honor recipients: Hans Johnsen (Spanish-American War), Joseph Keele (Civil War), and William Winterbottom (Indian Campaigns). The architects buried there are George W. Von Arx (firehouses), Gustav Blau, Hugh Roberts (Brennan Hudson County Court House), and J. Hollis Wells (Trust Co. of New Jersey for Clinton & Russell). Representatives of the business community are George Carragan (Mechanics Trust Company, Bayonne), Henry Lembeck (Lembeck & Betz Eagle Brewery), Harry Louderbough (New Jersey Paint Works), Zebina K. Pangborn (Jersey Journal), George Stratford (Jersey City Paper Co.), and financier E.F.C. Young (NJ State Senate and Dixon Crucible Company). Also, there are memorials to the social activist Mary Hudspeth Benson (Jersey City Woman's Club), Howard R. Cruse (Lincoln Association and Broadman Parkway), deceased members of the Jersey City Police Department to 1936 dedicated by Mayor Frank Hague, G. Van Houten Post G.A. R. (1867-1940), and the heroic sandhog Peter Woodland.
The opening of the New York Bay Cemetery in Jersey City was partly in response to the burial needs of the immigrants living in Manhattan across New York Bay. Among the earliest burials were residents of the Jewish faith. Fraternal organizations from New York--the Sol Benjamin Society and a lodge of the United Order of the Sons of David--supervised the care of some of the graves. The dates on most of the forty to fifty graves are of those who died in the 1870s and 1880s. Inscriptions on some of the stones indicate the places of birth of the deceased as Germany and Alsace (French). The oldest readable grave marker is for Moses Hirsch who died in 1857.
Jersey City's first Jewish congregation was formed in the 1860s. Over the years, it became the present-day Temple Beth-El to whom the cemetery was available.
Other Jersey City cemeteries on web site: Holy Name Cemetery, Speer Burial Ground/DeMott Burial Ground, Jersey City/Harsimus Cemetery and Old Bergen Church Cemetery.
Egan, Colin. "The Hudson Underground," Hudson County Magazine Fall 1991:37-40.
Nonestied, Mark. "Burial Reform at the Jersey City & Harsimus Cemetery." GardenStateLegacy.com. Issue 12, June 2011.
Sarapin, Janice K. Old Burial Grounds of New Jersey, A Guide. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1995.
Zinsli, Christopher. "The History and Diversity of Jersey City's Cemeteries." Jersey CITY Magazine. Fall & Winter 2004/2005.
"Jewish Cemetery Dating Back to 1875 Found in J.C." Jersey Journal, date unknown.
Zinsli, Christopher. "The History and Diversity of Jersey City's Cemeteries." Jersey CITY Magazine. Fall & Winter 2004/2005.
